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faile12's review against another edition
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
t8r's review against another edition
3.0
This is definitely an above average book, but I can't put it on the same level as some of my other four-starers.
The premise is great but not handled very well, especially toward the end.
Personally, I hated her; but books with characters that I really hate usually get four or five stars. She was enough to ruin the entire book for me. I was mainly confused by her. I wanted answers, examples, illustrations, but Ohanesian seems like she doesn't even know what she's trying to say.
What's all this about a museum? What does the art exhibit mean? How has Orhan grown throughout the story?
But alas, good books are often ruined with terrible half-assed endings. I guess the authors just get tired or something. That definitely seems to be what happened to Ohanesian on this one.
The rest of the book is spectacular, definitely up to my four-star standard. Too bad she gave up before it was over.
This book is worth reading, but go ahead and skip the last two chapters. You'll just be confused by them. The book is like one of the tapestries in the story: every separate strand working together to make a beautiful work of art, all seeming to lead to a single end result, then BLAM! The cat comes in and vomits all over it. It's ruined.
The premise is great but not handled very well, especially toward the end.
Spoiler
The worst part is toward the end. That nasty little niece could have been torn apart and fed to the vultures, but she wasn't. When I read it, I wasn't even sure of the purpose she served. Was she supposed to be a negative character that couldn't let go of her stupid shoulder chip from a past that didn't even belong to her? Or was she the heroic teacher who showed Orhan the right way to deal with the hard truths of history.Personally, I hated her; but books with characters that I really hate usually get four or five stars. She was enough to ruin the entire book for me. I was mainly confused by her. I wanted answers, examples, illustrations, but Ohanesian seems like she doesn't even know what she's trying to say.
What's all this about a museum? What does the art exhibit mean? How has Orhan grown throughout the story?
But alas, good books are often ruined with terrible half-assed endings. I guess the authors just get tired or something. That definitely seems to be what happened to Ohanesian on this one.
The rest of the book is spectacular, definitely up to my four-star standard. Too bad she gave up before it was over.
This book is worth reading, but go ahead and skip the last two chapters. You'll just be confused by them. The book is like one of the tapestries in the story: every separate strand working together to make a beautiful work of art, all seeming to lead to a single end result, then BLAM! The cat comes in and vomits all over it. It's ruined.
book_concierge's review against another edition
3.0
3.5***
Orhan’s grandfather Kemal built a dynasty out of making kilim rugs. When he dies, his will bypasses his only son and Orhan inherits the decades-old business. But, Kemal leaves the family home to a woman no one has heard of – Seda Melkonian, an Armenian woman living in a Los Angeles retirement home. Orhan travels to California to meet with Seda and try to discover her connection to his family. Seda and Kemal’s story of young love across religious and cultural taboos unfolds against the backdrop of World War I and the Armenian genocide.
The novel moves back and forth between 1990s and the last days of the Ottoman empire. There are not a lot of fiction books about World War I (as compared to WW II), and only a small number that deal with the Armenian genocide. So, this is an interesting and informative subject on which to focus. What people had to do to survive and how the trauma affected them forms the basis for a compelling story.
As Orhan meets with Seda to discover her connection to his family, he learns about events the world seems to have forgotten. However, Seda seems to want to forget about it. She has put those memories aside in order to live her life. Still the trauma haunts her. But Seda’s niece and others of her generation seem bent on exploring their families’ histories. It made me wonder when, or whether, one can ever let go of past wrongs. Must hate and rancor pass from generation to generation because one’s grandfather hurt the other’s grandfather?
Ani is angry with her aunt’s generation for not talking about their experiences during the war: ”You know, there’s no difference between withholding and lying, right?” Ani asks her aunt But she seems equally angry that Orhan, a Turk, would want to explore the exhibit and learn what happened from her aunt. It’s as if the events that occurred are the sole property of the descendants of the Armenian victims of that wartime atrocity. ”Is that what the exhibit is about? Finding a cure for your grief?” Orhan asks Ani.
Untangling the family connections is a daunting task and once he opens that box he may not like what he discovers. I believe that the journey to discovery changes the course of his life.
Orhan’s grandfather Kemal built a dynasty out of making kilim rugs. When he dies, his will bypasses his only son and Orhan inherits the decades-old business. But, Kemal leaves the family home to a woman no one has heard of – Seda Melkonian, an Armenian woman living in a Los Angeles retirement home. Orhan travels to California to meet with Seda and try to discover her connection to his family. Seda and Kemal’s story of young love across religious and cultural taboos unfolds against the backdrop of World War I and the Armenian genocide.
The novel moves back and forth between 1990s and the last days of the Ottoman empire. There are not a lot of fiction books about World War I (as compared to WW II), and only a small number that deal with the Armenian genocide. So, this is an interesting and informative subject on which to focus. What people had to do to survive and how the trauma affected them forms the basis for a compelling story.
