The Closer We Are to Dying; A Memoir of Father and Family

by Joe Fiorito

• ISBN13: 9780312270070
• ISBN10: 0312270070
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

In the 1950s in Fort William, Ontario, everyone knew Dusty Fiorito. He was handsome and hard and hot-tempered. A letter carrier, a small-town trombonist, an occasional crooner, and a heavy drinker, Dusty was both the keeper and maker of his Italian family's many stories. At the end of his life, as Dusty lay dying in a hospital, Joe sat with him at night, listening one last time to the family legends. Rich and compelling, The Closer We Are to Dying is Joe Fiorito's brilliant tribute to a complicated man and an affecting testament to the power of family ties.

Author Biography

Joe Fiorito is a columnist for the National Post, a Canadian national newspaper, as well as a journalist and commentator for the CBC. He has won the National Newspaper Award for his weekly column in the Montreal Gazette. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Table of Contents

“Joe Fiorito has all the right stuff. His splendid memoir about his relationship with his dying father belongs on that small shelf with Philip Roth’s Patrimony and Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes.” —Mordecai Richler

“A small, quiet masterpiece...Fiorito’s story is strange and sad, devoted to unvarnished truth.” —The Times (London)

“A touching and effectively understated blend of family history, father-son friendship and personal passage from old anger and resentment into reconciliation and love.” —Publishers Weekly