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Lanzmann and Other Stories

by Damian Tarnopolsky

The chances that a collection of short fiction will contain nothing but solid, well-written, and engaging tales are, regrettably, slight. Lanzmann and Other Stories, Damian Tarnopolsky’s debut, is a collection with several winning pieces, a majority of good ones, and at least a couple that fall flat.

Tarnopolsky’s subject matter is not new: flawed relationships, people, and the circumstances that make up our daily lives. The most successful story, “The Lanzmann Quartet in Pittsburgh,” follows an insufferable and self-aggrandizing quartet leader. Tarnopolsky loves his characters for their flaws, not despite them, and the reader, too, is compelled. The prose is delicate, thoughtful, and funny – quite unlike Lanzmann himself.

The least successful is “The Mile High Club,” in which a man is locked inside the bathroom of a train. The train becomes a plane, then his fiancée’s bathroom; his mother is suddenly outside the door, and then firefighters. Meanwhile, he remains trapped inside the bathroom (his head), brooding over a past infidelity. While the story is ambitiously metafictional, the reader is given little reason to actually care. Furthermore, whereas the end of the Lanz-mann story is surprising and adds depth, “The Mile High Club” simply stops, leaving the reader feeling cheated.

Between these extremes are stories less dynamic but ultimately enjoyable. Some verge on the excellence of “Lanzmann” but stagger under fatal flaws. Tarnopolsky’s characters are finely fleshed out, the dialogue is fluid and believable, and the structures are clever and interesting. And while Lanzmann and Other Stories is not the perfect collection it might have been, it is proof of Tarnopolsky’s skill, insight, and wit.

 

Reviewer: Sarah Steinberg

Publisher: Exile Editions

DETAILS

Price: $19.95

Page Count: 144 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 1-55096-078-4

Released: Sept.

Issue Date: 2006-11

Categories: Fiction: Short