This collection of short stories details the lives of the residents of the southern Ohio town of Knockemstiff. A working class region of Appalachia, each story details the life of one of the residents of Knockemstiff. What these people share is few opportunities, a world full of frustrated violence, and the hope-crushing realities of poverty. There's much that's depressing about Knockemstiff, Ohio. Characters with good hearts repeatedly find themselves trampled by others' greed and violence. Knockemstiff is a tough and lonely town, and yet, this is a collection of stories well worth reading. Pollock's characterizations are deep and complex. This is a world foreign to many of us, but one effectively created by Pollock. ( )

if you like...Cruddy

Knockemstiff is a linked collection of stories about the inhabitants of a small town in Ohio named Knockemstiff. The town is grim, run-down, and the world has mostly passed it by. The same can be said of its residents, who are, for the most part, poor and uneducated. They include perverts, alcoholics, the mentally ill, and drug abusers. The stories take place over a period of fifty years.

It is worth mentioning that Knockemstiff is a real town, and the author, currently an MFA student in creative writing at Ohio State, grew up there. This provides him with a unique and sympathetic perspective towards the town and its residents.

The premise of the book sounds incredibly depressing, and it is, to an extent. What redeems it is the author's unflinching and nonjudgemental portrayal of the characters. Knockemstiff's residents do horrible things to each other in the course of the book, and the lives they lead are often bleak and hopeless. By presenting the book's characters without judgement, Pollack allows us to see them more clearly. Instead of being amoral monsters, they come across as people who are largely at the mercy of a grim, hopeless environment.

Many of the stories are heartbreaking. Mankind has a great capacity for cruelty, and that capacity is magnified in a place like Knockemstiff. Mankind also has an immense capability to be noble, even in the face of adversity. Pollock maintains a balance between these two poles throughout the book. Sometimes, as in the story "I Start Over," he combines cruelty and nobility in a way that left tears in my eyes.

This is a fine, fine collection of stories by an author who deserves to be watched in the future. It is all the more impressive that this is Mr. Pollock's first book. While it is definitely not for everyone (those who are easily offended are advised to avoid it), it is a highly rewarding and life-affirming experience. ( )

I usually avoid sensationalistic squalor fiction (drugs, perversion, pathetic small lives), but this was lent to me as a must-read, and I was pleasantly surprised by the high-caliber writing. Pollock delves into depravity without wallowing in it--he knows when to punch and when to pull back.