As Orhan meets with Seda to discover her connection to his family, he learns about events the world seems to have forgotten. However, Seda seems to want to forget about it. She has put those memories aside in order to live her life. Still the trauma haunts her. But Seda’s niece and others of her generation seem bent on exploring their families’ histories. It made me wonder when, or whether, one can ever let go of past wrongs. Must hate and rancor pass from generation to generation because one’s grandfather hurt the other’s grandfather?
Ani is angry with her aunt’s generation for not talking about their experiences during the war: ”You know, there’s no difference between withholding and lying, right?” Ani asks her aunt But she seems equally angry that Orhan, a Turk, would want to explore the exhibit and learn what happened from her aunt. It’s as if the events that occurred are the sole property of the descendants of the Armenian victims of that wartime atrocity. ”Is that what the exhibit is about? Finding a cure for your grief?” Orhan asks Ani.
Untangling the family connections is a daunting task and once he opens that box he may not like what he discovers. I believe that the journey to discovery changes the course of his life.
kdowli01's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
cemoses's review against another edition
5.0
I thought the book had it all-suspense, romance, and history. I learned a lot about Armenian genocide but I also felt victims of other genocides could relate to this story.
The novel starts in 1990 with Orhan's grandfather, Kemal’s, death in 1990. Orhan learns that his grandfather has left the family house to some unknown older woman who is living in a nursing home in California. Orhan goes to California to meet this woman and to buy the family house back from her.
The woman then tell Orhan the story about his grandfather and his relationship with her family which was Armenian and living in Turkey. The story goes back to 1914 when Kemal was a teenager and was working for this Armenian family who falls victim to the Armenian genocide in Turkey.
The novel tries very hard not to vilify the Turks (which is hard to do if your family was a victim of genocide). The novel does an excellent job of describing difficulties in relationships among groups that are separated by the three factors of religion, social class and ethnic groups.
I found the novel very easy to read despite its describing a very sad chapter in history. For readers who like romance there is a love story. In short I found this book not only informative but a real page turner.
The novel starts in 1990 with Orhan's grandfather, Kemal’s, death in 1990. Orhan learns that his grandfather has left the family house to some unknown older woman who is living in a nursing home in California. Orhan goes to California to meet this woman and to buy the family house back from her.
The woman then tell Orhan the story about his grandfather and his relationship with her family which was Armenian and living in Turkey. The story goes back to 1914 when Kemal was a teenager and was working for this Armenian family who falls victim to the Armenian genocide in Turkey.
The novel tries very hard not to vilify the Turks (which is hard to do if your family was a victim of genocide). The novel does an excellent job of describing difficulties in relationships among groups that are separated by the three factors of religion, social class and ethnic groups.
I found the novel very easy to read despite its describing a very sad chapter in history. For readers who like romance there is a love story. In short I found this book not only informative but a real page turner.
qu33nofbookz's review against another edition
2.0
Not sure why it gets such a high rating. First of all there a ton of names right off the bat and they get confusing. Also the shifting from the past (1915) to the story time present (sometime in the 1990's) doesn't flow well and the shifts are abrupt. Also very irritated by the over use of the word says/said there other words out there to describe talking and answering. This story was billed as historical fiction, it's more fiction then history. It is about the Armenian Genocide (persecution by the Ottoman Turks on Armenians during World War I) but that is not the focus. It is the plight of the one of the main characters Christian Armenian family. The other main character is from a Muslim Turkish family.
The story starts in the 1990's with Orhan coming home after the death of his grandfather Kemal. We never know how he dies just that he was found in a vat of dye at his business. We get a large chunk of unnecessary non-plot relevant story about how Orhan has a camera at the house and his disturbing sexual description of it that leads to his girlfriend having dumped him and how he wants to win her back. The sexual descriptions of the camera are over the top and odd given he describes his ex-girlfriend as obsessed with things from the western world ie. North America. He has no love descriptions of the woman but sexy for camera, just plain creepy.
Kemal was a bit eccentric so when his will is read he leaves his business to Orhan his only grandson instead of his only son Mustafa like is custom. Kemal leaves the house his son and Fatma, Orhan's aunt, live in to a woman named Seda Melkonian whom the family does not know. In order to keep the business Orhan will search out Seda to make her agree to give the house to his father. Otherwise Mustafa will contest the will and if the court holds the will true Mustafa will move in with Orhan and make his life miserable. Orhan has a poor relationship with his father and Mustafa had a poor relationship with Kemal. Seda lives in a nursing home in LA California for Armenians where she was put by her niece Ani. Seda is more then willing to sign the house over to Orhan the minute she sees him. Seda has received a letter from Kemal before he died and it brings up a past she doesn't want anyone to know. She doesn't want Ani to know about Orhan.
