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'ORHAN'S INHERITANCE' DIGS THROUGH HISTORY TO REVEAL FAMILY SECRETS
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 3 2015
By Elfrieda Abbe
As a taxi takes Orhan Turkoglu through the barren Anatolian countryside
where the "land is heavy, the atmosphere so pressed it makes it hard
to breathe," his mind wanders. He's on his way to Karod, his childhood
home, to pay his last respects to his beloved grandfather Kemal.
A Turkish businessman living in Istanbul, he's not eager to return
to this provincial outpost where "every person, object, and stone has
some sort of covering, a layer of protection made from cloth, brick,
or dust."
"Men and women cover their heads with skullcaps and head scarves."
They also apply this protection to their speech and ideas, he surmises.
Much has been covered up in Aline Ohanesian's impressive debut
novel,"Orhan's Inheritance." She scrapes away the dusty layers with
the skill of an archaeologist on a dig to reveal family secrets and
shames set against a backdrop of historical atrocities.
The family is stunned when Kemal leaves their home to an Armenian
woman, Seda Melkonian, who lives in Los Angeles. Orhan goes on a
mission to persuade her to sell the house back to him for his father
and aunt.
A modern man who is distanced from historical events, he's unprepared
for the disdain with which he is treated at the Armenian retirement
home where Seda lives.
In her late 80s, Seda doesn't want the house that once belonged to
her happy family or the painful memories that come with it. She agrees
to sign the papers, if he will leave her alone. But Orhan insists on
finding out her connection to his dede.
"The woman before him is like an ancient tapestry whose tightly woven
threads could tell quite a tale, if only he knew how to unravel them."
He realizes the loose thread that will free the story is his
grandfather's sketchbook. When she see's Kamel's drawing of the
mulberry tree that stood in her family's yard, she cannot stop the
words from pouring out.
It's 1915. The Ottoman Empire has Germany in World War I, and Armenians
are viewed as an internal threat. One day her uncle is taken away,
then her father.
Soon all Armenians are "deported," ordered to leave their homes with
only a few possessions. Seda's childhood friend Kemal, a talented
Muslim teenager who worked for her father, tries to save the headstrong
15-year-old, but she refuses to leave her family. What happens on
that deadly march is Seda's story.
A melancholy past hangs over the characters. Seda survives, but not
without great loss and the pain of guilt.
Kemal becomes a sharpshooter in the military and returns a hero. He
builds a multinational textile company on what the Melkonians left
behind, but takes no pleasure in money and is haunted by the memory
of Seda. It's for the reader to find out what happens when he meets
Seda again.
Through his photography and education, Orhan escapes the brutality
of his father's beatings. But the very thing he loves leads to his
arrest and torture when one of his photos raises suspicion that he
is a communist.
Auntie Fatma, the rock of the family, who raised both Orhan and his
father, has a shadowy past.
Such sorrow in Ohanesian's hands is not a heavy burden for the reader.
Through the beauty and humanity of her central characters, the story
transcends suffering. While Orhan inherited his family's business,
he learns his real inheritance is his grandfather's compassion,
acts of kindness and generosity.
"A white day sheds light; a dark day sheds darkness," Orhan tells
Seda on his first visit. Ohanesian's novel is that "white day."
http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/books/orhans-inheritance-digs-through-history-to-reveal-family-secrets-b99469762z1-298593251.html
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 3 2015
By Elfrieda Abbe
As a taxi takes Orhan Turkoglu through the barren Anatolian countryside
where the "land is heavy, the atmosphere so pressed it makes it hard
to breathe," his mind wanders. He's on his way to Karod, his childhood
home, to pay his last respects to his beloved grandfather Kemal.
A Turkish businessman living in Istanbul, he's not eager to return
to this provincial outpost where "every person, object, and stone has
some sort of covering, a layer of protection made from cloth, brick,
or dust."
"Men and women cover their heads with skullcaps and head scarves."
They also apply this protection to their speech and ideas, he surmises.
Much has been covered up in Aline Ohanesian's impressive debut
novel,"Orhan's Inheritance." She scrapes away the dusty layers with
the skill of an archaeologist on a dig to reveal family secrets and
shames set against a backdrop of historical atrocities.
The family is stunned when Kemal leaves their home to an Armenian
woman, Seda Melkonian, who lives in Los Angeles. Orhan goes on a
mission to persuade her to sell the house back to him for his father
and aunt.
A modern man who is distanced from historical events, he's unprepared
for the disdain with which he is treated at the Armenian retirement
home where Seda lives.
In her late 80s, Seda doesn't want the house that once belonged to
her happy family or the painful memories that come with it. She agrees
to sign the papers, if he will leave her alone. But Orhan insists on
finding out her connection to his dede.
"The woman before him is like an ancient tapestry whose tightly woven
threads could tell quite a tale, if only he knew how to unravel them."
He realizes the loose thread that will free the story is his
grandfather's sketchbook. When she see's Kamel's drawing of the
mulberry tree that stood in her family's yard, she cannot stop the
words from pouring out.
It's 1915. The Ottoman Empire has Germany in World War I, and Armenians
are viewed as an internal threat. One day her uncle is taken away,
then her father.
Soon all Armenians are "deported," ordered to leave their homes with
only a few possessions. Seda's childhood friend Kemal, a talented
Muslim teenager who worked for her father, tries to save the headstrong
15-year-old, but she refuses to leave her family. What happens on
that deadly march is Seda's story.
A melancholy past hangs over the characters. Seda survives, but not
without great loss and the pain of guilt.
Kemal becomes a sharpshooter in the military and returns a hero. He
builds a multinational textile company on what the Melkonians left
behind, but takes no pleasure in money and is haunted by the memory
of Seda. It's for the reader to find out what happens when he meets
Seda again.
Through his photography and education, Orhan escapes the brutality
of his father's beatings. But the very thing he loves leads to his
arrest and torture when one of his photos raises suspicion that he
is a communist.
Auntie Fatma, the rock of the family, who raised both Orhan and his
father, has a shadowy past.
Such sorrow in Ohanesian's hands is not a heavy burden for the reader.
Through the beauty and humanity of her central characters, the story
transcends suffering. While Orhan inherited his family's business,
he learns his real inheritance is his grandfather's compassion,
acts of kindness and generosity.
"A white day sheds light; a dark day sheds darkness," Orhan tells
Seda on his first visit. Ohanesian's novel is that "white day."
http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/books/orhans-inheritance-digs-through-history-to-reveal-family-secrets-b99469762z1-298593251.html