More engaging than any new fiction in years." —Chuck Palahniuk An unforgettable work of fiction that peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted but resilient lives of its residents. Knockemstiff is a genuine entry into the literature of place. Spanning a period from the mid-sixties to the late nineties, the linked stories that comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are irresistibly, undeniably real. A father pumps his son full of steroids so he can vicariously relive his days as a perpetual runner-up body builder. A psychotic rural recluse comes upon two siblings committing incest and feels compelled to take action. Donald Ray Pollock presents his characters and the sordid goings-on with a stern intelligence, a bracing absence of value judgments, and a refreshingly dark sense of bottom-dog humor.
In 'Blessed', a thief's career is cut short when he falls from a rooftop. Since the accident he has been subsisting on a disability cheque, a potent painkiller prescription and having his wife sell her blood. In 'The Fights', Bobby has been off the sauce for five long months. On the advice of his Alcoholics Anonymous mentor, he pays his family a visit in Knockemstiff-where even the wood smoke reminds him of whiskey. While his father and brother amuse themselves by watching pre-recorded boxing and his mother mopes in the kitchen, the inertia infusing his old home threatens to take hold. Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
Now a Netflix film starring Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson A dark and riveting vision of 1960s America that delivers literary excitement in the highest degree. In The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock has written a novel that marries the twisted intensity of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers with the religious and Gothic overtones of Flannery O’Connor at her most haunting. Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right. Donald Ray Pollock braids his plotlines into a taut narrative that will leave readers astonished and deeply moved. With his first novel, he proves himself a master storyteller in the grittiest and most uncompromising American grain.
Jackson Pollock (Cody, Wyoming, 1912 – New York, 1956) Pollock fut le représentant le plus important et le plus influent de l’expressionnisme abstrait. Il avait étudié auprès du régionaliste Thomas Hart Benton, et était également marié au peintre abstrait Lee Krasner (étudiante de Hans Hofmann). Il comptait parmi ses collègues Aschile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, et d’autres issus de l’école dite de New York. En 1947, il développa l’action painting ou, en termes moins précis, le dripping. Il s’intéressait à un processus de création et d’expression du moment, impliquant le moins de références possibles à la réalité visuelle. Abandonnant les pinceaux, le chevalet et la palette, il contrôlait lui-même les quantités de peinture qu’il faisait couler ou projetait sur une toile généralement très grande qu’il avait l’habitude d’étaler sur le sol. Bien que son obsession première fût l’expression de sa propre vie intérieure (subconscient) à travers son art, sa vie émotionnelle était sans conteste très instable, son approche du processus créatif et la plupart de ses oeuvres bouleversèrent de façon définitive l’évolution de l’art en Amérique.
Nacido en 1912, en un pequeño pueblo de Wyoming, Jackson Pollock personificó el sueño norteamericano cuando su país enfrentaba las realidades de la era moderna que reemplazaba al siglo XIX. Pollock se marchó a la ciudad de Nueva York en busca de fama y fortuna. Gracias al Federal Art Project, logró rápidamente la aclamación del público y después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se convirtió en la celebridad artística más grande de Estados Unidos. Para De Kooning, Pollock fue un “rompehielos”. Para Max Ernst y Masson, Pollock fue un compañero del movimiento surrealista europeo, y para Motherwell, Pollock fue un legítimo candidato a la categoría de Maestro de la Escuela Norteamericana. Pollock se perdió entre los muchos trastornos de su vida en Nueva York en la década de 1950: el éxito sencillamente le había llegado demasiado rápido y con excesiva facilidad. Fue durante este periodo que se aficionó al alcohol y puso fin a su matrimonio con Lee Krasner. Su vida terminó de la misma forma en que acabó la vida del icono de la cinematografía, James Dean, detrás del volante de su Oldsmobile, después de una noche de copas.
In 1917, in that sliver of border land between Georgia and Alabama, Pearl Jewett ekes out an existence as a dispossessed farmer along with his three criminally-minded sons Cane, Cob, and Chimney. Hundreds of miles away, another farming family, the good-natured Fiddlers, have been swindled out of their family fortune while reeling from the disappearance of their son Eddie, who left to fight the Germans. When a crime spree sets the Jewetts on a collision course for the Fiddlers, an unlikely--and turbulent--relationship begins between the families. In the gothic tradition of Flannery O'Connor with a heavy dose of cinematic violence reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino, Donald Ray Pollock pens a bloody tale of dark and horrific conflict between two families in an era not so distant from today.