Seda is actually Lucine the childhood love of Kemal. Kemal's father works for Lucine's family and envy's their wealth. He is in favor of the deporting and killing the Armenian's and doesn't want his son to interact with Lucine. When Lucine's uncle Nazareth is taken in the night to a labor camp her mother Mairig falls into a deep depression. Her father Hairig is totally benign about the whole thing including be called with other Armenian men ages 18-60 to a "meeting". He does not come home and Lucine and her sister Anush get their mother to come slightly out of her depression. The family is told that all Armenians must be deported. Mairig seeks help from the town mayor who has been friendly to them in the past and wants to marry Anush. The mayor tries to blackmail Mairig into giving him Anush for protection knowing that the promise is a lie. Kemal's father seeing how Lucine's family will be leaving and their home and business abandoned for the taking will allow Kemal to marry Lucine to legally claim everything by marriage law. Kemal does not agree with his father and goes to warn Lucine and also propose to protect her.
During their talk Hairig and the men taken from the "meeting" are marched past them and Kemal follows at the behest of Lucine only to come back and tell her Hairig is dead, he has just been executed. Lucine rejects Kemal as she won't leave her family and believes that Kemal wants what his father does, just her land and business/money and won't believe that Kemal loves her. Then she sees he is wearing her uncle's shoes she insults him and drives him away. Kemal goes off and gets drunk and an army recruiter gets him to sign on for the Turkish army.
Back in the 1990's we learn that even though Orhan is about to get Seda to sign over the house Mustafa wants to contest the will. He is greedy and wants what he believes should be his not his son's even though he has never worked, he wants to sell everything and give nothing to Orhan. Ani is the daughter of Bedros, Lucine/Seda's brother who hates everyone who isn't Armenian and raised Ani to think that everyone wanted to persecute them, she became an activist. Ani has been informed by nosy nurse Betty about Orhan and has come to pester Seda into talking about her past. Seda refuses her and doesn't tell her what Orhan wanted. She knows Orhan wants the same answers and wonders why Fatma didn't tell him. Betty gets confrontational with Orhan about the papers he wants signed.
Orhan learns about Ani and her activism and that the nursing home is for genocide survivors and that Ani has put up an exhibit and wants political people to come to boots her cause. He takes offense at the thought that everyone considers Turkey's government complicit in genocide of Armenians and not just mass murder like other ethnicity's during world war I. Orhan worries that if Ani finds out about the house she will want it and what she'll think of him for wanting it. He wonders why Ani can't let go of the past that happened long before she was born.
Orphan shares that he was exiled to Germany for a while and that he was a photographer. We learn that because of a photograph he was interrogated and beaten then exiled as an enemy of the government. Seda is intrigued by this and looks through a old portfolio of photos of his. Orhan takes Seda out to the garden to try and get her to relax and talk about her past, then internally complains about the Armenian's not letting go of their past as the ground is covered in a timeline of their history. They sit under a mulberry tree that reminds Seda of home next to a fountain even though Seda hates running water. Orhan has brought one of Kemal's drawing diaries with him and Seda sees it's all about a mulberry tree that was in front of her old house. Again creepy description of inanimate object. The tree is all about life, joy and sorrow and it's almost more expressive then a person. The fountain begins to run and Seda freaks out and starts picturing Aram, her baby brother drowning over and over again. It's alluded to that she killed the baby and she faints. Orhan brings her inside where nurse Betty berates him and tries to send him away without his signed papers.
Flashback to 1915 Lucine and family on the road out of the city with other Armenians followed by a few missionary's. For protection the women travel in the wagon and Bedros has to wear a dress and grow his hair long. Lucine has time to think and feels bad about Kemal but won't change anything. There are 6 bullying soldiers who are making sure that everyone is moving on like they are supposed to. I will never understand how about 2,000 people can be so scared of 6 people but whatever. Mairig has hired a driver for their cart who is supposed to protect them until Hairig can join them not knowing he's dead since Lucine never told anyone. When the man helping them is beaten and leaves Mairig isn't worried because she is sure Hairig is coming she tells her mother he is dead. Her mother falls back into her deep depression. Mairig has enough sense to cover Lucine and Anush in mud to disguise how pretty they are after a soldier takes a fancy to Lucine. A few days later Anush is kidnapped by the captain of the guard (supposedly they take the women to rape them and most of them come back but a few don't). Mairig falls further into depression and Lucine must take care of baby Aram and Bedros. Anush doesn't come back and they plan to use hidden jewelry to buy her back but they never do and we don't see her again we don't know what happened to her just poof gone. A few days later they are raided by tribal men from the desert and their cart and possessions are stolen, they are out of water.
After the raid Mairig has gone mad and makes Lucine take Bedros and Aram and go on, she stays where they camped to rest (die) saying she'll live by eating her bible and catch up to them later. Mairig leaves everything of value with Lucine for later to help them. Lucine gives up on God and thinks he is responsible for all their misery. They arrive at a river and meet more Armenians who are being deported. One of the women goes into labor and can't move her husband goes to get the missionary for help. While he is away the soldiers bet on what the baby will be but when the baby is taking to long to deliver and the soldiers are impatient one of them cuts her open with a bayonet. The husband attacks the soldier and is killed. All of this is very vividly detailed along with lots of dead bodies around the river and people scavenging them and birds eating them.
