Last Notes: And Other Stories

by Tamas Dobozy

A debut collection of short fictional works includes "Tales of Hungarian Resistance," in which the children of immigrants are trapped in a cultural crossroads; "Into the Ring," a satirical reflection on the institution of marriage; and the title piece, in which a dying composer probes the connection between artistic vision and madness.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2005

About the author

Tamas Dobozy was born in Nanaimo, BC. After receiving his Ph.D. in English from the University of British Columbia, he taught at Memorial University. His work has been published in journals throughout North America, and in 1995 he won the annual subTerrain short fiction contest. When X Equals Marylou, his first collection of short fiction, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award. Tamas Dobozy now teaches in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've said before that Tamas Dobozy has a notable ability to capture the 'Canadian zeitgeist' -- or at least my own experience of it -- in his short stories. He drops sentences and concepts that resonate deeply with my eastern-European-descent Canadiana world, in ways I wouldn't have thought were culturally influenced -- but, somehow, they might be. Part of that experience is growing, shifting, and changing alongside the landscape and your background. So, as you can imagine -- Dobozy is improving, bigtime, as his collections go on.

This collection, while not bad by any stretch, was published almost a decade before my favourite of his books Siege 13 -- and, unfortunately, it shows. Most of the stories are fine, but boring; there's a serious lack of narrative voice (it reads like every story has the exact same narrator, which is definitely not the intent). "The Laughing Cat" is a fantastic exploration of friendship, identity and how we construct the narratives of ourselves and others; "Philip's Killer Hat" toes the line between insanity and sanity to solid effect. But stories like "The Man Who Came Out of the Corner of My Eye" -- awesomely conceived, surreal, and just-this-side-of-creepy -- never fully actualize their potential, which ends up disappointing. Like, you know they could get there --- they're just not there yet.

Luckily, Dobozy does, in fact, 'get there' -- as an author, if not in this particular collection. I'd love to read reworkings of these stories, as I think there's a lot to mine from them -- but you don't get diamonds without work.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really solid ideas and engaging stories, but unfortunately most of them are far too introspective for my taste. There was also a theme of “emotional debriefing” with most stories ending with an attempt to wrap everything up in a neat bow, although it was unnecessary.

[Dajana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’d say 2.5. There was some interesting topics, but I struggled to pay attention and keep some of the storylines together. Like some just felt like it was going way too deep and wasn’t necessary to do so. I thought it was just me until I read some of the other reviews.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really strange collection of stories, and ones that I think fall just to one side of working. These meta-fictions are sometimes too self-conscious, too driven by ideas and not enough by language, and the stakes of the stories often seem either unclear or too indirect, the endings too often imagine accepting stalemate rather than resolution. It's interesting work, don't get me wrong, but it's not quite there, at least for me and in this collection.

[B. Glen Rotchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are funny, witty, playful, serious stories, one of which is a comic masterpiece called "Into The Ring" about a husband and wife who settle their marital conflicts by boxing.

[Edward Leung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection from Dobozy.