Loneliness is one of the sicknesses in our society today. Frank Smith not really realizing his own loneliness showed us through his deep conviction that he was connected with ants. Once this fixation was in place within his mind nothing could penetrate it. Without an effort on his part he was able to pull within the walls of his conviction, Luke, whose battle with Frank's mind only pulled him closer to his friendship and love. Luke believing that Frank was weak was soon to discover that Frank was not only strong but also very brave. His discovery bonded their friendship even closer. Luke also thought that his friend, Frank, was becoming totally insane so he begun to show his compassion (for Frank) not realizing that as time went on it was Frank's compassion for him that saved his life many times over. Luke's frustrations became more apparent when he tried desperately to show Frank how wrong he was. Even pulling his dead mother into the picture did not work. Realizing that no matter what he said or did, Frank's convictions were deeper and more profound than anything or anyone he had ever encountered in his whole lifetime. Frank's steadfast in his belief was gaining ground with Luke. Each piece of evidence was slowly piling up before his eyes. Until he had to submit to some of the reality that Frank loved him and no matter what he said or did,it was not going to change Frank's belief - that the ants were indeed Frank's friends. It was only near the end that Luke was able to put pieces of the puzzle together, which brought him to a humble end and a new beginning. Click here to read about another Donald Pollock book Mr & Mrs Cockroach and Family
In 'Holler', when his wife throws him out, Tom shacks up with the family of a casual girlfriend. They leave it to him to bathe, shave and keep a jug of wine within a straw's reach of their disabled patriarch. In 'I Start Over', retirement has not been living up to Big Bernie's expectations-not the expectations the television advertisements are peddling anyway. He treats himself to a souped-up 1959 Chevrolet, and this indulgence might just be what he needs to start over. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
Born in 1912, in a small town in Wyoming, Jackson Pollock embodied the American dream as the country found itself confronted with the realities of a modern era replacing the fading nineteenth century. Pollock left home in search of fame and fortune in New York City. Thanks to the Federal Art Project he quickly won acclaim, and after the Second World War became the biggest art celebrity in America. For De Kooning, Pollock was the “icebreaker”. For Max Ernst and Masson, Pollock was a fellow member of the European Surrealist movement. And for Motherwell, Pollock was a legitimate candidate for the status of the Master of the American School. During the many upheavals in his life in Nez York in the 1950s and 60s, Pollock lost his bearings - success had simply come too fast and too easily. It was during this period that he turned to alcohol and disintegrated his marriage to Lee Krasner. His life ended like that of 50s film icon James Dean behind the wheel of his Oldsmobile, after a night of drinking.
In 'Fish Sticks', Del is washing his one good pair of black jeans on the eve of his cousin's funeral. He imagines he can hear the sea off the Florida coast in the rumblings of the machines, and casts his mind back to a trip the two made to Florida when they were teenagers. In 'Rainy Sunday', Sharon's husband hasn't been quite right since he crashed the car and wound up with a steel plate in his head. Wet weather tends to set him off on one of his spells. Reluctantly, Sharon leaves him alone and takes off on a late-night mission to help her aunt find some company. Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
In 'Dynamite Hole', Jake has been living wild in the hills of Knockemstiff since he took exception to the drafting process in World War II. When he witnesses an act of sexual transgression by the pond, things start swirling around inside him 'like a storm cloud', and Knockemstiff is soon to have a few more empty beds. In 'Real Life', a trip to the drive-in with his parents winds up in bathroom brawl and a hasty departure for seven year-old Bobby. Looking back on his childhood, Bobby finds in that evening an isolated piece of paternal pride. Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
Born in 1912, in a small town in Wyoming, Jackson Pollock embodied the American dream as the country found itself confronted with the realities of a modern era replacing the fading nineteenth century. Pollock left home in search of fame and fortune in New York City. Thanks to the Federal Art Project he quickly won acclaim, and after the Second World War became the biggest art celebrity in America. For De Kooning, Pollock was the “icebreaker”. For Max Ernst and Masson, Pollock was a fellow member of the European Surrealist movement. And for Motherwell, Pollock was a legitimate candidate for the status of the Master of the American School. During the many upheavals in his life in Nez York in the 1950s and 60s, Pollock lost his bearings - success had simply come too fast and too easily. It was during this period that he turned to alcohol and disintegrated his marriage to Lee Krasner. His life ended like that of 50s film icon James Dean behind the wheel of his Oldsmobile, after a night of drinking.
