A review by obscuredbyclouds
My Grandmother: An Armenian-Turkish Memoir by Fethiye Çetin

3.0

Although the title already says that this is a memoir I still thought it would be a less personal book than it was and more of a political one. As someone who does not know a lot about the Armenian genocide, I'd wished to understand it better. This was not the right book for this purpose, but of course this is hardly Çetins' fault. I have a feeling as someone who isn't from Turkey I can't fully appreciate the importance of a book like this, even though I know that the Armenian genocide is not something that is widely talked about or discussed in the open. My rating is in no way a reflection of what the book stands for, merely how much I enjoyed reading it/what I got out of it.

This is a short, easy to read, heart-felt memoir about the author's grandmother who was born an Christian Armenian and then after the genocide started living as a Turkish muslim woman with a new name and in denial of her past. I felt for her and the author. However, I was left wanting more information. The disjoined style did not really help either. I'd recommend this book if you're particularly interested in this history (and already know the background stuff) or you really love memoirs, otherwise not so much.