April 26

The Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir
By Peter Balakian

I met Peter briefly in 1980, toward the end of his studies at Brown University.  Peter wrote his dissertation on the American poet Theodore Roethke and has published a number of volumes of his poems.  I was therefore interested to find this work of prose, which is part coming-of-age story, part documentary.  Peter has won numerous awards for his writing, most recently the Pulitzer Prize (2016 for Ozone Journal).

The author, son of a physician, was raised in a wealthy New Jersey suburb, surrounded by his close-knit extended Armenian family.
Most memorable among them is his grandmother, a first generation American who is a big sports fan and fantastic cook; she sometimes uses the old Armenian expression "black dog of fate".  Peter is only vaguely aware that his grandmother is the only survivor among a number of relatives who died in the old country.

One day he casts around for a research topic for a high school paper.  Knowing his family has come from the area, he opts to write a paper on the formation of the modern state of Turkey. When he discusses the topic with his father, he is shocked by his father's appalled reaction, and eventually comes to learn that most of his ancestors were victims of a mass murder of Armenians in what is today Turkey.  For Peter, this revelation spurs him to find out what happened to 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children from about 1915-20.  For a kid who grew up in a cushy community, it is hard to imagine a more contrasting experience.  But Peter does his research, and the reader can't help but feel outraged, along with Peter, as they learn of the horrors endured by his ancestors.  While this is a tragic story, the author writes beautifully - probably a result of his poetic instinct - and it provides a very accessible way to understand the genocide in human terms.

The Amazon.com entry indicates that a 10-year anniversary edition was published in 2009, which includes new chapters about the author's trip to Aleppo to learn more about his grandmother's early life.