Knockemstiff, Ohio, is a real place. According to a website called ePodunk, “tradition says the town was named for the kick of its moonshine and the fighting ability of its toughs.” Donald Ray Pollock grew up there, and before obtaining an MFA from Ohio State University he worked for thirty years in a paper mill. Located near the intersection of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, Pollock’s Knockemstiff is a brutal and terrifying place. It’s a safe bet his hometown won’t be making him a parade grand marshall anytime soon.

Knockemstiff (the book) is either eighteen short stories or eighteen chapters in a loosely constructed novel of brawlers and speed freaks and rape victims spanning the latter half of the twentieth century. The opening story, “Real Life,” takes place in 1965: a young boy makes his dad proud by kicking ass in a drive-in men’s room.

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—Suzanne Kleid