Knockemstiff: A Very Brief Summary

Not for the lily-livered or fainthearted. Knockemstiff is a real place in Ohio but being used as a template, if you wish, to bring some air into one tiny town. But just what kind of air? Some things in this book will hit very close to home while others may seem mind-boggling...far fetched that you might conclude that it is not the usual human way of life. For some characters, even in real life, they are used to so much chaos that it has become their normal.

Knockemstiff is guaranteed to provoke a variety of emotions in you - even feeling sick to your stomach. This Midwestern American town does not know balance. Its characters will grip and throw you into a cyclone of something. May be sadness, ache, resistance and conflict. This book will not leave you nonchalant. You will without doubt feel something. Will it be pity? Will it be disgust?

The tales are both
You will meet a father who forces steroids into his son just so he can relive his youthful body building days - and this is just one of the peculiar characters of this book. Although there is sexual involvement here, there is a noticeable absence of intimacy in relationships.

You will observe the obvious nonexistence of moral judgment, as well as an interesting edge of humor. Stories here are creepy, sleazy, brutal, uncivilized, racially prejudiced, uneducated, plus improper. Morally uplifting? No, but the characters in Knockemstiff are real. There's not a loser in the collection and you will appreciate that damaged people can also be fascinating.

Can one ever find any attractiveness in the alienated neighborhood overflowing with the recluse and scum? Even though Knockemstiff is a place where residents are detached from cheerful lives and futile dreams are common, one can still take some getaways into the beauty of