Customer Reviews

Skylark Farm

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had ordered this book and received it very quickly. The moment I started reading, I couldn't put it down. I think it is well written and extremely sad, but not overly dramatized. A story of tremendous courage and family love in the face of unimaginable brutality. I have just returned from a visit to Armenia and visited the Genocide Museum in Yerevan and some of the horrible photo's on display, made me think of the family in this book and what they suffered.
If ever another book comes out written by Antonia Arslan, I will buy it immediately.

I am always reticent when I pick up a book that discusses the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917. Being the offspring of parents who survived the Genocide in Marash, Turkey, I've lived in a cocoon--my cocoon being the United States. On the other hand my reality is that my parents went through these atrocities.
Professor Arslan must have faced many of the same issues that I have in dealing with her families tortured past. Her book truly reflects the depth of her emotions in committing her families' story to paper.
I could not put her book down although I was tempted to do so many times particularly during the forced march to Aleppo, Syria. Although I knew the outcome, I still wanted to live the experience despite that fact that none of it was new to me. My families' story parallels Professor Arslans as would undoubtedly be true of many other Armenian families that were subject to this tragic period in history.
This is a book for everyone. One does not have to be Armenian to become a member of the family as they lived and loved in their city in Turkey.
Skylark Farm is a story of love, passion, sacrifice, hope and the will to go on despite the evil that was perpetrated.

I believe I have read all the novels about the Armenian Genocide, and have been touched by all of them, but this was the only book that made me cry. Ms. Arslan's description was heart-wrenching, painful to read, and I couldn't bring myself to put it down. Knowing that this is based on Ms. Arslan's own family, made it all the more moving. Sadly, the reader clearly comprehends that the events depicted were not a singular episode, but multiplied tens of thousands of times. A beautiful book that should become required reading for schoolchildren, starting in middle-school.

The ravages of war are merciless in its treatment of civilians. And often, unless the media feels a particular people are important enough, the genocide goes largely unnoticed by the rest of the world. Except for those who live. We all know about the holocaust of WW II, but how many of us know about the 1915 Armenian Genocide of WWI?

Antonia Arslan's debut novel, Skylark Farm, is the personal recounting, in novel form, of her ancestors who were killed and those who managed to survive the WWI Armenian Genocide.

Sempad Arslan looks forward to his older brother's return. Yerwant traveled to Italy as a teenager to study-stayed forty years. Sempad's preparations are elaborate and thorough, including updating Skylark Farm, the family's country home. Yerwant is also preparing to travel in a new car filled with gifts.

Before the family reunion can take place, WWI begins. Italy entered the war and the borders were closed, thus preventing Yerwant's travel. Yerwant's concern about his family's safety continues to rise. He is unaware that there is a plan underway to destroy Turkey's Armenian minority population.

Meanwhile all the Armenian men are rounded up and murdered. The city's women and girls are forced into prison camps where they starve, have little water, are humiliated and suffer horrible cruelties. A law makes the punishment death for anyone who helps the Armenians.

The novel follows the family's desperate attempts to live and the people who help them survive. Early on you know who will survive, yet it doesn't make you put down the book as you are compelled to continue reading the `real' life drama.

You can't quite believe man's inhumanity. Would we risk our lives to save people who have been determined, by `someone,' to have no value? We also must confront the evil of people and the consequences of evil running rampant.

Arslan's account of her family's history will leave you breathless and choking back more than a few tears. When I become too complacent about the `untouchable' life I live, it would be good to reread it.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended. Skylark Farm is a keeper.

"Skylark Farm" tells story of an extended Armenian family in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. With prosperous members in northern Italy and in provincial Turkey, the family seems to have all it could possible want. Then, World War I breaks out, and within a few years the idyllic life vanishes. The author spares few details of the family's horrible fate, from a mass slaughter to a brutalizing forced walk to northern Syria. Curiously, the author, through frequent asides, undercuts much of the suspense of who will survive, but the account is still riveting. The book is fairly short and can easily be read in a day or two at the most. I highly recommend it.

Beautiful chronicle of a family struggling for survival during the Armenian genocide.It has won 22 awards and has been translated into 20 languagesAdapted to screen by the Taviani brothers as the Lark Farm.
A true epic depicting interesting plot,characters,values and life lessons.
Should not be missed!

Ms. Arslan writes a very vivid and moving picture of the attrocities and suffering, but also hope and merciful acts that existed during the Armenian genocide. Even though it is a painful topic, Ms. Arslan manages to find rays of hope, humor, love and joy in an otherwise dark period of history.

This book should be mandatory reading for high school students of world history.

As the first genocide of the 20th century, it is a shame that so little attention is paid to the plight of current-day Armenians in their struggle to have Turkey (the aggressor) and the world recognize the true status of the events of 1915. Perhaps books like this will work towards enlightening more of us to the tragedy that occurred.

Skylark Farm is an autobiographical novel about the author's family during the Armenian genocide. The book begins with a bucolic description of the old country: Armenian Turkey in the years preceeding World War I. But intruding on this idyllic scene are the first rumors and hints of impending disaster. In addition the author intersperses flash forwards of the tragic ends of many of her family members.

Disaster finally strikes, and when it does, it is sudden, brutal, and total. The descriptions are difficult to read, being graphic and violent. Hope, however, is present in the form of a gypsy "wailer" (a woman hired to mourn at funerals), a beggar, and a Greek priest. These three friends of the family risk their lives to help, and some of the family members are saved.

Although I hesitate to offer criticism of such a personal novel, it would have been very helpful to me as a reader if there had been a family tree at the beginning of the book. I spent a considerable amount of time flipping back and forth trying to determine the relationships between characters, and between the characters and the family members of the author, some of whom appear in the book. In addition, I found the flashforwards of the fates of the characters somewhat distracting from the plot. But these are minor points.

A tale of genocide, betrayal, redemption, family solidarity, and survival, Skylark Farm is an important addition to the literature of the Armenian massacre. It is not easy reading but it adds to our understanding, not only of this tragedy, but of all acts of genocide. "At bottom--and he's also ashamed of this, as it if were a military inefficiency--the colonel knows the advantages of tolerance, understands that the darkest day for a country is the one when, in order to feel united, it feels the need to eliminate a defenseless segment of its population." The darkest day indeed.

This story traces the ravages of the genocide as the Turks tried to elimante the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire. This well documented event is traced through one family as they attempt to escape the Turks.

I was excited by the five-star reviews of this novel and couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately, earlier reviewers seem to have some built-in bias favoring anything Armenian (I learned from the novel that names ending in -ian are Armenian, so judge for yourself). Coming from a more neutral perspective, I have to say that this is clearly a first novel--one that should have remained in a drawer for a few years until it could be properly rewritten. The author makes many errors associated with novice writers, but most especially, she tells rather than shows for much of the story. While the events of the story are compelling (the Armenian massacres), the execution of the story doesn't rise above pedestrian. Very disappointing.