Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis

February 26, 2007 at 6:01 am · Filed under Canada Reads, Short Stories

I’m not a big fan of short story collections but in researching reviews on this one, as one of the books being defended in the Canada Reads competition, I have to say this one has caught my curiousity enough I may have a look at it. The only book written to date by author David Bezmozgis, this book won the 2004 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and was finalist in the Governor General’s Award for Fiction.

The book is seven loosely linked short stories narrated by Mark Berman who starts out as the six year old son of Roman Berman a former Soviet athletic trainer who immigrates to Canada in the early 80’s. Roman aspires to become a message therapist in Canada. The family are Soviet Latvian Jews which parallels Bezmozgis background.  Although some have taken his writing to be auto-biographical Bezmozgis told Barbara Carey in an interview he has a very poor memory and that he thought what did happen to him could have been shaped into much of story.

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