In 'Hair's Fate', when Daniel's father chops off his hair with a kitchen knife for meddling with his younger sister's doll, he decides to leave home. He hitches a ride with a trucker by the name of Cowboy Roy who plies him with liquor and pills, before suggesting a disquieting solution for Daniel's hair problem. In 'Knockemstiff', Hank has been sweet on Tina Elliot for some time. When he hears that she's planning on lighting out for Texas with her boyfriend, he allows himself to get a little pensive-even if it makes a long day's work at the store feel that little bit longer. Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
In 'Assailants', Del's wife hasn't left the house in six months. He likes to escape the tedium of home life with his unhinged wife and baby daughter by courting blackouts with alcohol and drugs. However a trip to the late-night convenience store reveals a latent marital affection. In 'Discipline', Luther Colburn has twenty-one inch arms and a fifty-four inch chest. He struggles to instil the discipline that has aided this extreme hypertrophy into his son and protégé, Sammy. When Sammy's ideas run counter to his father's, Luther gets a late vision of his son's unique merit. In 'Honolulu', Howard Bowman is struggling to remember things. Every morning his wife sets him a challenge or two to try and keep his mind oiled and active. While the names of associates past and present elude him, certain isolated events come back. He gets to thinking about one evening on furlough in Honolulu. Part of the Storycuts series, these three short stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
Here is a novel that will keep the reader spellbound, as you travel along with Francois Leblanc, a little boy of 12 years of age convicted of a crime of killing his parents (that he did not commit) and then sent to a federal penitentiary for 15 years, the first in Canadian history. The reader can’t but help feel for this little boy whose only crime was in trying to save his mother. His pain and suffering, which very few humans could endure, especially at such a young age of 12, was not something that was going to defeat Francois, for he lived off of it, as if it was food. He feared no one. No guard could defeat him by beatings or by isolation nor could the best convict take him on. His reputation grew as time went on. Convicts decided to change his name to Little Tarzan when he did 42 days in the hole back to back on bread and water. Then when he took a guard’s eye out and another 25 years was added on to his sentence, they called him just Tarzan. Locked up in a segregated wing of the prison called China Town, he spent years in his cell trying to discover himself. Then he met The Professor who sent him on a journey to reach beyond the stars. And he did just that! Six feet 3inches, 275 pounds of muscle he was a walking miracle. They said that just by sheer force alone he could tear open his cell door and no one could stop him. He was becoming one of the strongest men within the walls of the prison that even guards nodded their heads to him in respect at his strength. Yet his violence and hate that he had lived with for so long now turned to humility and muscle. Then the day came when he would show, not just the prison, but also the whole world, just how strong he was.
In 'Lard', Duane's virginity is getting to be a problem. Not so much for Duane as it is for his friends and his father-whose workmates rib him mercilessly about his son's frigidity. Deciding that his friends' regular outlets are not to his taste, Duane sets about fabricating an encounter. In 'Schott's Bridge', Todd has 'too much sugar in him' for Knockemstiff. Even so, he ignores his grandmother's dying wish that he use the two thousand dollars she'd bequeathed him in a coffee jar to get himself out of town. Kicked out of the house by his uncle, he takes to living by the creek with Frankie Johnson and a daunting supply of hallucinogenic drugs. Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
In 'Bactine', a toothless layabout takes a break from nursing his crippled uncle and spends the evening abusing solvents with an acquaintance. The fumes only serve to exacerbate his dismay, though, and a trip to an all-night coffee shop causes some unpleasant recollections to surface. In 'Giganthomachy', Teddy and William are two nine year-old boys who like to argue over whether they'll play nuclear war or Vietnam games in the yard. William's more fantastic suggestions rile Teddy, who suffers enough deranged fantasy when he retreats inside every evening. In 'Pills', Bobby and Frankie take a notion to leave Knockemstiff for California and a new life amongst the film stars. But the four stolen bottles of pharmaceutical grade speed they'd intended to fund the trip with prove mighty alluring, and the road out of the township grows ever more elusive. Part of the Storycuts series, these three short stories were previously published in the collection Knockemstiff.
It was the end of World War II for Paddy Blackhouse, and he was looking forward to going home. However, he was unaware that hiding in his duffel bag were two cockroaches. Sam and Lucy, two cockroaches that had been bombed out of their home, forcing them to find a temporary residence. Paddy, like thousands of other soldiers, was waiting to get on board the ship that would take him home. He was going back home to Canada. First by ship over the ocean to Halifax Harbour, then by train to Montreal and then by taxi to a 12-story apartment building. The apartment building was no easy match for Sam and Lucy, for to be accepted they must reach the Penthouse floor. To get by each floor they must have a password, which was not free. Each floor brought on a new adventure, from encounters with other cockroaches as they listened and learned, and from humans, who lived there. Sam and Lucy watched as the drama unfolded in each apartment, from drunks, to gamblers, to a painter, each floor bringing on a new episode. From a dying old woman, to an out of place young man; then to a woman, who fought with herself to get her body slim? Then on to another floor, they watched and listened as twin sisters battled it out with nasty words. One can travel through the maze of adventures with them, as they go in and out of each floor. The reader can listen in as Sam and Lucy become addicted to paint and how they break their habit. Jasko, another cockroach that befriended them may help, or did he have his own agenda? The story becomes more and more intense as they struggled to reach the Penthouse floor. Their compassion and love for each other would be put to the test, till the very end. Click here to read about another Donald Pollock book Frank Goes to War and The Ants Go Too!
