The Missing Link Project: Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock

There is a disappointing sameness to the stories in Knockemstiff, Donald Ray Pollock's collection, which in no way is a novel, although that's what Publishers Weekly called it. Some of the stories are, considered separately, quite appealing--I remember reading the title story somewhere awhile ago and I would have to say that's still the one story that holds up well under scrutiny--but mostly the book is about very unsympathetic, addicted, abusive jerks. The fact that they all live in or aroun...