The soldiers wont let the people in their company get water and the nun tries to help but the soldiers say she is requested by the governor of the town close by. She goes with the soldier captain and it's assumed she'll probably be killed or throw in jail. Lucine decides that she and her brother need to run away from the group. They separate to get to the end of the group to sneak away. Lucine is found by the soldier who originally showed an interest in her. He is about to rape her when Bedros appears and hits the solider over the head with a big rock killing him, they wonder into the desert.
Cut back to Kemal who has been second guessing his choice to join the army. He is in training and starving as they have stopped getting food at the camp. Kemal still thinks often of Lucine and misses her at the same time still angry that she rejected him. He gets caught by his officers with Lucine's handkerchief and a bird carving by another soldier he has been drawing on. He is whipped but doesn't care. A few weeks later Kemal is on a train to join the war when he starts to buy into all the propaganda that the Armenian's, Christians, and allied powers of the war are terrible people and the war is Allah's will and they are in the divine right. He believes that Lucine and her family are safe having gone west. Because of his keen eyes Kemal becomes a sniper but he isn't unprepared for killing and cries over the birds he is ordered to kill as practice. Fighting in the war Kemal loses faith in his God, doubts the righteousness of war, and despises the people in charge after the death of his first friend. Kemal who was once frightened of fighting in the trenches now envy's the ordinary soldiers as he kills from afar.
Cut to Fatma a widow who has to take care of an ailing mother in-law and has run out of money. She talks the governor into letting her rent out rooms to soldiers. A married lieutenant becomes interested in her and gets her a big house on the outskirts of the city to use as an inn. Her mother in-law doesn't mind that she sleeps with him, thinking he might marry her after the war. Soon after deported Armenian's come through town and everyone turns a blind eye. At this time the lieutenant starts to pay Fatma for the sex she has with him. Soon after that she offers herself to any soldier who is willing to pay her. The lieutenant is jealous and now beats her and she accepts telling him that it's his fault for her situation. Here again we get very descriptive of how she feels with what these men do to her and what she does after. She has begun to hate herself for being a prostitute and that all men want is what is between her legs and how life was better as a young girl and sucks for women once they start puberty. Her mother in-law distraught at what Fatma does dies. Fatma who has always been outspoken shrugs off the whispers of the village women and makes a plan to search the homes of the Armenian's who have been deported looking for treasures left behind or money they have buried so she can stop being a prostitute. On her trip out she stumbles onto the collapsed body of Lucine in the empty Armenian marketplace.
Fatma keeps Lucine in a shed and feeds her but has nothing for Aram. Lucine won't talk so Fatma tells her how the men she has sex with use her (again descriptive) After a few days Lucine comes out of the delirium she has been in to find Aram gone. She was just imaging she had him (we don't know what happened to him and have to guess that she drowned him like previous chapters state.) Lucine is angry to be alive, Fatma pulls out a knife and Lucine thinks Fatma will kill her and offers her throat to be cut but Fatma only cuts her hair off and burns her cloths. Fatma gives her the name Seda so that she will blend in and moves her into the inn. Fatma warns her to keep hidden during the time she is servicing the soldiers and to stay out of the common rooms. Seda will cook all the meals everyday and clean and look after the soldier things. She continues to have nightmares about her family. As time goes by she still refuses to speak and hardly eats occasionally thinking about suicide.
Fatma's married lieutenant begins to take an interest in Seda and believes she should become a prostitute as well, but Fatma defends her and makes a lock for her to keep men out of her room and kitchen. Seda discovers Fatma is pregnant with the lieutenant's baby and that if it's a girl he will stop coming to Fatma and if it's a boy he will take it as his wife has only given him daughters. One day not long after Seda is taking porridge to their sick stable boy when the lieutenant comes in and rapes her (again with very detailed descriptions).
Cut back to Kemal who with a friend have come to Fatma's inn in search of sex. Kemal's friend talks loudly and openly about Fatma's looks while the lieutenant sits and listens from a corner. Fatma and Kemal's friend joke about him not wanting sex and that he may want a boy instead. As Kemal defends himself the lieutenant comes over jealous that Fatma will serve them and asks for their papers. They have just been dismissed from the army as the war is over and he takes their papers threatening to send them back into service. Fatma tells them not to mind the lieutenant who will be leaving to visit Seda's home village soon. The next morning Seda is cleaning when she is found by Kemal. They don't recognize each other at first and Seda thinks that she is going mad because she thinks she has heard Kemal's voice. Later Kemal walks into the kitchen and confronts Seda and tells her who he is. He finds out her family is gone and gives her back her handkerchief which he has kept all the years they have been apart.
Kemal who is still in love with Lucine/Seda comes to her at night tries to comfort her and woo her. Every night he talks about the better places he has seen and things he has done. As the days pass she becomes more like her old self even giving the handkerchief back to Kemal as a keepsake. Soon Kemal's friend wants to leave and he asks her to go with him. He wants her to speak but she can't and kisses him instead. She can't think of herself as a wife since she believes she is a ghost/nonperson. They have sex and she thinks things will be alright.
