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Black Rabbit and Other Stories
Finalist, ReLit Awards (shortlist)
Black Rabbit & Other Stories is a debut collection of great intensity and versatility. The stories range from the fantastic to the gritty, from urban dystopias to worlds of dreamlike possibility. Even in their frequent explorations of brutality, the author remains honest and true to the motivations of his characters and the machinations of the worlds in which they find themselves. These are sure-footed narratives that move with a pre-destined deliberation into a universe that is often fraught with desperation and apparent hopelessness; but, ultimately, we find ourselves on a path to redemption, an acceptance of what is, in the final analysis, an incomprehensible matrix. Existential and reflective, brutal and honest, these are stories that will leave you questioning the essence of existence, your own humanity, and the humanity of those around you. This is deft storytelling from a talented new voice.
Praise for Black Rabbit & Other Stories :
"Reading Salvatore Difalco?s first collection of stories, Black Rabbit , I was alternately shocked, disgusted, and astounded. All of this is a good thing. Difalco is a talented writer, whose unrelenting prose is tough, gritty, literate, and, most significantly, authentic. Hats off to Anvil Press for continuing to promote the work of authors who dare to tell it like it is." ( The New Review )
"Brick by brick. Detail by detail. Word by word, Difalco uncovers worlds closed?for the moment?to most prize-list readers. Their loss. For, with such a skilled and sure literary hand as Difalco to guide, many of these lost souls would find their way into most readers' hearts." ( Front & Centre )
"Difalco is at his strongest when writing about relationships ? focusing upon the inherent drama of tight-knit Italian families, couples on the rocks, or even corpulent characters? relationships to food and their own bodies. Let?s hope he continues to mine the strange lives of his particular brand of disenfranchised heroes. In all that roughness, there are diamonds." ( Quill & Quire )
Black Rabbit & Other Stories is a debut collection of great intensity and versatility. The stories range from the fantastic to the gritty, from urban dystopias to worlds of dreamlike possibility. Even in their frequent explorations of brutality, the author remains honest and true to the motivations of his characters and the machinations of the worlds in which they find themselves. These are sure-footed narratives that move with a pre-destined deliberation into a universe that is often fraught with desperation and apparent hopelessness; but, ultimately, we find ourselves on a path to redemption, an acceptance of what is, in the final analysis, an incomprehensible matrix. Existential and reflective, brutal and honest, these are stories that will leave you questioning the essence of existence, your own humanity, and the humanity of those around you. This is deft storytelling from a talented new voice.
Praise for Black Rabbit & Other Stories :
"Reading Salvatore Difalco?s first collection of stories, Black Rabbit , I was alternately shocked, disgusted, and astounded. All of this is a good thing. Difalco is a talented writer, whose unrelenting prose is tough, gritty, literate, and, most significantly, authentic. Hats off to Anvil Press for continuing to promote the work of authors who dare to tell it like it is." ( The New Review )
"Brick by brick. Detail by detail. Word by word, Difalco uncovers worlds closed?for the moment?to most prize-list readers. Their loss. For, with such a skilled and sure literary hand as Difalco to guide, many of these lost souls would find their way into most readers' hearts." ( Front & Centre )
"Difalco is at his strongest when writing about relationships ? focusing upon the inherent drama of tight-knit Italian families, couples on the rocks, or even corpulent characters? relationships to food and their own bodies. Let?s hope he continues to mine the strange lives of his particular brand of disenfranchised heroes. In all that roughness, there are diamonds." ( Quill & Quire )
- GenresFiction
236 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
12 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2009
The most surprising thing about this collection is that all of the stories take place in Canada, mostly in or around Niagara Falls. Canadians are supposed to be nice people. They are polite and clean and they produce entertainment that they smuggle into our country that we assimilate in to our own culture. Canadians despite being so polite and clean and free of most quite a bit of the bullshit that passes for being their neighbor to the south, also have an inferiority complex of sorts. I know this because I took a class entitled "Introduction to Canada", where we learned all about Canadian Culture, which we were told is distinct from American Culture, but really it's not fooling anyone. Yeah great you've got Margaret Atwood, but you have to know that she's Canadian to appreciate her Canadianess, or so I assume, I have never read her, but in my mind she's sort of like a less prolific Joyce Carol Oates (who has written about Niagara Falls, but that's not much of a surprise, she's probably written about everything, the woman is a machine when it comes to churning out books.) Ok, and then you have Bryan Adams, but is he really any different than John Mellancamp or Bruce Springsteen, besides being less critically acclaimed and not nearly as popular as the two Americans? I actually did learn that these people are distinctly Canadian, and it left my nineteen year old self not believing that there is much difference between us and them, and they feel a little left out of the giant Cultural hegemony from the south.
