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Summary: Almost a textbook, reads like a novel: read it and more.
Review: This is a delicately written book about one of the worst crimes against humanity. The Armenian Genocide took the lives of one and a half million people, almost half the total world population of Armenians at the time and eighty percent of the population of historic Armenia. The parallel with the Jewish Holocaust is close enough to suggest a copycat crime, and Peter Balakian is determined that we should not forget it. He has two interwoven narrative strategies: presenting the Armenian Genocide as a blueprint for the subsequent horrors of the twentieth century, and thus calling for our attention and empathy as liberal-minded people on a level of poetic archetype as well as "political correctness"; and telling the story of his own family in both Armenia and America--alternately quirky, intriguingly different, disarmingly predictable, and horrific--to get us emotionally involved. For the most part, it works. Balakian is a talented writer with a prose style that is as hard and rich as polished ebony at its best. He is also an intelligent observer, bringing a certain detachment to Armenian issues as well as emotional involvement. He is thus well equipped to tell a story which is in some way emblematic of America's painful growing pains after the wars that left it a colossus, finally bringing us to realize that this happened because so many others died.This is not an unqualified rave. In the first place, it is very important that readers should be motivated to go on to other sources which tell the Armenian story in their own way, and not be misled by the book's impressive compactness and erudition to believe it tells the whole story. Although Balakian has packaged his story well, some of its gloss is indeed packaging and not substance. And the writing, while fine, is also riddled with some peculiar gaffes which an editor might have noticed: perhaps nobody thought it would be the success it is. Finally, many Armenians will be put off by the author's telling of the story as a generic human-rights issue in an almost romantic sense, and readers are advised to be very wary in absorbing it as such. It is a particular story which demands attention on its own terms due to the political context in which it was set, and in which it continues to be set by the Turkish government's campaign of denial and American collaboration (which Balakian does describe in detail and has fought courageously). But it is a rare book which can be criticized for being almost too good in some senses. By all means, read it, give it to friends, and ask yourself why you never heard of this.
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Summary: Very important to read!
Review: This is a very good "first" book about the genocide and how a second generation American learns about his heritage and how politics fight with the truth!
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Summary: beautiful memoir
Review: This is a wonderful book, it made me cry, one of the best memoirs I have read and I highly recomend it.
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Summary: An Average Book/An Important Story
Review: Until the end of our days, we will hurt each other for no reason. Hate our neighbors because they exist. Kill strangers without conscience. Why? Because we're barbaric? Are we naturally predisposed to evil deeds in order to keep the population boom in hand? Why in the world should I ever have to come across a story that chronicles the unknown hatred of one civilization to another? I should not have had to read this book because the reason for it written should never have happened. Black slavery is the second-most despicable atrocity the United States has ever known. I say second-most because at least most lives of black people were spared so that this country could be built on the strength of their backs. No, the worst thing to happen to America was the inhuman treatment and near total destruction of the Native Americans. Everybody knows the story. No act of horror is more documented than the Jews being decimated at the hands of Nazi cavemen. Misguided into thinking that they were elite. Bombings, horrible experiments, endless gunfire, starvation, gas chambers, ovens made for cooking...people. A blight on the face of a planet replete with a history of destruction and malicious intent. Maybe you've heard of it. But "Black Dog Of Fate" tells another version of terror and hate. It's a story you've heard a thousand times but from the mouth of a different victim. Another voice. It very vividly tells us about the Armenian genocide, allegedly at the hands of the Turkish government. What begins as a memoir about young Balakian growing up in an Armenian family, yet doing his darnedest to stay waist-deep in the pool of Americana, becomes a quest of an adult Peter searching for his roots. The lives and deaths of his people. To this day the Turks deny that they almost wiped out an entire civilization and I'm no one to argue here nor there. But the evidence, the painful words from those who were there, that escaped - it's like a whirlwind of torment to the ears and eyes of those who will listen and learn. But nobody knows anything about this stain on humanity because very few victims lived to tell about it and literally none of the suspects will atone for their crimes. This is one of many novels that will endear and enlighten. My only real gripes are that it becomes a tad preachy (though it hardly cannot be) and it's two stories, two tones in the same book. It starts out a little happy-go-lucky. Somewhat light-hearted and sometimes funny for the first half. Then, things take a 180 and it's all out depressing. The entire second half of the book is killing and shooting and stealing and just plain bleak. Sometimes life has to be that way but as a reader it was a bit overwhelming. And it's supposed to be. Lucky me. I just read it. Too many people lived it. You read it too. And talk about it. Because not enough people know.
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Summary: Balakian's book compares to...
Review: You will want to read this great book . You do not have to be Armenian to understand the atrocities of the Turks against the Armenian people. Keep the tissues handy.
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