Back to 1990's and Orhan can't believe Lucine/Seda might just have confessed to him a murder. She admits to Orhan how she hates the past and wants to forget it. Orhan can understand and flashes back to his few weeks in jail being tortured, (very detailed). Kemal came for him and bribed people to let him out of jail before taking him to Germany, his exile, where he stayed for years before going to Istanbul to run Kemal's business. Seda asks how Orhan how he was exiled (boat, plane, car ext)and then describes how they were marked before they were exiled. She then tells him how she lost Bedros and killed Arma before being found by Fatma. After escaping the group of deportees at the river they found an orchard to rest in. A farmer found Bedros and was beating him when Seda came upon them. The farmer chased Seda to a river where she drowned Arma in a fit of delusion that he would be saved by the river. She kept going after that until she collapsed in exhaustion and was stumbled on by Fatma. Orhan never knew this as Fatma hadn't revealed she knew Seda before he left to find her.
Seda starts her story about her life from the beginning when they were children playing in the house yard. Half way through Orhan goes to get her water and nurse Betty gets on his case. Betty reminds Orhan that Seda's niece Ani wants to know everything she is telling him and that he shouldn't be there. Orhan confronts Seda about telling her past to Ani and she gets mad saying she doesn't want Ani to know or even him to know everything. He gets mad and argues and she tells him that during the war thanks to her deportation she and Kemal were separated only to meet years later at Fatma's. She thinks it was a miracle and tells how Kemal was to go to Istanbul to start a business and then send for her. Six months later and no word from Kemal, Fatma is ready to deliver her baby. Orhan is shocked by this never knowing Fatma was once pregnant.
They hatched a plan to write to Kemal and tell him Seda was pregnant and she would take Fatma's baby as her own. She tells him that Fatma knew who the baby's father was before almost letting it slip that it might have been a customers baby but stops herself because Orhan doesn't know Fatma was a prostitute. Fatma persuaded her by reminding her she had killed her brother and Fatma had saved her so she owed her a life and taking her baby would save it and repay the debt. She wrote the letter but didn't know if he got it because Nazareth shows up out of the blue and says he knows where Bedros is. Bedros is in an orphanage and they will go together and get him and move to Lebanon where he had a contact and they could start over.
Orhan now knows Fatma isn't his aunt, she's his grandmother and Kemal isn't his grandfather. Orhan calls Fatma to confront her and she confirms Seda's story and explains why she never told him. Kemal didn't make anything of himself in Istanbul and came home to his family textile business. Orhan tells her the business was never Kemal's it's Seda's and she is Lucine. Fatma is surprised but says that the business is spoils of war and won't give it back. He tells her of Ani who if she knew would hire a lawyer to get it back. Fatma objects saying it's theirs and Seda left it all. Kemal returned and Fatma told him her baby was his and follows him back to his village to take care of the baby. Kemal starts to call her Lucine and dyes his skin. She is mad that Orhan is taking Seda's side and wants him to ignore the ugly past not wanting it to come to light and fight for his inheritance. He leaves and runs into Ani in the exhibit she has put up. She tells him a film crew is coming to put stories of genocide survival with the pictures. She tells him why it is important that she keep the past alive, that she wants Turkish government to admit they had a genocide not keep denying it. She is mad he denying it to and confronts Seda about signing over her house. Seda signs over the house and tells her story to the press to placate Ani and let go of the past. Orhan's father is fighting the will so Orhan and Fatma meet with his lawyer. They explain the past to Mustafa and Orhan will go to court and tell the truth if he persists. Orhan will take care of them as the house repurposed as a museum. Mustafa continues to fight for everything.
This book was trying to tell too much story in too few pages, the book needed to be longer or in two parts to really do it any justice. Also all the sexual references and language where it is not needed is off putting and just down right creepy at times. Many parts of the story are poorly described while all sexual things are in vivid detail including rape. The flashbacks and forwards don't flow very well and are disjointed and off putting half the time.
The story starts in the 1990's with Orhan coming home after the death of his grandfather Kemal. We never know how he dies just that he was found in a vat of dye at his business. We get a large chunk of unnecessary non-plot relevant story about how Orhan has a camera at the house and his disturbing sexual description of it that leads to his girlfriend having dumped him and how he wants to win her back. The sexual descriptions of the camera are over the top and odd given he describes his ex-girlfriend as obsessed with things from the western world ie. North America. He has no love descriptions of the woman but sexy for camera, just plain creepy.
Kemal was a bit eccentric so when his will is read he leaves his business to Orhan his only grandson instead of his only son Mustafa like is custom. Kemal leaves the house his son and Fatma, Orhan's aunt, live in to a woman named Seda Melkonian whom the family does not know. In order to keep the business Orhan will search out Seda to make her agree to give the house to his father. Otherwise Mustafa will contest the will and if the court holds the will true Mustafa will move in with Orhan and make his life miserable. Orhan has a poor relationship with his father and Mustafa had a poor relationship with Kemal. Seda lives in a nursing home in LA California for Armenians where she was put by her niece Ani. Seda is more then willing to sign the house over to Orhan the minute she sees him. Seda has received a letter from Kemal before he died and it brings up a past she doesn't want anyone to know. She doesn't want Ani to know about Orhan.
