Rating: 
Summary: The essence of survival
Review: This is a poignant look at a 10 year old child caught in a hostile adult world with no protection, and no direction. It is the story of her survival. Her childhood is cut short and using her native intelligence, she struggles not only to stay alive, but manages to maintain her naivete in a world she doesn't always understand and has no control over. This was a deeply touching book, and it was difficult to put down.
Rating:
Summary: An Emotional Journey down an unforgettable past!
Review: This book Not Even My Name by Thea Halo is OUTSTANDING. I think it brings justice to all the unjustice that our Pontian culture and history has faced. This non-fiction epic, not only recounts the unknown facts about the Pontian genocide, it relives the life of Sano who represents what and how all our families somehow overcame. I have been forever touched by every syllable, by every word and by every page. I laughed, sighed and most of all cried because I relived the stories my grandparents have told me. Thank you Thea Halo for discovering your history by reliving your mothers past and sharing it with the enitire world.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply touching history
Review: This is a story that needs to be told and heard. Hitler said something to the effect that no-one remembered Turkey's systematic extermination of the Armenians as a justification for Germany's attack on the Jews -- well, here is Turkey's other genocide that no one seems to know about. Enlightening and deeply personal, this is a must read for anyone remotely interested in the history of man.
Rating:
Summary: Heart breaking and heart warming at the same time
Review: This honest tale of survival and hope reflects the human experience that we share -- hard times, growth and fear, the joy of children and the pangs of great loss. A wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: A universal story "writ large"
Review: "Not Even My Name" is an extraordinarily powerful book that forced me to understand the Pontic, Assyrian, and Armenian genocides it describes in individual, human terms. After all, it's much easier to distance oneself from a holocaust than from the individuals who are its victims. In addition, the book has provided me with an important analog to the history of my own family, Greek Jews, many of whom suffered their own holocaust. I intend to read this book with one of my classes, not only because it is a fine piece of literature, but also because it will remind us in a very compelling way how foolish it is to try to prove that one holocaust was bigger or more important than another. We all suffer from the "It's my dead rat" syndrome, a foolishness this book exposes fearlessly. Equally important, the structure of the book, framed by a double odyssey and complex exodus, provides the experiences of the author, Thea Halo, and her mother, Sano, nee Themia, with just the right context to make the journey very worthwhile for the reader as well as for its two main characters. Halo's descriptions are beautifully drawn, and her inferences are understated, which is what makes them so powerful. This is a universal story "writ large" and passionately. It took me almost no time to see that it is also my story, placed in a different context, but one that I could recognize easily, in small ways as well as large. How fascinating, for instance, to discover that the Pontic Christians celebrated Easter with egg-breaking contests almost identical to the Greek-Jewish tradition during the Passover Seders. The book is extremely well written and incredibly moving. I broke down and wept quite often as it drew me into the lives, the joys and tragedies, the incredible bravery of people we shamefully know almost nothing about; yet the cause of my tears was never the result of mere sentimentality or sensationalism. The bare facts themselves, powerfully recounted, are enough to make any reader weep for "Man's inhumanity to man," even as Sano, a character with her own imperfections, whose very name has been obliterated, triumphs over adversity, little by little; and reminds us that we can overcome even senseless acts of mass violence and our own dark side by following the example she sets of unending kindnesses and care for the "Family of People."
Rating:
Summary: The murder of a nation
Review: Not Even My Name is well written. I recommend it highly. It tells the experiences of Theo Helo as a 10-year old, in 1920, who was forced on a death march with thousands of Pontic Greeks from their traditional home land into the desserts. The story starts with Theo, who now is an old lady, returning to her homeland with her daughter. This heart rending story was repeated many times starting with the Armenians' who suffered under the Turkish occupation for over 400 yrs and ended in 1915 with the 20th century's first genocide. The book describes in heart rending detail the cruelty by Turkish soldiers and official in eliminating all non-Turks from the lands they conquered in 1453.
Rating: 
Summary: narrow mindness or just stupidity???
Review: I want to respond to this book and all voices given.
Some said that it points out how Turks eliminated Greek etc. in the 15th century from Asia. Well, if it should get historical, people would know that Turks already started to settle down in Asia around 10th- to 11th century. The population was getting crowded with Turks than (old) Greeks. Fights have been fought Byzants against the Selcuks. The Byzantiniens didn't like the way Asia was getting more and more full with Turks. Wars have been fought, Byzans lost the war, Ottoman Empire succeeded, easy so far I hope to follow.
Coming to the situation at 20th Century, the so called "holocaust" at Greeks and Armenians. Everybody knows that Britain used the Greeks and Armenians to get access to Iraq, which didnt exist as a country at that time, because of oil which most of you should know. Greeks and Armenians were used so British could get more access to Iraq and other nations with a lot of oil, like Kuwait etc.
So, Greeks started to rebell and Armenians, too. Thousands of Turks were killed in West and East-Asia. The answer for ongoing slaughters on the Turkish population was to relocate the Armenians, at East Asia, who made troubles and Greeks, at West Asia. BUT, no body could know who were the trouble makers, so it was decided that the whole population has to move away if Turkey wanted to claim those lands. Greeks did the same at these day Greek teritory, Northeast Greece. Northeast Greece was populated mostly with Turks, but they "had" to move because of the killing Greeks did on the Turkish population there, so Turkish and Greekish gov't decided to move their populations. Greek got their populations back from West-Asia, safely, and Turks their own from Ottoman lands (nowadays, Northeast Greece).
OH, did I forget to point out that it was "normal" for nations to move away populations of the 'other' kind because of the problem, if more people of another kind live there they were able to claim it. So, even Greece and other nations did this THING, it was normal to do at those times.
So to point out, it is biased, this book. Turks did their best in relocating the whole Armenians but didn't have enough supplies, which ended in couple of thousand of deaths which is still nothing compared to the deaths of the Turks. Yes, it was a tragedy, but every nation has one, even the Turks. The holocaust at Cyprus in the 1900's-1970's at the Turkish population. The unaccounted numbers of violations against humanity against Turks at Bulgaria (19th-20th century), Greece(until the 1980's and 90's), Russia (19th-21st century), Cyprus (19th century-1970's), and West-China(until these days).
People should be more aware of history, and reading this book it was said to see how biased people are against people like my nation, people, and myself.
Armenians living in Turkey have no troubles, I ask myself, why? Freedom of religion was always granted in Turkey. Even these days the Greek gov't doesn't allow a mosque in Athen, I ask myself why? There are orthodox-churches in Turkey.
Hatred causes blindness! Keep an open mind and read a good book which tells the truth story.
A.K.
Rating:
Summary: Humbling and inspiring
Review: The story of Sano is told with dignity and respect, and avoids sentimental schlock that can ruin a biography. After going to the website, notevenmyname.com, I learned that Sano has become an internationally known spokesperson for her people, and I am humbled that one woman could make such a different. It's a must read book.
|
