today
8:30 a.m. Audubon Society Field Trip See Event Description
read >9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Plaza
read >9:30 a.m. Discovery Walk: Unknown Waterfront See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Manila Dunes Restoration Manila Community Center
read >10 a.m. Manila Dunes Guided Walk Manila Community Center
read >10 a.m. Library Book Sale Humboldt County Library
read >10 a.m. Dia de los Muertos and Mexican Folk Art Sale Private Eureka home
read >10 a.m. Final Arcata Farmer's Market Arcata Farmers' Market (off the plaza)
read >11 a.m. Donlin Foreman Dance Workshop Dell'Arte
read >2 p.m. Humboldt Coastal Nature Center Draft Trails Plan Walk Stamps House
read >5 p.m. Bati Zado and Show Redwood Raks World Dance Studio
read >6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe
read >6 p.m. Ali Chaudhary (jazz duo) Libation
read >6:30 p.m. Not Evil, Just Wrong Humboldt Area Foundation
read >7 p.m. Guitar Stan (country) Old Town Coffee & Chocolates
read >8 p.m. Guitar Orchestra of Barcelona Arkley Center for the Performing Arts
read >8 p.m. Stones in His Pockets Arcata Playhouse
read >8 p.m. A Christmas Carol North Coast Repertory Theater
read >8 p.m. Donna Landry Swing Dance Moose Lodge
read >8 p.m. North Coast Wind Ensemble Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU
read >8:30 p.m. The Last Minute Men (international) Cafe Mokka
read >9 p.m. Ian McFeron Band (folk rock) Six Rivers Brewery
read >9 p.m. The Michael Paul Band WAVE @ blue lake casino
read >9 p.m. The Generatorz (classic rock) Central Station Cocktail Lounge
read >9 p.m. Taxi Bear River Casino
read >9 p.m. VJ Itchie Fingaz Pearl Lounge
read >9 p.m. Jack Ruby Presents + Blue Street + Acufunkture (DIY rock) Jambalaya
read >9 p.m. 2nd Annual Scorpio Bash The Red Fox Tavern
read >10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines
read >10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge
read >10 p.m. Jemimah Puddleduck (rock) Humboldt Brews
read >10 p.m. White Manna + Midday Veil + The King Salmon Duo (rock) Jambalaya
read >11 p.m. Radio Moscow (psychadelic blues) + Mosquito Bandito (one-man surf/garage) The Alibi Lounge and Restaurant
read >previous columns
May 15, 2008
Dystopia
Album by Dystopia Life is Abuse Records Dystopia's reign over ...
read >May 8, 2008
Third
Album by Portishead. Island Records Third is an unnecessary album. ...
read >May 1, 2008
The Feel Good Record of the Year
Album by No Use for a Name. Fat Wreck Chords. ...
read >Photos
Knockemstiff
By Jay Herzog
Book by Donald Ray Pollock.
Doubleday.
Donald Ray Pollock's debut collection of stories has some obvious antecedents: the trailer park realism of Raymond Carver and the comic Faulkner of the Snopes cycle, maybe even the drug-soaked prose of Denis Johnson in Jesus' Son. Pollock has his own strong voice, though, writing intense stories that are ugly, funny and sad in equal measure. A late bloomer as a writer, Pollock was a high school dropout who put in 30 years working at a paper mill, as well as several stints in and out of rehab, and that life experience manifests itself vividly throughout the book. He creates damaged characters that are severely trapped by their circumstance, but who at their most down and out usually still display a stubborn vitality and vulgar humor.
Named for the southern Ohio town where he grew up, Knockemstiff is a group of linked stories that describe the edge dwellers, misfits, petty criminals and screw-ups in the town with a sympathy that doesn't prevent Pollock from sometimes making his characters the butt of the jokes. He rightly gives himself permission to do so because he's intimately acquainted with their foibles. Even at their most depraved and ridiculous, the residents of Knockemstiff retain their humanity.
The collection begins and ends with stories featuring the same main character, set 30 years apart. The first, "Real Life," is a harrowing tale of sudden violence at a drive-in, where a seven-year-old boy witnesses his father doing "the only thing he was any good at" — hurting people. In the final story, "The Fights," that same violent man is decrepit, old and watching a fight on TV, while his estranged son struggles to maintain his sobriety.
Pollock's best stories sketch dark images in the mind that are hard to shake. A feral draft dodger becomes a murderer, then returns to society. A duo of pill thieves steal their stash and plan to go to California, but never quite get around to it. A senile old man lives in a dream of Hawaii in his mind. A father and son shoot steroids to the marches of John Philip Sousa. Major characters in some stories become minor characters in others. Everyone is ultimately connected.
If there is a minor flaw in the book, it's in the similarity of some of the characters and situations, especially in the last half of the collection. There are a few too many crazy, screwed-up couples consuming junk food and mind-altering substances (including Bactine, in a story of the same name). A handful of the stories lack definition from each other. Even so, the hit-to-miss ratio is high, and his lesser stories still get by on gusto.
This is not a book for the fainthearted or the polite. Some may find Pollock's stories to be too grotesque, too violent, too sexually explicit or too funny (about things that just shouldn't be joked about). Those attuned to his wavelength though, will discover a wickedly lunatic sensibility like no other.



















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