"Scandal at the Alphorn Factory is a 40-year love affair with
language where the absurd morphs into the soundest logic and the playful
duels the profound. Daring in form, Barwin's work harmonizes his
signature wit with imagery that is striking, gorgeous and strange.
Engaging imaginatively with the natural world, the body, the family, the
future–every story is a surprise. A kaleidoscopic collection that
affirms Barwin's place among our Canadian literary treasures."–Anuja Varghese, author of Chrysalis
"Is
Gary Barwin the Meryl Streep of Canadian Literature? Or the Stephen
Curry? By which I mean: what range! These stories sound the depths of
character, plot, style, and form with irreverent humour, musical
language and boundless curiosity. So maybe he's our Jacques Cousteau–if
the guy had stayed home, traded his submarine for a laptop computer, and
made up stories about all the things he didn't know."–Pasha Malla, author of All You Can Kill
"For
over four decades now, in between children's birthday parties, dog
walks, and phatic conversations with neighbours, Gary Barwin has been
sending emergency communiqués–in the form of allegories, parables, tall
tales, and street jokes–from the family hearth in Hamilton, Ontario. He
is a maestro of the suburban surreal, reinscribing the liberated and
liberating aesthetics of the marvellous with an ethics of care. Our
punny chimerical ventriloquial dummy, Barwin speaks out from the head of
Kafka, heart of Éluard, and soul of Edson."–Alessandro Porco, editor of For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe
