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Orhan's Inheritance

Aline Ohanesian

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Oct 17, 2018 Book Concierge rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, book-club, library, social-commentary, concierge, strong-women, women-writers, turkey, armenia, world-war-1

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 bac 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.
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