Lanzmann and Other Stories

Linda M. Bayley is a freelance writer based in Sudbury, Ontario. She is
the author of Estrangement: Poems.

Although one should not judge a story by its title, just scanning the
table of contents of Damian Tarnopolsky’s first collection made me
want to start reading immediately. What kinds of stories, I wondered,
could possibly be waiting behind such titles as “Nip It in the Bud,”
“The Mile High Club,” and “The Norwegian, Or: The Inherent
Instability of Primes”?

My eagerness to read was well rewarded. Tarnopolsky’s characters
include an egocentric concert violinist whose uncompromising attitude
causes his string quartet to self-destruct; a young narcoleptic who
kidnaps her comatose would-be lover; a mother who humiliates her teenage
son in front of his potential new girlfriend so she can continue to have
the boy to herself; and a man who is trapped in the toilet of a
mile-long train, or possibly in his fiancée’s washroom.
Tarnopolsky’s stories ask questions that most people would never think
to ask: What if a Yoko Ono-type person attached herself to a string
quartet? What if you went home one day to find a Norwegian had moved
into your apartment uninvited?

With stories ranging from the deadly serious to the utterly absurd,
Lanzmann and Other Stories is full of such original ideas, such fresh
language, that I was quite sorry when I found myself reading the last
page. This book is recommended to anyone who is yearning for a
completely new literary experience.