Knockemstiff

by POLLOCK, DONALD RAY

• ISBN13: 9780385523820
• ISBN10: 0385523823
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-18
• Publisher: Doubleday

Summary

In this unforgettable work of fiction, Donald Ray Pollock peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted but resilient lives of its residents. Spanning a period from the mid-sixties to the late nineties, the linked stories that compriseKnockemstifffeature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled and depravedbut irresistibly, undeniably real. Rendered in the American vernacular with vivid imagery and a wry, dark sense of humor, these thwarted and sometimes violent lives jump off the page at the reader with inexorable force. A father pumps his son full of steroids so he can vicariously relive his days as a perpetual runner-up body builder. A psychotic rural recluse comes upon two siblings committing incest and feels compelled to take action. Donald Ray Pollock presents his characters and the sordid goings-on with a stern intelligence, a bracing absence of value judgments, and a refreshingly dark sense of bottom-dog humor. With an artistic instinct honed on the works of Flannery O'Connor and Harry Crews, Pollock offers a powerful work of fiction in the classic American vein.Knockemstiffis a genuine entry into the literature of place.

Author Biography

DONALD RAY POLLOCK grew up in Knockemstiff, Ohio. He dropped out of high school to work in a meatpacking plant and then spent over thirty years employed in a paper mill in southern Ohio. Currently, he is a graduate student in the MFA program at Ohio State University. His stories have appeared in the Berkeley Fiction Review, the Journal, Third Coast, Chiron Review, Sou’wester, Boulevard, and Folio, and he has contributed essays on politics to the op-ed page of the New York Times.

Table of Contents

Real Life	p. 1
Dynamite Hole	p. 13
Knockemstiff	p. 24
Hair's Fate	p. 39
Pills	p. 52
Giganthomachy	p. 62
Schott's Bridge	p. 70
Lard	p. 82
Fish Sticks	p. 96
Bactine	p. 110
Discipline	p. 117
Assailants	p. 126
Rainy Sunday	p. 135
Holler	p. 148
I Start Over	p. 160
Blessed	p. 172
Honolulu	p. 185
The Fights	p. 193
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