Tango on the Main

Bruce Grainger is head of the Public Services Department, Macdonald
Library, McGill University.

This collection of 49 columns Joe Fiorito wrote for the Montreal Gazette
in 1994–95 demonstrates the author’s sharp eye for detail and keen
insight into human nature.

Many of the columns describe occupational activities; we learn about
the daily routine of staff in a hospital emergency room, a chambermaid
at the Ritz Hotel, and a Vietnamese grocery-store owner, among others.
Other columns focus on various aspects of ethnicity and language,
Montreal neighborhoods, and Fiorito’s personal life.

One charming piece, “The Day the English Language Fell from the
Sky,” tells the story of a little boy in rural Quebec who is amazed to
discover something previously unknown about his mother: her ability to
speak English. The last column, “My Old Man,” evokes the tensions
between Fiorito and his father, “a small-town Fellini who brought a
little magic and a little cruelty to nearly everything he did,” as
when he sold his 10-year-old son’s pet dog to a traveling circus
performer. Nearly all the columns, written in Fiorito’s spare and
economical style, give the reader a satisfying, if fleeting, glimpse
into the human condition.