A review by yanulya
Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis

4.0

This is a charming book of semi-autobiographical short stories by a new young author, a Russian from Latvia now living in Toronto. I absolutely adored the first story, "Tapka," which i will remember for a long time, as well as the story about the Strongman. However, the stories did become slightly less enchanting as the book went on. I suppose this is because the stories follow episodes from the protagonist's life, in chronological order, from childhood through adulthood, and I guess its much more fun to read about the world through the childish wonder of a 9-year old's eyes than to read about a cocky slavic teenager masturbating in his basement. Oh well. Still worth the purchase for the first few stories alone.