A funny yet poignant evocation of an Italian family in Canada, recounted through the tales Joe Fiorito's father would tell and retell at the kitchen table after a night's drinking. As death approaches, the old man can only manage snatches of the stories that once kept his listeners spellbound.
In his third collection of verse, Quicker Than The Eye, Joe Fiorito continues to craft short, sharp poems that define the harder edges of urban life. His principal tools are a photographer's eye for detail, and a musician's ear for the sound of the human voice. Now, in Quicker Than The Eye, Canada's poet of the streets turns his gaze inward, writing about the influences of early love, family tragedy, and the search for meaning in a world where "the desolate things are mine." A master of spare, razor-sharp language, Fiorito manages to strip sentiment from memory in order to find tenderness and enduring truth on the margins of the city. He has never written more austerely or more beautifully.