The Mountie at Niagara Falls & Other Brief Stories

'The Mountie at Niagara Falls' is an astonishingly absurd and humorous collection of brief stories from Toronto author Salvatore Difalco. Ranging in length from 125 to 500 words, these vital and sudden fictional forays transport the reader to worlds both big and small:; a land where green goats roam, voodoo dolls inflict crushing migraine headaches, a typographer from South Porcupine kills a potential love affair with a discussion of sans serif type, a benevolent judge imparts clemencyon an admittedly violent man, and the road of experience turns this way and that for a truffle-snuffling boar and a talking mouse. These brief tales are alternatively fantastic, humorous, menacing, contemplative, absurd, hallucinatory, violent, confessional, and always provocative. If there is one thing that unites these narratives it is their brevity and their drive for conclusion. "A master of the miniature, Sal Difalco's micro-fictions achieve a wry resonance that longer efforts often miss.They are simultaneously concrete and whimsical, ranging from a woman with the head of a fish, to ballroom dancing lessons, to a pair of thieves in Brian Mulroney masks. Each story is as sharp as a slap. An eloquent and exciting read." - Grant Buday, author of 'Dragonflies' and 'Rootbound' "Salvatore Difalco's stories are small miracles: fresh, literate, startling, and a bit off-kilter, like something seen in a dream or out of the corner of your eye." -Stephen Osborne, Geist