With hundreds of pages of new and previously unpublished essays, notes, and letters, Donald Judd Writings is the most comprehensive collection of the artist’s writings assembled to date. This timely publication includes Judd’s best-known essays, as well as little-known texts previously published in limited editions. Moreover, this new collection also includes unpublished college essays and hundreds of never-before-seen notes, a critical but unknown part of Judd’s writing practice. Judd’s earliest published writing, consisting largely of art reviews for hire, defined the terms of art criticism in the 1960s, but his essays as an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, published here for the first time, contain the seeds of his later writing, and allow readers to trace the development of his critical style. The writings that followed Judd’s early reviews are no less significant art-historically, but have been relegated to smaller publications and have remained largely unavailable until now. The largest addition of newly available material is Judd’s unpublished notes—transcribed from his handwritten accounts of and reactions to subjects ranging from the politics of his time, to the literary texts he admired most. In these intimate reflections we see Judd’s thinking at his least mediated—a mind continuing to grapple with questions of its moment, thinking them through, changing positions, and demonstrating the intensity of thought that continues to make Judd such a formidable presence in contemporary visual art. Edited by the artist’s son, Judd Foundation curator and co-president Flavin Judd, and Judd Foundation archivist Caitlin Murray, this volume finally provides readers with the full extent of Donald Judd’s influence on contemporary art, art history, and art criticism.
Johnny Stone is one of the nicest guys you could meet. He is kind, generous, understanding and compassionate. Things would change though from the tragic death of his girlfriend in an automobile accident. Then he tried to put some meaning into is life after losing his job. He had a small truck camper that he drove into the forest of the United States from Canada. It was there in the forest of the State of Idaho that he was to meet his new companion, a puppy that he would call Lobo. Without a meaningful job he started his own moving company. Lobo was not only his companion; he became his guard dog, guarding the household items, which Johnny transported from place to place. His life was back in order or so he thought. Lobo and Johnny were inseparable. They went everywhere together and Johnny watched his pet grow into a fine healthy mature dog. Then he got himself a cat that he named marble. Both animals got along fine until Marble fell eleven floors off his apartment window - and lived. Then the day came when he went back to the border of the United States with his dog, Lobo, only to discover that things were not as easy as before. Confusion, disorder, fire, struggles, pain, sorrow, laughter, compassion and love were all on the menu for the day for Johnny Stone!
Donald Judd Interviews presents sixty interviews with the artist over the course of four decades, and is the first compilation of its kind. It is the companion volume to the critically acclaimed and bestselling Donald Judd Writings. This collection of interviews engages a diverse range of topics, from philosophy and politics to Judd’s insightful critiques of his own work and the work of others such as Mark di Suvero, Edward Hopper, Yayoi Kusama, Barnett Newman, and Jackson Pollock. The opening discussion of the volume between Judd, Dan Flavin, and Frank Stella provides the foundation for many of the succeeding conversations, focusing on the nature and material conditions of the new art developing in the 1960s. The publication also gathers a substantial body of unpublished material across a range of mediums including extensive interviews with art historians Lucy R. Lippard and Barbara Rose. Judd’s contributions in interviews, panels, and extemporaneous conversations are marked by his forthright manner and rigorous thinking, whether in dialogue with art critics, art historians, or his contemporaries. In one of the last interviews, he observed, “Generally expensive art is in expensive, chic circumstances; it’s a falsification. The society is basically not interested in art. And most people who are artists do that because they like the work; they like to do that [make art]. Art has an integrity of its own and a purpose of its own, and it’s not to serve the society. That’s been tried now, in the Soviet Union and lots of places, and it doesn’t work. The only role I can think of, in a very general way, for the artist is that they tend to shake up the society a little bit just by their existence, in which case it helps undermine the general political stagnation and, perhaps by providing a little freedom, supports science, which requires freedom. If the artist isn’t free, you won’t have any art.” Donald Judd Interviews is co-published by Judd Foundation and David Zwirner Books. The interviews expand upon the artist’s thinking present in Donald Judd Writings (Judd Foundation/David Zwirner Books, 2016).
The clever, devious, daring women who helped turn the tides of the Civil War During America's most divisive war, both the Union and Confederacy took advantage of brave and courageous women willing to adventurously support their causes. These female spies of the Civil War participated in the world's second-oldest profession—spying—a profession perilous in the extreme. The tales of female spies are filled with suspense, bravery, treachery, and trickery. They took enormous risks and achieved remarkable results—often in ways men could not do. These are the bold, untold stories of women shaping our very nation. Stepping out of line and into battle, these women faced clandestine missions, treason, and death, all because of their passionate commitment to their cause. These are the unknown Civil War stories you need to hear. As stated on the grave marker of Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew: "She risked everything that is dear to man—friends, fortune, comfort, health, life itself.
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