However desperate and sad it is, somehow it gives one hope. It is a dark book, a hopeless book, a scary book in it's claim for reality, for hidden secrets in the life we lead and for the life we'd rather not know about. The book is made of short stories, all of them interconnected through the characters, though one only gets to realize it later, towards the end. No wonder Chuck Palahniuk recommends it, him and Donald Ray Pollock share the ability to get the reader involved in (let's face it) rather sick little worlds. I am not a sensitive person but a few times while reading it, I found myself dying to take a shower and just wash off the dirt pouring from the pages.įunny thing is though, despite being so way out of anyone's evening read, this book manages to suck you in, and by the middle you still shrug reading, but it all makes sense, in a weird way. And two boys who are so desperate to leave the place that they end up selling themselves to a hot dog vendor for some change.Ĭlearly, the book is devatstaingly unpleasant and discomforting. Oh, and not to forget a guy who steals drugs to get out of Knockemstiff and gets so high on the way out that he eats a chicken raw, guts and all.

So they continue to live their normal lives, alas, the lives where you get to see a brother and sister screwing each other in the river (killing them seems like a logical move at the time for the character). It is just that they never have the chance, or never quite make it. Come to think of it, the people of Knockemstiff would be more than happy to leave the place themselves. Unless you are lost of course, like that Californian photographer woman, who took random pictures and could not believe the town was for real: so poor, so lost, so abandoned. Welcome to Knockemstiff, a quiet little town in Ohio, USA. Trust me, not a place for a family vacation. Fictional, however placed in setting of an existing American town, Knockemstiff.

A dark book, a hopeless book, a scary book in it's claim for reality, for hidden secrets in the life we lead and for the life we'd rather not know about. Summary: A book of short stories, all of them interconnected through the characters, though one only gets to realize it later, towards the end.

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock