Stephen Leacock, Canada's own literary humorist, wrote this series of short stories in 1912. It is a representation of a typical Canadian small town with its quirky characters and situations that are supposedly held in common with many other towns like it. The fictional town is called Mariposa and it has its business people, bankers, hotel owners, clergy, and its own local attractions.
After reading Leacock's own introduction, I thought I was in for a real treat. I was a bit disappointed, but did find two of the stories particularly engaging and quite funny, the incident of the sinking of the steamer ship "Mariposa Belle", which takes a hilarious twist near the end, and the general elections in Mariposa.
It is turn of the 20th century stuff, a bit before my time, but having grown up in typical prairie town in the mid 20th century, I had a difficult time identifying with the characters and situations. Maybe there has always been a disparity between east and west in our great country because I felt that the stories had a distinctive eastern feel to them.
3 stars
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