|
R E V I E W S |
OLD GLOVES:
A 20TH CENTURY SAGA
by Beatriz Badikian Gartler
|
 |
R E V I E W S |
April 2006 BOOK REVIEW
by
Elaine Thomopoulos
In “Old Gloves: a 20th Century Saga,”
Beatriz Badikian-Gartler paints a picture of immigrant life with bright
colors and vivid imagery; with pain, pathos, unfulfilled promises, as
well as hope for new beginnings. In describing her novel, she says that
the novel is based on her family’s history: that the family’s story is
the skeleton and she adds the flesh. Flesh and blood is what she does
add, making each of her characters alive, as if they are in the room
with us. It shows them in all their humanity, including their
imperfections and foibles, as well as their love, courage and
perseverance. continued
January 2006 BOOK REVIEW
SUBJECT: La Raza story - Una saga del siglo XX A través de
esta novela,
Beatriz Badikian nos propone escarbar los sucesos que reivindican a
nuestros antepasados, a cuestionar nuestro árbol genealógico y las
circunstancias históricas que han determinado la emigración y los
cambios demógraficos. Los personajes en Old Gloves, representan
historias que Beatriz ha documentado con ayuda de sus padres para
compartir con sus lectores en esta obra.
The full article is available by
clicking on this link: http://laraza.com/news.php?nid=29443
2006 (c) All
Rights Reserved. News powered by the Hispanic Digital Network(TM).
October, 2005 BOOK REVIEW:
‘Old Gloves’ Spares the Words, Delivers Vivid Portrayal of Last
Century’s Atrocities
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntington News Network Book
Critic
Hinton, WV (HNN) – Coming across four pairs of old gloves that her
mother gave her in preparation for yet another trip, Alicia in Beatriz
Badikian Gartler’s “Old Gloves: A 20th Century Saga” (Chicago: Fractal
Edge Press, 160 pages, $15; available by order at bookstores or from
Amazon.com) reflects about her tumultuous life so far – she’s still in
her 20s – and the
even more tumultuous life of her father, Greg and her mother, Libby as
Greg and Libby leave Chicago in 1978 to return to Greece.
Alicia is tired of moving and has found a new life in the very
cosmopolitan city by the lake. She was born in Argentina in 1952,
following the 1951 emigration of Greg – then known as Grigoris -- and
Libby – called Elefteria (Greek for “liberty”) from Greece to Buenos
Aires.
In Argentina, the Armenian refugee Grigoris – he was Krikor in Turkey
when he and his family endured a forced march to be evacuated along
with hundreds of thousands of other Greeks and Armenians in one of the
20th Century’s many ethnic removals – becomes Gregorio and his wife
becomes Libertadad – Spanish
for “liberty.”
Alicia is Greek and Armenian and Argentinean and now she’s a Chicagoan
in a city that has become a refuge for many nationalities. Gartler’s
novel reads like a memoir and I suspect there’s more than a little of
the author in the character of Alicia. Beatriz Badikian Gartler was
born in Argentina and has
taught literature at a number of Chicago universities, including
Roosevelt University, University of Illinois – Chicago and DePaul
University.
I can relate to Alicia’s – and Gartler’s -- love of Chicago: Both of my
parents were first generation Chicagoans whose parents were ethnic
refugees from different parts of the Russian Empire. Chicago is part of
my DNA and was my first love among big cities, my home for several
years after college and a place I return to annually for cultural fill
ups. Even as I write this, I’m preparing for my annual train journey to
Chicago.
Alicia’s dad is a difficult person to live with, a man who finds brief
satisfaction in a job, only to become restless, looking for another
country to explore. He endures life in German-occupied Greece in World
War II, always fearing that his communist leanings will result in his
capture by the Germans and their right-wing Greek collaborators.
Krikor-Gregoris wants to go to Mexico, a favored destination of
European communists, but the family can’t get permission, so they
immigrate to Argentina, a relatively sparsely populated nation that has
attracted Jews, Armenians and especially Italians. Alicia is happy in
Argentina, with a circle of girlfriends and is mortified at the thought
of being uprooted to move to the U.S. Restless Greg tries New York City
and the Los Angeles area before finally settling in Chicago.
The author’s forte is crafting vivid portraits of her characters in
sparse but expressive language. Alicia is thwarted in her desire to
study literature in Argentina. Her increasingly bitter father wants her
to work to add to the meager income of the struggling family.
Beatriz Badikian Gartler follows in the steps of Joseph Conrad and
Vladimir Nabokov, expressive prose stylists for whom English was a
second language.
Flashbacks to 1907 recount the death marches of ethnic Greeks and
Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks; especially poignant is the
journey Alicia’s maternal grandmother Evgenia and her husband Odysseas
from interior Turkey to the evacuation point on the coast. Gartler
vividly describes the horror of the march, which prefigured marches of
Jews by Nazis during World
War II.
Similarly Greg, then called Krikor, undergoes similar horrors in 1922
when his father Artin is arrested and the family endures a death march.
The atrocities committed by the Turks against the Armenians are well
documented, but most people don’t realize that ethnic Greeks living in
what is now Turkey were subjected to what later generations would call
“ethnic cleansing.”
“Old Gloves” displays a remarkable range of emotions for such a short
book. By turns it’s humorous and horrifying, but there’s always hope
that better things are on the horizon. I look forward to the continuing
saga of Alicia in the Windy City.
Publisher’s web site: www.fractaledgepress.com
|