The Knock at the Door: A Journey Through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide - Margaret Ajemian Anhert wrote this book to honor her mother and record her story. Every one of these stories is remarkable, and as long as writers keep writing them, I will keep reading them. In 1915, the first Genocide of the 20th centure took place in what is now Turkey. The turks accomplished this under the confusion of the first world war which was occupying the attention of the world powers. "Turkey for the Turks" was the political expression of the day, and under this umbrella, Armenian and some Greek Christians from the inland of the contry were told to leave their homes. They had already
lost the men between the ages of 16 and 60 - they were arrested under false pretenses and then taken outside the villages, made to dig their own graves, and shot to death. So the death marches consisted of women, children and the elderly.
Margaret's mother Ester spent a lifetime telling her daughter these stories, weaving a tale of a childhood interrupted. The stories of life in the village before the Genocide are my favorites, because they tell me what my own grandmother's life might have been like in her village. In my grandmother's case, the catastrophe of 1922 was when the turks came to the coastal areas of Turkey to eradicate the Christian population and literally pushed them into the sea. Today in Smyrna (Izmir) there is a statue of Attaturk on a horse pointing to the sea showing that he wanted all the Christians gone.
To this day, Armenian and Greek Asia-Minor descendants are actively keeping this history alive, and continuning to put pressure on the Turkish government to acknowledge their actions in 1915 and 1922. So far, the Turks say nothing happened.
The Si
xteen Pleasures - by Robert Hellenga. A book about a book is usually a good story, and this is no exception. It takes place in the mid 1960s, told in the first person by a young woman who goes to Florence, Italy to help recover and restore books that were damaged by a major flood. The Sixteen Pleasures is the name of a book within a book that she finds in a convent, and may be the only copy in existance. It's a good little read.
I Was T
old There'd Be Cake - Essays by Sloane Crosley. The best thing about this book is the title. Unfortunately, I really wanted to read the essay with that title, but there isn't one! The essays are about funny situations in the life of 20-somethings. Honest and clever, these stories are a little too long, but leave me wanting more. Cake, probably. Sloane, when you're up for reprint, put a slice of chocolate cake on the cover.
lost the men between the ages of 16 and 60 - they were arrested under false pretenses and then taken outside the villages, made to dig their own graves, and shot to death. So the death marches consisted of women, children and the elderly.
Margaret's mother Ester spent a lifetime telling her daughter these stories, weaving a tale of a childhood interrupted. The stories of life in the village before the Genocide are my favorites, because they tell me what my own grandmother's life might have been like in her village. In my grandmother's case, the catastrophe of 1922 was when the turks came to the coastal areas of Turkey to eradicate the Christian population and literally pushed them into the sea. Today in Smyrna (Izmir) there is a statue of Attaturk on a horse pointing to the sea showing that he wanted all the Christians gone.
To this day, Armenian and Greek Asia-Minor descendants are actively keeping this history alive, and continuning to put pressure on the Turkish government to acknowledge their actions in 1915 and 1922. So far, the Turks say nothing happened.
The Si
xteen Pleasures - by Robert Hellenga. A book about a book is usually a good story, and this is no exception. It takes place in the mid 1960s, told in the first person by a young woman who goes to Florence, Italy to help recover and restore books that were damaged by a major flood. The Sixteen Pleasures is the name of a book within a book that she finds in a convent, and may be the only copy in existance. It's a good little read.I Was T
old There'd Be Cake - Essays by Sloane Crosley. The best thing about this book is the title. Unfortunately, I really wanted to read the essay with that title, but there isn't one! The essays are about funny situations in the life of 20-somethings. Honest and clever, these stories are a little too long, but leave me wanting more. Cake, probably. Sloane, when you're up for reprint, put a slice of chocolate cake on the cover.
1 comment:
Don't buy it. Their Islamo Soviet faith makes the Greeks lie. They were the real war criminals at Smyrna, beacuse of the genoicidal rantings of Cosmus Aitalius. See the NY Times http://www.geocities.com/gcomney/smyrna.pdf
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