The going gets weird in Knockemstiff, Ohio Steve Bennett San Antonio Express-News ‘Knockemstiff,” Donald Ray Pollock’s debut story collection, should come with a surgeon general’s warning.

In Knockemstiff — named for the southern Ohio town where Pollock grew up — characters beat each other out of boredom, drink to oblivion, soil themselves and assault their neighbors.

Yes, Virginia, there really is a town called Knockemstiff. Barely a crossroads southwest of Chillicothe, it's a little patch of hillbilly Appalachia in southern Ohio. But trust me, dear girl ...