Seda is actually Lucine the childhood love of Kemal. Kemal's father works for Lucine's family and envy's their wealth. He is in favor of the deporting and killing the Armenian's and doesn't want his son to interact with Lucine. When Lucine's uncle Nazareth is taken in the night to a labor camp her mother Mairig falls into a deep depression. Her father Hairig is totally benign about the whole thing including be called with other Armenian men ages 18-60 to a "meeting". He does not come home and Lucine and her sister Anush get their mother to come slightly out of her depression. The family is told that all Armenians must be deported. Mairig seeks help from the town mayor who has been friendly to them in the past and wants to marry Anush. The mayor tries to blackmail Mairig into giving him Anush for protection knowing that the promise is a lie. Kemal's father seeing how Lucine's family will be leaving and their home and business abandoned for the taking will allow Kemal to marry Lucine to legally claim everything by marriage law. Kemal does not agree with his father and goes to warn Lucine and also propose to protect her.
During their talk Hairig and the men taken from the "meeting" are marched past them and Kemal follows at the behest of Lucine only to come back and tell her Hairig is dead, he has just been executed. Lucine rejects Kemal as she won't leave her family and believes that Kemal wants what his father does, just her land and business/money and won't believe that Kemal loves her. Then she sees he is wearing her uncle's shoes she insults him and drives him away. Kemal goes off and gets drunk and an army recruiter gets him to sign on for the Turkish army.
Back in the 1990's we learn that even though Orhan is about to get Seda to sign over the house Mustafa wants to contest the will. He is greedy and wants what he believes should be his not his son's even though he has never worked, he wants to sell everything and give nothing to Orhan. Ani is the daughter of Bedros, Lucine/Seda's brother who hates everyone who isn't Armenian and raised Ani to think that everyone wanted to persecute them, she became an activist. Ani has been informed by nosy nurse Betty about Orhan and has come to pester Seda into talking about her past. Seda refuses her and doesn't tell her what Orhan wanted. She knows Orhan wants the same answers and wonders why Fatma didn't tell him. Betty gets confrontational with Orhan about the papers he wants signed.
Orhan learns about Ani and her activism and that the nursing home is for genocide survivors and that Ani has put up an exhibit and wants political people to come to boots her cause. He takes offense at the thought that everyone considers Turkey's government complicit in genocide of Armenians and not just mass murder like other ethnicity's during world war I. Orhan worries that if Ani finds out about the house she will want it and what she'll think of him for wanting it. He wonders why Ani can't let go of the past that happened long before she was born.
Orphan shares that he was exiled to Germany for a while and that he was a photographer. We learn that because of a photograph he was interrogated and beaten then exiled as an enemy of the government. Seda is intrigued by this and looks through a old portfolio of photos of his. Orhan takes Seda out to the garden to try and get her to relax and talk about her past, then internally complains about the Armenian's not letting go of their past as the ground is covered in a timeline of their history. They sit under a mulberry tree that reminds Seda of home next to a fountain even though Seda hates running water. Orhan has brought one of Kemal's drawing diaries with him and Seda sees it's all about a mulberry tree that was in front of her old house. Again creepy description of inanimate object. The tree is all about life, joy and sorrow and it's almost more expressive then a person. The fountain begins to run and Seda freaks out and starts picturing Aram, her baby brother drowning over and over again. It's alluded to that she killed the baby and she faints. Orhan brings her inside where nurse Betty berates him and tries to send him away without his signed papers.
Flashback to 1915 Lucine and family on the road out of the city with other Armenians followed by a few missionary's. For protection the women travel in the wagon and Bedros has to wear a dress and grow his hair long. Lucine has time to think and feels bad about Kemal but won't change anything. There are 6 bullying soldiers who are making sure that everyone is moving on like they are supposed to. I will never understand how about 2,000 people can be so scared of 6 people but whatever. Mairig has hired a driver for their cart who is supposed to protect them until Hairig can join them not knowing he's dead since Lucine never told anyone. When the man helping them is beaten and leaves Mairig isn't worried because she is sure Hairig is coming she tells her mother he is dead. Her mother falls back into her deep depression. Mairig has enough sense to cover Lucine and Anush in mud to disguise how pretty they are after a soldier takes a fancy to Lucine. A few days later Anush is kidnapped by the captain of the guard (supposedly they take the women to rape them and most of them come back but a few don't). Mairig falls further into depression and Lucine must take care of baby Aram and Bedros. Anush doesn't come back and they plan to use hidden jewelry to buy her back but they never do and we don't see her again we don't know what happened to her just poof gone. A few days later they are raided by tribal men from the desert and their cart and possessions are stolen, they are out of water.
After the raid Mairig has gone mad and makes Lucine take Bedros and Aram and go on, she stays where they camped to rest (die) saying she'll live by eating her bible and catch up to them later. Mairig leaves everything of value with Lucine for later to help them. Lucine gives up on God and thinks he is responsible for all their misery. They arrive at a river and meet more Armenians who are being deported. One of the women goes into labor and can't move her husband goes to get the missionary for help. While he is away the soldiers bet on what the baby will be but when the baby is taking to long to deliver and the soldiers are impatient one of them cuts her open with a bayonet. The husband attacks the soldier and is killed. All of this is very vividly detailed along with lots of dead bodies around the river and people scavenging them and birds eating them.
The soldiers wont let the people in their company get water and the nun tries to help but the soldiers say she is requested by the governor of the town close by. She goes with the soldier captain and it's assumed she'll probably be killed or throw in jail. Lucine decides that she and her brother need to run away from the group. They separate to get to the end of the group to sneak away. Lucine is found by the soldier who originally showed an interest in her. He is about to rape her when Bedros appears and hits the solider over the head with a big rock killing him, they wonder into the desert.
Cut back to Kemal who has been second guessing his choice to join the army. He is in training and starving as they have stopped getting food at the camp. Kemal still thinks often of Lucine and misses her at the same time still angry that she rejected him. He gets caught by his officers with Lucine's handkerchief and a bird carving by another soldier he has been drawing on. He is whipped but doesn't care. A few weeks later Kemal is on a train to join the war when he starts to buy into all the propaganda that the Armenian's, Christians, and allied powers of the war are terrible people and the war is Allah's will and they are in the divine right. He believes that Lucine and her family are safe having gone west. Because of his keen eyes Kemal becomes a sniper but he isn't unprepared for killing and cries over the birds he is ordered to kill as practice. Fighting in the war Kemal loses faith in his God, doubts the righteousness of war, and despises the people in charge after the death of his first friend. Kemal who was once frightened of fighting in the trenches now envy's the ordinary soldiers as he kills from afar.
Cut to Fatma a widow who has to take care of an ailing mother in-law and has run out of money. She talks the governor into letting her rent out rooms to soldiers. A married lieutenant becomes interested in her and gets her a big house on the outskirts of the city to use as an inn. Her mother in-law doesn't mind that she sleeps with him, thinking he might marry her after the war. Soon after deported Armenian's come through town and everyone turns a blind eye. At this time the lieutenant starts to pay Fatma for the sex she has with him. Soon after that she offers herself to any soldier who is willing to pay her. The lieutenant is jealous and now beats her and she accepts telling him that it's his fault for her situation. Here again we get very descriptive of how she feels with what these men do to her and what she does after. She has begun to hate herself for being a prostitute and that all men want is what is between her legs and how life was better as a young girl and sucks for women once they start puberty. Her mother in-law distraught at what Fatma does dies. Fatma who has always been outspoken shrugs off the whispers of the village women and makes a plan to search the homes of the Armenian's who have been deported looking for treasures left behind or money they have buried so she can stop being a prostitute. On her trip out she stumbles onto the collapsed body of Lucine in the empty Armenian marketplace.
Fatma keeps Lucine in a shed and feeds her but has nothing for Aram. Lucine won't talk so Fatma tells her how the men she has sex with use her (again descriptive) After a few days Lucine comes out of the delirium she has been in to find Aram gone. She was just imaging she had him (we don't know what happened to him and have to guess that she drowned him like previous chapters state.) Lucine is angry to be alive, Fatma pulls out a knife and Lucine thinks Fatma will kill her and offers her throat to be cut but Fatma only cuts her hair off and burns her cloths. Fatma gives her the name Seda so that she will blend in and moves her into the inn. Fatma warns her to keep hidden during the time she is servicing the soldiers and to stay out of the common rooms. Seda will cook all the meals everyday and clean and look after the soldier things. She continues to have nightmares about her family. As time goes by she still refuses to speak and hardly eats occasionally thinking about suicide.
Fatma's married lieutenant begins to take an interest in Seda and believes she should become a prostitute as well, but Fatma defends her and makes a lock for her to keep men out of her room and kitchen. Seda discovers Fatma is pregnant with the lieutenant's baby and that if it's a girl he will stop coming to Fatma and if it's a boy he will take it as his wife has only given him daughters. One day not long after Seda is taking porridge to their sick stable boy when the lieutenant comes in and rapes her (again with very detailed descriptions).
Cut back to Kemal who with a friend have come to Fatma's inn in search of sex. Kemal's friend talks loudly and openly about Fatma's looks while the lieutenant sits and listens from a corner. Fatma and Kemal's friend joke about him not wanting sex and that he may want a boy instead. As Kemal defends himself the lieutenant comes over jealous that Fatma will serve them and asks for their papers. They have just been dismissed from the army as the war is over and he takes their papers threatening to send them back into service. Fatma tells them not to mind the lieutenant who will be leaving to visit Seda's home village soon. The next morning Seda is cleaning when she is found by Kemal. They don't recognize each other at first and Seda thinks that she is going mad because she thinks she has heard Kemal's voice. Later Kemal walks into the kitchen and confronts Seda and tells her who he is. He finds out her family is gone and gives her back her handkerchief which he has kept all the years they have been apart.
Kemal who is still in love with Lucine/Seda comes to her at night tries to comfort her and woo her. Every night he talks about the better places he has seen and things he has done. As the days pass she becomes more like her old self even giving the handkerchief back to Kemal as a keepsake. Soon Kemal's friend wants to leave and he asks her to go with him. He wants her to speak but she can't and kisses him instead. She can't think of herself as a wife since she believes she is a ghost/nonperson. They have sex and she thinks things will be alright.
Back to 1990's and Orhan can't believe Lucine/Seda might just have confessed to him a murder. She admits to Orhan how she hates the past and wants to forget it. Orhan can understand and flashes back to his few weeks in jail being tortured, (very detailed). Kemal came for him and bribed people to let him out of jail before taking him to Germany, his exile, where he stayed for years before going to Istanbul to run Kemal's business. Seda asks how Orhan how he was exiled (boat, plane, car ext)and then describes how they were marked before they were exiled. She then tells him how she lost Bedros and killed Arma before being found by Fatma. After escaping the group of deportees at the river they found an orchard to rest in. A farmer found Bedros and was beating him when Seda came upon them. The farmer chased Seda to a river where she drowned Arma in a fit of delusion that he would be saved by the river. She kept going after that until she collapsed in exhaustion and was stumbled on by Fatma. Orhan never knew this as Fatma hadn't revealed she knew Seda before he left to find her.
Seda starts her story about her life from the beginning when they were children playing in the house yard. Half way through Orhan goes to get her water and nurse Betty gets on his case. Betty reminds Orhan that Seda's niece Ani wants to know everything she is telling him and that he shouldn't be there. Orhan confronts Seda about telling her past to Ani and she gets mad saying she doesn't want Ani to know or even him to know everything. He gets mad and argues and she tells him that during the war thanks to her deportation she and Kemal were separated only to meet years later at Fatma's. She thinks it was a miracle and tells how Kemal was to go to Istanbul to start a business and then send for her. Six months later and no word from Kemal, Fatma is ready to deliver her baby. Orhan is shocked by this never knowing Fatma was once pregnant.
They hatched a plan to write to Kemal and tell him Seda was pregnant and she would take Fatma's baby as her own. She tells him that Fatma knew who the baby's father was before almost letting it slip that it might have been a customers baby but stops herself because Orhan doesn't know Fatma was a prostitute. Fatma persuaded her by reminding her she had killed her brother and Fatma had saved her so she owed her a life and taking her baby would save it and repay the debt. She wrote the letter but didn't know if he got it because Nazareth shows up out of the blue and says he knows where Bedros is. Bedros is in an orphanage and they will go together and get him and move to Lebanon where he had a contact and they could start over.
Orhan now knows Fatma isn't his aunt, she's his grandmother and Kemal isn't his grandfather. Orhan calls Fatma to confront her and she confirms Seda's story and explains why she never told him. Kemal didn't make anything of himself in Istanbul and came home to his family textile business. Orhan tells her the business was never Kemal's it's Seda's and she is Lucine. Fatma is surprised but says that the business is spoils of war and won't give it back. He tells her of Ani who if she knew would hire a lawyer to get it back. Fatma objects saying it's theirs and Seda left it all. Kemal returned and Fatma told him her baby was his and follows him back to his village to take care of the baby. Kemal starts to call her Lucine and dyes his skin. She is mad that Orhan is taking Seda's side and wants him to ignore the ugly past not wanting it to come to light and fight for his inheritance. He leaves and runs into Ani in the exhibit she has put up. She tells him a film crew is coming to put stories of genocide survival with the pictures. She tells him why it is important that she keep the past alive, that she wants Turkish government to admit they had a genocide not keep denying it. She is mad he denying it to and confronts Seda about signing over her house. Seda signs over the house and tells her story to the press to placate Ani and let go of the past. Orhan's father is fighting the will so Orhan and Fatma meet with his lawyer. They explain the past to Mustafa and Orhan will go to court and tell the truth if he persists. Orhan will take care of them as the house repurposed as a museum. Mustafa continues to fight for everything.
This book was trying to tell too much story in too few pages, the book needed to be longer or in two parts to really do it any justice. Also all the sexual references and language where it is not needed is off putting and just down right creepy at times. Many parts of the story are poorly described while all sexual things are in vivid detail including rape. The flashbacks and forwards don't flow very well and are disjointed and off putting half the time.
life2great's review against another edition
5.0
5 ,stars
Wonderfully and lyrically written. Well worth the read- I would highly recommend it. It used a hybrid version which made the experience great.
Wonderfully and lyrically written. Well worth the read- I would highly recommend it. It used a hybrid version which made the experience great.