My Name Is Aram
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♥♥♥My Name is Aram (ISBN 0440362059) is a book of short stories by William Saroyan first published in 1940. The stories are about a boy of Armenian descent called Aram Garoghlanian growing up in Fresno, California, and various members of his large family.
[edit] Table of Contents
- The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
- The Journey to Hanford
- The Pomegranate Trees
- One of our Future Poets, You Might Say
- The Fifty-Yard Dash
- A Nice Old-Fashioned Romance, With Love Lyrics and Everything
- My Cousin Dikran, the Orator
- The Presbyterian Choir Singers
- The Circus
- The Three Swimmers and the Grocer from Yale
- Locomotive 38, the Ojibway
- Old Country Advice to the American Traveler
- The Poor and Burning Arab
- A Word to Scoffers
[edit] Plot
The book is novel-like, in that the stories all involve the same character, are written in the same style, and are placed in a roughly chronological order (i.e., the first story takes place when Aram is 9 years old, the last one when he is a young man leaving his hometown for the first time.) In general, each story has Aram interacting with a different member of his large family, or with other people in Fresno.
In "The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse," Aram and his "crazy" Cousin Mourad "borrow" their neighbor's horse and ride around on it.
In "The Journey to Hanford," Aram accompanies his lazy but musical zither-playing Uncle Jorgi to a nearby town where Jorgi is supposed to find work as a day laborer. This story also features the hilarious scene where Aram's grandfather presides over a family meeting, bickering with the grandmother the entire time.
In "The Pomegranate Trees," Aram assists his Uncle Melik in a ill-fated, but poetic, plan to grow an pomegranate orchard out in the desert.
In "One of our Future Poets, You Might Say," the administration at Aram's elementary school is astonished when he undergoes a physical check-up.
In "The Fifty-Yard Dash," Aram looks to Lionel Strongfort body-building ads to improve his life, while Uncle Gyko dabbles in Eastern religions.
In "A Nice Old-Fashioned Romance, With Love Lyrics and Everything," Aram's cousin Arak gets him in trouble at school with awkward and hilarious results.
In "My Cousin Dikran, the Orator," the fascination of the Fresno Armenian farmers with people who can make a speech is described, but Aram's grandfather dispenses a deeper wisdom.
In "The Presbyterian Choir Singers" Aram and his Cousin Pandro are recruited by an older church-going woman to sing in the choir at her Presbyterian church. She also tries to convert them from the evils of cursing.
In "The Circus," the circus comes to town and Aram and his cousins help set up the circus tent.
In "The Three Swimmers and the Grocer from Yale (aka "The Three Swimmers and the Educated Grocer"), Aram, Cousin Mourad, and their Portuguese friend Joe Bettencourt go swimming in Thompson's Ditch in cold weather, amazing the (apparently Yale-educated) owner of the grocery store they stop by afterward, who asks them various questions and spouts off a litany of colorful metaphoric exclamations of surprise.
In "Locomotive 38, the Ojibway," Aram makes friends with a local Native American gentleman of that name, helps him buy a car, and becomes his chauffeur for a summer.
In "Old Country Advice to the American Traveler," Uncle Melik goes on a railroad trip, and competely disregards all advice given to him by his Uncle Garro, thus having a good time.
In "The Poor and Burning Arab," "crazy" Uncle Khosrove befriends an Arab homesick for his family and the old country, and brings him home to dinner. Aram asks too many questions.
In "A Word to Scoffers," Aram meets a travelling preacher who gives him some wise advice as he leaves the San Joaquin Valley for the first time.
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