today
8:30 a.m. Audubon Field Trip: Arcata Marsh Klopp Lake, foot of I St.
read >9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Farmers' Market (off the plaza)
read >9 a.m. Erik Stitt Stardough's Cafe
read >9:30 a.m. Fourth of July Run 5K Klopp Lake, foot of I St.
read >10 a.m. Arcata's 4th of July Jubilee Arcata Plaza
read >10 a.m. Friends of the Dunes Guided Walk: Family Fun Trek Pacific Union School
read >10 a.m. Used Book Sale See Event Description
read >10 a.m. Eureka's Annual 4th of July Festival See Event Description
read >10 a.m. Ferndale's 4th of July Celebration Various Locations
read >10:30 a.m. Ferndale Farmers' Market Ferndale Farmers' Market
read >noon 4th of July Hoedown Six Rivers Brewery
read >noon VFW Deep Pit BBQ Willow Creek VFW Hall
read >noon Garberville-Redway 4th of July Celebration Benbow Lake SRA
read >noon Orick's 4th of July Celebration BBQ Little Red Schoolhouse
read >12:30 p.m. Humboldt Crabs vs. Nevada Bighorns Arcata Ball Park
read >2 p.m. Friends of the Marsh Tour with Richard Vincent Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center
read >3 p.m. Celebrate America! Ferndale Repertory Theater
read >4 p.m. Acoustic and Open Mic Has Beans
read >6 p.m. Matthew Cook Cher-Ae-Heights Casino
read >6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe
read >6 p.m. Arts Alive! Various Locations
read >6 p.m. For the Good Times Accident Gallery
read >6:30 p.m. Guitar Stan Old Town Coffee & Chocolates
read >7 p.m. Karaoke at the Boiler Room The Boiler Room
read >8 p.m. G-Money Karaoke Cher-Ae-Heights Casino
read >8 p.m. The Ethniks Cafe Mokka
read >8 p.m. Diamonds Under Fire Muddy's Hot Cup
read >9 p.m. The Roadmasters Bear River Casino
read >9 p.m. Jsun Pearl Lounge
read >9 p.m. VJ Itchiefingaz Nocturnum
read >9 p.m. Back in the Daze WAVE @ blue lake casino
read >9:30 p.m. Live DJ Ragg's Rack Room
read >10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines
read >10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge
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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