Knockemstiff (Signed First Edition)

Donald Ray Pollock

ISBN 10: 0385523823 / ISBN 13: 9780385523820

Published by Doubleday, New York, 2008

About this Item

Hardcover. First edition. First printing. Correct number line, including the 1. A fine book in a fine dust jacket. A tight clean copy, appears unread. Jacket unclipped with original publisher's price of $22.95 intact. Comes with archival-quality dust jacket protector. Shipped in well padded box. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. He has signed his name only, without any other marks or writing. The author's first book.

Seller Inventory # fiction-signed-01

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Knockemstiff (Signed First Edition)
• Publisher: Doubleday, New York
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385523823
• ISBN 13: 9780385523820
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

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 comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled and depraved—but 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. Knockemstiff is a genuine entry into the literature of place.

About the Author

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.