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Last Rites: The Death of William Saroyan

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Aram Saroyan tells the story of the last days of his father, William Saroyan. He tells us that his father was abusive to himself and his sister. He tells the story of how William Saroyan who lost his father at the age of three was in his own inner and family life in total contradiction to the image presented in his literary work. The public knew him as a lover of people, but Aram Saroyan reports him to be a totally self- enclosed person, incapable of giving emotionally to others. Aram Saroyan tells the story of his parents marriage. The last chapters involve his bringing his own children to see their dying grandfather. The son strives hard to be a human being at the end to a father who has rejected him. Literary comparisons are in order here but the Saroyans are nowhere on the level of the Kafkas. William Saroyan was a writer who was perhaps given far more recogniztion than he truly deserved. In any case this is not a work of profound relationship and example. It is rather a sad story decently told.