"The Old Country" by Peter Balakian
The author began this story describing his grandmother through Yankee baseball. They watched every game together and are enemies of the White Sox. Their loyalty to the Yankees was pledged ritually by watching the games on TV, anticipating Yankees World Series games come October, and cheering on Mickey Mantle to break the home run record. The piece was filled with the grandmother's actions, which gave you a clear sense of who she was without explicitly stating facts. For example, the author wrote: "And when he sent one out of the park, my grandmother would sat "Outta here," and dish into the crystal bowl of pistachios on the coffee table. Splitting the shells with her thumbnails, she would pass me the salty green nuts so that we could celebrate with our teeth" (266). As the author aged, he watched the games with his friends, but his grandmother steadily continued without him.
The focus then switched to the Cuban Missile crisis and how it worried his entire family. One night, he secretly watched his grandmother perform an odd ritual, speaking Armenian, her native language, asking God to watch over them. She pulled out a tobacco pipe and smoked. The ritual left the author unsettled, and when he asked his mother about it, she said that in 'the old country' older women would smoke because they had wisdom.
The story ended with the author questioning what exactly 'the old country' meant to him and his family. They did not showcase the old country in their house, and yet it was ever present because of the grandmother. I enjoyed this story because it questions heritage and trust, and the explanations of characters through action worked exceptionally well. I also enjoyed the contrast of happy times through American baseball with the difficulty of the Cuban Missile crisis. I definitely recommend this short story to the rest of the class!
This week I also read:
"The Khan Men of Agra" by Pamela Michael
It's really interesting that this is about "the old country," because it starts with Yankee baseball, which is just as new-country-Americana as it gets. I like that the author was able to link the two seemingly disconnected things.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting piece. I'm usually intrigued by descriptions of life during Cold War fear/paranoia.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Patrick. Did they really hate the White Sox, and not the Red Sox?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this is a very thorough write-up (that I now realize you did a month ago, Angela!).
I'm always intrigued by the effect of the kind of contrast you mention. Can you go one more step and explain what your reaction to it is? Is the contrast of baseball and the Missile crisis disorienting? Does looking at both of those together help us understand each of them differently?
Dave