Synopses & Reviews
First published to international acclaim in 1940, this is a collection of semiautobiographical stories about a boy of Armenian descent called Aram Garoghlanian and is set in Fresno, California. The book is like a novel in that the stories all involve the same character and are placed in a roughly chronological order; the first story takes place when Aram is nine years old, the last when he is a young man leaving his hometown for the first time. From bickering grandparents presiding over a family meeting to the time the circus came to town, each episode vibrates with warmth and humor, building a rich portrait of Arams large family and of the immigrant experience in general. This utter delight of a book is as easy to read today as it was when it was published almost 70 years ago.
About the Author
William Saroyan (19081981) was born in California in 1908 and was of Armenian-American descent. Saroyans mixed ancestry shaped his career as a writer. My Name Is Aram is widely considered his masterwork. Saroyan died in 1981 at age 72.