Word: aram
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Name is ARAM-William Saroyan-Harcourt, Brace...
...Aram (rhymes with a bomb) Garoghlanian (pronounced "Gar, pause, oghlan, slight pause, ian") is the narrator, for William Saroyan, of 14 semi-autobiographical semi-stories of an Armenian childhood in Fresno, Calif. They are, in their modest way, the best writing William Saroyan has done. But like all Saroyan's work, they are likable or loathsome, depending on the reader's taste...
...Aram has as many eccentric uncles as Gracie Allen. Each of them is worth a Saroyan comic-tear or two. Uncle Melik "was just about the worst farmer that ever lived." On his godforsaken desert farm, he set out hundreds of pomegranate trees, poured all his love and money into them, lost both trees and land. Once he looked a horned toad straight in the eye. Then...
Uncle Gyko "was getting all his dope free from the theosophy-philosophy-astrology-and-miscellaneous shelf at the Public Library." He profoundly mistrusted Aram's mentor, Lionel Strongfort. But Strongfort and Yoga together only got Aram a bad last place in the 50-yard dash. So Gyko became again "one of the boys around town, drinking, staying up all hours, and following the women...
Such is the flavor of My Name is Aram. Effortless, delicate and slightly boozy, the little tales carry a sense of comic-poetic anarchy whose only name is Saroyan. For those who get the hang of it, there are several solid miracles of literary slack-wire walking. There is less of the brassiness and tinhorn rhetoric with which he usually destroys his effects. There is more self-effacing attention to business than usual. Saroyan will always be a question of taste; but another book or two, and he may also be one of the best and most original writers alive...