My Name is Aram

Saroyan, William.
San Diego: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1950, 396 pages.

"This Coffee House was a place of great fame and importance in its day....For the most part the place was frequented by Armenians, but others came, too. All who remembered the old country. All who loved it. All who played tavli and the card game scambile in the old country. All who enjoyed the food of the old country. All who loved the songs, and the stories. And all who liked to be in a place with familiar smells, thousands of miles from home."

Description:
Considered an American classic about immigrant life, the sentimental stories in this book recall the early days of the Armenians in Fresno, California, where William Saroyan was born and raised. Written from the point of view of a child growing up in an Armenian family, My Name is Aram captures the humor and pathos of adjusting to life in a new country.

Sample Chapters:

• The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
• The Pomegranate Trees
• One of Our Future Poets, You Might Say
• My Cousin Dikran, the Orator
• Old Country Advice to the American Traveler