Last Night's Dream

Last Night's Dream is a strong, confident first collection of short stories by Heather Frayne. The stories incorporate everything from religion, world politics, dreams, and historical events to contemporary realism.

"Our Tribute to Dr. Ismael (dream)" is a contemporary tale of the senselessness of youth violence against a well-loved doctor, who is beaten into a coma. The story brings to the fore society's impotence against random violence. In "Of Love and Hockey," Frayne writes of a young woman who works for the CBC, sent to temporarily replace the station manager in a northern community where she ponders the cultural differences and the similar human foibles. She finds that the politics of the workplace is the same, be it in the Arctic of Toronto. "All to Maurie" is a strong ode to the stoic life on the farm and the toll it takes on a family. "I'm Not the One to Comfort You" tells the heart-breaking tale of a physical relationship that ends when one lover resists emotional commitment, but the lovers ongoing passion continues throughout their new adult lives, as does their mutual secret longing for each other.

Last Night's Dream is a book that is serious without being too earnest. It's about moral ambiguity, the elusiveness of perfection, the randomness of evil, the interdependence of life and death, and in the midst of it all, love that could that could break your heart.