A Houseful of Love

by Marjorie Housepian Dobkin

Memoir of the author's childhood years, growing up in a large extended family of Armenian immigrants to the U.S.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Marjorie Anais Housepian Dobkin was Professor Emerita in English at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York. Her books include the novel A Houseful of Love (a New York Times bestseller) and the history Smyrna 1922.

Housepian Dobkin was born to Armenian parents in New York City in 1922, two and a half months after her grandfather was killed by a Turkish soldier during the burning of Smyrna, from which her grandmother fled as a refugee. Dobkin attended Barnard College, graduating in 1944. She was both a professor of literature and writing as well as associate dean of studies at Barnard from 1957 until 1993.

She was awarded the Anania Shirakatsi prize of the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia and was also the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Wilson College.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another on my Encore list, this charming book introduces us to a family of Armenian immigrants living in New York in 1929. Published in 1957, it is a novel in which the characters "are wholly fictitious and bear no resemblance to persons living or dead", but they certainly are wonderfully alive while you read.

I loved the family! Our narrator never has a name, she is listed only as 'Girl' in the cast of characters. Her father is a doctor, and her Uncle Pousant runs a restaurant with the help of his wife Hadji (who can read your future in either the dregs of Turkish coffee or with cards). There is a sweet little old lady named Marta-Mama, listed as 'the matriarch of the family'. She is the aunt of Levon Dai, who lives in the wilds of Iowa and is a combination of an example for becoming a success in America and the bad boy who never comes to visit the family. Mata-Mama raised him, and he sends her money every month, but will she live long enough to actually see him again? She thinks so, but no one else is quite sure. She is in her nineties, after all! Why doesn't Levon Dai come home? Besides, he needs to get married!!

Through family stories around the dinner table with cousins, uncles, and guests, we learn why Levon Dai is so far from home, and although at first I didn't care much for him, he eventually won my heart. But he certainly could not replace Uncle Pousant as my favorite. Just reading about some of the dishes he made in his restaurant made me wish I could sample!

The author manages to infuse this book with Armenian culture, from the food to various words here and there to old folk sayings and stories, to bits of history. All presented in a lively, natural way. You really feel as if you are part of the energetic, bustling family; so much so that you agree with 'Girl' when she admits that it can be peaceful to get away for a time but then finds herself worrying about the home life of her school friend Caroline, whose parents never seem to show any emotion.
Did nothing excite them? Did their headaches really give them less pain than Uncle Pousant's? Did their friends always marry the right people? Were they never drunk with happiness, or overcome by grief, or tormented with anger, or moved to disgust? I asked Caroline one day. "Not in front of children," she said. I found this both singular and baffling; the notion of feelings expressed clandestinely struck me as a trifle sordid, and after a time it was a relief to leave this aura of repressed monotony and return even to Uncle Pousant.

I would never be able to live in such a hectic family in real life (I need much more tranquility than would be possible here), but what fun they are to visit in these pages!

[Judith the Book Gobbler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story, the information and a good tale that ended well.