Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir |
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| Title: | Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir |
| Author: | Peter Balakian |
| Publisher: | Basic Books |
| Type: | Book / Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 10 February, 2009 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0465010199 / 9780465010196 |
| List Price: | $16.95 |
| You Save: | $3.73 |
| Amazon Price: | $13.22 |
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This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $4.49.
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
In this tenth anniversary edition of his award-winning memoir, New York Times bestselling author Peter Balakian has expanded his compelling story about growing up in the baby-boom suburbs of the ’50s and ’60s and coming to understand what happened to his family in the first genocide of the twentieth century—the Ottoman Turkish government’s extermination of more than one million Armenians in 1915. In this new edition, Balakian continues his exploration of the Armenian Genocide with new chapters about his journey to Aleppo and his trip to the Der Zor desert of Syria in his pursuit of his grandmother’s life, bringing us closer to the twentieth century’s first genocide.
Amazon.com Review
The author of four volumes of verse, Peter Balakian writes with the precision of a poet and the lyricism of a privileged suburban child in 1950s New Jersey. He is shadowed by his relatives' carefully guarded memories of past trauma: the brutal Turkish extermination in 1915 of more than a million Armenians, including most of his maternal grandmother's family. Balakian seamlessly interweaves personal and historical material to depict one young man's reclamation of his heritage and to scathingly indict the political forces that conspired to sweep under the rug the 20th century's first genocide.
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Customer Reviews:
• An Armenian Undercurrent Of A Family's Past.
02 September, 2008
This is a nice personal interest read about a well to do Armenian family living in northern New Jersey. What makes it different is the undertone of a family tragedy suffered in faraway Armenia during 1915. During that time, the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire sought to kill or dispossess 1.5 million Armenians of their lives and property. The author's grandparents suffered enormously and their parents and siblings died through the most brutal methods. When the Balakian was growing up, there was always something under the surface of their family. The author's parents did not educate how their family suffered during this time. When the author does a term paper on Turkey for his high school class and gets an A, his father is angered on the subject he selected.
The one thing that stands out in this memoir is that the Turks still deny they did anything wrong. A recent amendment in the U.S. Senate was defeated due to Turkish pressure to label this a genocide. This despite the fact that this happened over 90 years ago. Somehow the Turkish people and nation chooses to not assume guilt on one of the first mass murders in the world's history.
The book gets off to a slow start with several chapters on Balakian's grandmother. Some of the writings suggest mystical happenings like the black dog and blue lady. After that the author focuses in on his family and the tragedy of Armenia. One thing that I think the author got wrong is when the Young Turks assumed command of the Ottoman government. Two Sultans ruled from 1908 till 1920. They were figureheads to the Young Turk government. Other than that, an interesting read.
- Amazon Customer Review
• A Good Book
29 December, 2007
I just finished reading this book. It tells the story of a boy growing up in the 1950s who along with his Armenian grandmother who shared a love of the NY Yankees growing up in New Jersey. It also tells the trauma of the past telling the story about some of his family members killed by the Turkish government in 1915. It is well written and I loved the story. It's a really good book if you want a good read. It was both happy and sad. It also brought back a lot of memories of a bygone era. I liked it a lot.
- Amazon Customer Review
• So Far So Excellent - Kindle Warning: 2 Editions
20 April, 2009
be careful when ordering from the 2 listed kindle editions. the 2 editions are priced identically, have same cover look & share reviews. i assume that only someone who had already read this book in a physical copy would want the older edition for their kindle library.
newest edition - Black Dog of Fate with more chapters & an updated preface
older edition - Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir
i love the "you already ordered this" service on kindle editions. it bit me when having already purchased the newer edition, i accidentally went into the older edition listing & thought since it didn't say "you already order this" that i had only imagined that i ordered it already & ordered the older edition as well.
amazon, of course, rectified this mistake by removing the older edition from my account upon my request.
i'm only half way through the book, so i should probably wait to review the contents when i am done. so far i am enjoying everything about it. beautiful writing about a very interesting particular story (really stories) embedded in a fascinating historic event which displays human nature at its worst - an aspect of human nature which in my opinion has always been present in every era & every culture - & is therefore quite instructive.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Sad Story, But A Real One
20 December, 2006
The story of the author's grandmother is the same as the story my grandmother told me. Yes, her entire family was killed by the Turks. As a small child, I attended the Armenain school where all of us would compare stories as to how our grandparents survived the death marches. It is a very nice story that tells about history, a history that is kept hidden for many political reasons. Until the world fully ackhowledges what happened to the Armenians, and punishes the Turks, many more genocides and attorcities will take place. After all, if the Turks can get away with the torture, killing, rapes, and genocide (while countries such as the United States let them get away with it), then other similar regimes will committ similar attorcities.
I storngly recommend this book.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Who Speaks Of The Armenians Now?
24 May, 2008
A very good, well written story of the author's discovery of his own Armenian roots and the genocide of 1915 of which his grandmother was a survivor. It also is about one half of an autobiography, detailing the author's upbringing in suburban New Jersey.
The first three parts of the book are subtitled Grandmother, Mother, Farther. I feel the book should have jumped into the Armenian part of the story much faster. A better course might have been to make the leap from Grandmother to the old country and then fill in the backstory of the author's upbrining in New Jersey.
According to the dusk jacket, the author was born in 1951, as was I, so I can testify to the veracity of his account of those times.
Much of sections set in Turkey during the time of the Armenian genocide are given over the official documents about the event, as if the author were uncertain his own word would be enough to convince the audience. Given the Turkish government's commitment to denial on this issue, I suppose that is understandable.
- Amazon Customer Review
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