But why should they feel inferior? They are polite, clean and they have health care. They are a much more civilized country than ours, and unlike America more than half the world doesn't hate Canadians.
I don't know why I started on this Canada culture thing. Oh well. This is not the first time a review has gone out of control on me.
The stories here are not what you would expect from Canada. These people are not very polite, nor clean. In my stereotypical view I don't even see these stories taking place in Canada, but rather either in some West Virgina kind of state but with lots of snow, or else in some place like Newark New Jersey, or maybe Baltimore. None of these characters are especially nice. Lots of them do awful things like smoke crack, beat the shit out of people, rob and steal, hate their own children, beat up old women and lots of other anti-social things. Apparently Niagara Falls is sort of a ghetto with a second rate Sopranos thing kind of going on and a bunch of juvenile delinquent crack smoking retards. This isn't meant badly on the stories themselves, it's just not something I expect from Canada.
The stories themselves are fun to read. They don't shatter my world with greatness or anything but they are good. The author also shifts gears quite a bit between family stories, crack-head stories and even some forays into a kind of hybrid magical realism. With the right marketing these could be a big hit here in America, kind of a Sopranos (there's a lot of Italian dysfunction going on here, I don't know if the mob's involved, but something sort of similar to the mob is lurking at times) meets Irvine Welsh and a bit of Mr. Fight Club, but in a much more traditional writing style.
But why should they feel inferior? They are polite, clean and they have health care. They are a much more civilized country than ours, and unlike America more than half the world doesn't hate Canadians.
I don't know why I started on this Canada culture thing. Oh well. This is not the first time a review has gone out of control on me.
The stories here are not what you would expect from Canada. These people are not very polite, nor clean. In my stereotypical view I don't even see these stories taking place in Canada, but rather either in some West Virgina kind of state but with lots of snow, or else in some place like Newark New Jersey, or maybe Baltimore. None of these characters are especially nice. Lots of them do awful things like smoke crack, beat the shit out of people, rob and steal, hate their own children, beat up old women and lots of other anti-social things. Apparently Niagara Falls is sort of a ghetto with a second rate Sopranos thing kind of going on and a bunch of juvenile delinquent crack smoking retards. This isn't meant badly on the stories themselves, it's just not something I expect from Canada.
The stories themselves are fun to read. They don't shatter my world with greatness or anything but they are good. The author also shifts gears quite a bit between family stories, crack-head stories and even some forays into a kind of hybrid magical realism. With the right marketing these could be a big hit here in America, kind of a Sopranos (there's a lot of Italian dysfunction going on here, I don't know if the mob's involved, but something sort of similar to the mob is lurking at times) meets Irvine Welsh and a bit of Mr. Fight Club, but in a much more traditional writing style.
February 3, 2009
A Canadian wrote this book of violent and vivid stories which came as a complete shock to this reader. Reads more like a descendant of Jim Thompson/Bukowski and writers like that than, say, Margaret Atwood or Alice Munro. I'd even compare it to something like Jesus' Son with its violence, drugs, flashes of poetry, and a finely tuned ear for rough vernacular. I guess everything isn't as kosher in Canada as they'd have us believe. Some of the stories are quite bizarre - "The Dream of Giraffe", for instance. There's a one pager called "Coop" about a jailed kid which is like an ultra-compressed novel. I re-read that one five or six times and thought about it for days. This is an intriguing book of stories. I'll be rereading it for a while. I'm surprised this guy's not better known. At the very least the stories give us an alternative portrait of our friends to the north.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews