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Title: Not Even My Name : A True Story by Thea Halo ISBN: 0-312-27701-6 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 02 June, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.63 (63 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A universal story "writ large"
Comment: "Not Even My Name" is an extraordinarily powerful book that forced me to understand the Pontic, Assyrian, and Armenian genocides it describes in individual, human terms. After all, it's much easier to distance oneself from a holocaust than from the individuals who are its victims. In addition, the book has provided me with an important analog to the history of my own family, Greek Jews, many of whom suffered their own holocaust.
I intend to read this book with one of my classes, not only because it is a fine piece of literature, but also because it will remind us in a very compelling way how foolish it is to try to prove that one holocaust was bigger or more important than another. We all suffer from the "It's my dead rat" syndrome, a foolishness this book exposes fearlessly.
Equally important, the structure of the book, framed by a double odyssey and complex exodus, provides the experiences of the author, Thea Halo, and her mother, Sano, nee Themia, with just the right context to make the journey very worthwhile for the reader as well as for its two main characters. Halo's descriptions are beautifully drawn, and her inferences are understated, which is what makes them so powerful. This is a universal story "writ large" and passionately. It took me almost no time to see that it is also my story, placed in a different context, but one that I could recognize easily, in small ways as well as large. How fascinating, for instance, to discover that the Pontic Christians celebrated Easter with egg-breaking contests almost identical to the Greek-Jewish tradition during the Passover Seders.
The book is extremely well written and incredibly moving. I broke down and wept quite often as it drew me into the lives, the joys and tragedies, the incredible bravery of people we shamefully know almost nothing about; yet the cause of my tears was never the result of mere sentimentality or sensationalism. The bare facts themselves, powerfully recounted, are enough to make any reader weep for "Man's inhumanity to man," even as Sano, a character with her own imperfections, whose very name has been obliterated, triumphs over adversity, little by little; and reminds us that we can overcome even senseless acts of mass violence and our own dark side by following the example she sets of unending kindnesses and care for the "Family of People."
Rating: 5
Summary: A searing story, well written
Comment: A courageous story of a loving daughter writing the memoirs of her mother's early tragic life in Turkey, under the leadership of Gamel Ataturk.
...BR> What is so amazing about this sad story, is that Thea Halo does not ask for pity for her mother. She just tells it the way her mother told it to her, almost like a mother handing down a valued recipe. Ms. Halo described talking to a young Turkish boy of 14, comparing modern Turks living in Bulgaria who were expelled, to what the Turkish Government did to the Greeks and Armenian Nationals in the past..."without emotion---more with the objectivity of a journalist..." The incredulous young boy denied it and exclaimed that it never happened. Ms. Halo answered, "It did happen. They just didn't teach you about it in school. But it's important that you know your country's history." To me, this story could be about any country's inhumanity to humans. What is important is that it is told. Thea Halo does it intelligently and with sensitivity.
A beautiful, well-written book. I strongly urge everyone to read it. You won't be sorry.
Rating: 5
Summary: Heartwrenching
Comment: This book is going on my list as one of my favorites. Theas descriptions of the suffering of her mother and family touched me deeply. After losing her family Sano went on to live life to the fullest, devoting herself to her children and husband. Sano is a remarkable woman and a real inspiration.
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Title: Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City by Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, Majorie Housepian Dobkin ISBN: 0966745108 Publisher: New Mark Pr Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom from the Ottoman Oppression and the Birth of the Modern Greek Nation by David Brewer ISBN: 1585673951 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Eleni by NICHOLAS GAGE ISBN: 0345410432 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Carved in Stone : The Greek Heritage by Basil S. Douros ISBN: 0967059313 Publisher: Five and Dot Corporation Pub. Date: 23 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: After the War Was Over by Mark Mazower ISBN: 0691058423 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 15 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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