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The Candidate: A Novel
The Candidate is one of the most masterful, psychologically penetrating novels in Armenian diaspora literature. Published in 1967 at a time of political awakening among the descendants of survivors of the Armenian genocide, the novel explores themes of trauma, forgiveness, reconciliation, friendship, and sacrifice, and examines the relationship between victim and perpetrator.
The book opens in 1927 in Paris after Minas has found his friend Vahakn s body on the floor of the apartment they share. In a fragmentary way, Minas tells of his meeting Vahakn in the cafes of the Latin Quarter; the friendship that joins them; their conversations with Ziya, a Turkish student in Paris; Vahakn s murder of Ziya; and Vahakn s suicide. At the core of the novel is the note Vahakn leaves Minas to explain the enigma of Ziya s murder and his own suicide. The letter recounts Vahakn s and his mother s deportation from their village in the Ottoman Empire; his mother s death and Vahakn s adoption by a Turkish woman, Fatma, who rapes and abuses him; his feelings of alienation and self-estrangement in France; and his inability to adapt to life after trauma.
Known for his innovation of the Western Armenian novel, Vorpouni challenges the narrative elements of the conventional novel by playing with subjectivity and linearity. His melding of contemporary French literary and intellectual currents produces a literary and cultural hybrid unique in Western Armenian literature."
The book opens in 1927 in Paris after Minas has found his friend Vahakn s body on the floor of the apartment they share. In a fragmentary way, Minas tells of his meeting Vahakn in the cafes of the Latin Quarter; the friendship that joins them; their conversations with Ziya, a Turkish student in Paris; Vahakn s murder of Ziya; and Vahakn s suicide. At the core of the novel is the note Vahakn leaves Minas to explain the enigma of Ziya s murder and his own suicide. The letter recounts Vahakn s and his mother s deportation from their village in the Ottoman Empire; his mother s death and Vahakn s adoption by a Turkish woman, Fatma, who rapes and abuses him; his feelings of alienation and self-estrangement in France; and his inability to adapt to life after trauma.
Known for his innovation of the Western Armenian novel, Vorpouni challenges the narrative elements of the conventional novel by playing with subjectivity and linearity. His melding of contemporary French literary and intellectual currents produces a literary and cultural hybrid unique in Western Armenian literature."
- GenresFiction
196 pages, Paperback
Published October 27, 2016
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 19, 2019
Litterært eksperimenterende armensk-fransk roman om fremmedgørelse og rodløshed blandt armenske studerende i Paris i 1920’erne. Særdeles velskrevet, tematisk og formmæssigt interessant. Men også lidt mere udfordrende komponeret end den måske havde behøvet at være.
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November 21, 2019Very similar to its counterparts of the same era, an introverted narrative of young men in Paris tackling the emotional through pathways of the mind... with the additional element of being the exile, the other.
October 24, 2017
The Candidate follows a young Armenian expat in 1929 Paris, reeling from the sudden suicide of his friend. The poetic work covers a lot of ground — the Armenian diaspora, racism, writerly ambition, poverty. It made personal the international aftereffects of the Armenian genocide and combined it with the beautiful listlessness of artistic life in 1920s Paris.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews