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Kirkus Reviews (Print)
February 1, 2015, Sunday
Stories My Father Never Finished Telling Me
Living with the Armenian legacy of loss and silence
NONFICTION; Memoir
Kalajian's (co-author: They Had No Voice: My Fight for Alabama's
Forgotten Children, 2013, etc.) "ethno-memoir" is an elegiac
reflection on growing up under the specter of the trials a family, and
a whole people, experienced. Kalajian, in his third book, touches upon
both his upbringing as an American boy and his being a bearer of a
tortured Armenian past.
The remembrances are deeply personal meditations on what it was like
to live distanced from a world with which he had very little direct
contact even as it powerfully shaped his life. Readers will sense the
author's background as an investigative journalist as he tries to
wrestle the facts of his history from his family's laconic resistance
to speak openly about it. Kalajian's inscrutable father is a near
mystery; only slowly, in fits and starts, does Kalajian learn about
his adventurous but hardship-ridden life. He had no idea his father
went to China or Borneo and no idea his father grew up in Greece or
that he was raised in an orphanage. Even his more voluble mother's
tales were carefully edited and studiously redacted. While not
intended as a work of rigorous scholarship, Kalajian's book contains
considerable discussion about the history of Armenians, and much is
revealed about their experience with Turkish persecution and global
neglect. However, this is largely an autobiographical tale. "I am not
a historian, and this is not a book of facts and dates and sober
analysis," he says. "This is a story told by a man born in midair
whose only hope for a good night's sleep is to close his fingers
around the frayed cord of history and tug with all his might." His
polished, sometimes even poetic prose evokes a sense of curiosity and
lament. In response to his family's silence-and to the silence of a
whole people still shellshocked by their grim treatment-Kalajian has
become a professional storyteller and an excellent one at that. An
affecting account of an American man attempting to uncover his
Armenian heritage and history.
Publication Date: 2014-05-31
Publisher: 8220 Press
Stage: Indie
ISBN: 978-0-615-97902-1
Price: $16.95
Author: Kalajian, Douglas
February 1, 2015, Sunday
Stories My Father Never Finished Telling Me
Living with the Armenian legacy of loss and silence
NONFICTION; Memoir
Kalajian's (co-author: They Had No Voice: My Fight for Alabama's
Forgotten Children, 2013, etc.) "ethno-memoir" is an elegiac
reflection on growing up under the specter of the trials a family, and
a whole people, experienced. Kalajian, in his third book, touches upon
both his upbringing as an American boy and his being a bearer of a
tortured Armenian past.
The remembrances are deeply personal meditations on what it was like
to live distanced from a world with which he had very little direct
contact even as it powerfully shaped his life. Readers will sense the
author's background as an investigative journalist as he tries to
wrestle the facts of his history from his family's laconic resistance
to speak openly about it. Kalajian's inscrutable father is a near
mystery; only slowly, in fits and starts, does Kalajian learn about
his adventurous but hardship-ridden life. He had no idea his father
went to China or Borneo and no idea his father grew up in Greece or
that he was raised in an orphanage. Even his more voluble mother's
tales were carefully edited and studiously redacted. While not
intended as a work of rigorous scholarship, Kalajian's book contains
considerable discussion about the history of Armenians, and much is
revealed about their experience with Turkish persecution and global
neglect. However, this is largely an autobiographical tale. "I am not
a historian, and this is not a book of facts and dates and sober
analysis," he says. "This is a story told by a man born in midair
whose only hope for a good night's sleep is to close his fingers
around the frayed cord of history and tug with all his might." His
polished, sometimes even poetic prose evokes a sense of curiosity and
lament. In response to his family's silence-and to the silence of a
whole people still shellshocked by their grim treatment-Kalajian has
become a professional storyteller and an excellent one at that. An
affecting account of an American man attempting to uncover his
Armenian heritage and history.
Publication Date: 2014-05-31
Publisher: 8220 Press
Stage: Indie
ISBN: 978-0-615-97902-1
Price: $16.95
Author: Kalajian, Douglas