A Cliff of Fall: Selected Stories and Novellas

A CLIFF OF FALL is a retrospective gathering of award winning stories and novellas. Set in the rural Midwest from the '40's through the '80's, they form a tableau of a time and region often overlooked or forgotten in recent years. The tone and style of the several narrators' range from the realistic to the lyrical and poetic to the nostalgic and reflective to the comic and satiric. They remain current regardless of years of change because they share enduring qualities of fiction appreciated by most thoughtful readers: common themes, humor, fullness of detail and character development, a subtle and pervasive moral vision, and a precision of style. None of these stories was written to address public topics or political, moral or economic issues during the years of their publication. Each begins in an imagined dramatic situation or personal condition and finds its own way to realization. None of these stories was written for profit, an achievement in which the author has been singularly successful.

NORVAL RINDFLEISCH, whose short stories have won an O. Henry Award and have been recognized in the "Roll of Honor" and "List of Distinction" in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, was born in Los Angeles and raised near St. Paul, the setting of many of his stories published in literary journals such as EPOCH at Cornell University and THE LITERARY REVIEW. The title story of his first collection of fiction IN LOVELESS CLARITY was included in THE MINNESOTA EXPERIENCE, an anthology of selected prose with Minnesota characters and settings. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago. Since then he has spent over thirty years teaching in independent schools, primarily in New England. He has also been active in programs of the National Writing Project in California and New Hampshire.

From 1981 to 1990 the author was the Lewis Perry Professor in the Humanities at Phillips Exeter Academy.