Black dog of fate
by Peter Balakian · first published 1997
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Black Dog of Fate is set in the affluent New Jersey suburbs where Balakian - the firstborn son of his generation - grew up in a close, extended family. At the center of what was a quintessential American baby boom childhood lay the dark specter of a trauma his forebears had experienced - the Ottoman Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians in 1915, the century's first genocide. In a story that climaxes to powerful personal and moral revelations, Balakian traces the complex process of discovering the facts of his people's history and the horrifying aftermath of the T
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…end of her life, would weep, recounting the violence she endured, reliving the experience in her decline. These scars can persist across generations. There are two excellent books I can recommend: 1. Black Dog of Fate, by Peter Balakian 2. They Can Live in the Desert, but Nowhere Else, by Ronald Grigor Suny The first is more of a first person narrative describing the lingering effects of the genocide across generations…
on “The Armenian Genocide (1915-16): In Depth” ↗In his memoir "The Black Dog of Fate" Peter Balakian gives a breakdown like this for a relative branch of the family named Shekerlemejian: "şeker" is Turkish for "sugar" and "şekerleme" is "things made with sugar" so a candy seller got an…
on “Zildjian, a 400-year-old cymbal-making company in Massachusetts” ↗