The Sandcastle Girls
pgruube says:
I loved this book, which recounts the history of the first major genocide of the 20th century. Shortly after beginning the book I was appalled that I had never heard about this catastrophic event. How could something of this proportion be unknown to me? In shock and horror, I began to dig a little deeper online looking at photos and reading articles. The story doesn't end 100 years ago though. Even as currently as last year, the Centennial if you will, many countries including the U...SA began to think about and discuss whether they want to admit the killings weren't just a massacre, but were instead a true genocide. Turkey refuses to admit the allegations. This year actually marks the 101st year since the Armenian Genocide.The book was very engaging and well written with the exception of the overuse of the word "commandeered" which did get on my nerves. Otherwise, I loved this book and would highly recommend it both as a work of fiction and as a view into the past.
EvanD says:
I was aware of the magnitude of the Armenian genocide in the 1890s-1916, but I was not aware that so many of the Armenians were sent to "camps" in what is now Syria.I wasn't crazy about the modern narrator's story, but it does act as a framework for the novel to help introduce readers to the terrible events of the time and the massacres under cover of WWI when the world was occupied with European war.
Anna says:
The main reason I got this book is because it was 1.99 on an ebook special, I had read Midwives & loved it but in reading reviews of other books by Bohjalian nothing sounded that good. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It is about the Armenian Genocide from 1915 a1916 which I knew nothing about & the love story of his grandparents, Elizabeth an American, Armen an Armenian. The book is a work of imagination although memoirs of some of the actual people there were used. As wth any book on genocide it was painful to read at times. I found it hard to put down & educational.
monthlyapril says:
I read this for a book club and I thought I would like it and really wanted to like it. I knew almost nothing about the Armenian genocide, and I really like historical fiction when it is well done. Unfortunately, this is not. I never felt close to the characters, never understood most of their motivations, never understood when they would claim they were deeply distraught or teary-eyed, and didn't much care what happened to them. We're constantly told that the grandparents in this story endured great tragedy, but for the most part, particularly for the grandmother, I don't really see what that was.The story is told from different time periods - a present day grown woman and her grandparents when they were young, back in 1915. I think it would have worked better if the chapters had alternated POVs and time periods, but instead different sections of each chapter would abruptly switch either time periods or character POVs and it interrupted the flow. There were too many characters, and I didn't identify with any of them. I never feel the love or the spark between the grandparents, Armen and Elizabeth. The present day character wants to travel from NYC to Boston to do some research and her husband objects. But I thought the objection was stupid and not at all compelling, and it's quickly resolved. I don't know why the objection was included at all. And she travels to Boston because she sees this photograph printed in the paper of someone who shares her last name. But I never really see why this is so compelling to her. And I didn't understand why the German soldiers would take the photo initially, or why any of the Americans would want to sneak this photo to America, although perhaps I would have felt this more if there had been more of a focus on one character. But I'm just told the characters feel compelled to deliver these pictures and I have to accept it. I like that this story sparked interest in the Armenian genocide and in the history of that part of the world, but the story part of it falls seriously short.MoreLess
I loved this book, which recounts the history of the first major genocide of the 20th century. Shortly after beginning the book I was appalled that I had never heard about this catastrophic event. How could something of this proportion be unknown to me? In shock and horror, I began to dig a little deeper online looking at photos and reading articles. The story doesn't end 100 years ago though. Even as currently as last year, the Centennial if you will, many countries including the U...SA began to think about and discuss whether they want to admit the killings weren't just a massacre, but were instead a true genocide. Turkey refuses to admit the allegations. This year actually marks the 101st year since the Armenian Genocide.The book was very engaging and well written with the exception of the overuse of the word "commandeered" which did get on my nerves. Otherwise, I loved this book and would highly recommend it both as a work of fiction and as a view into the past.
EvanD says:
I was aware of the magnitude of the Armenian genocide in the 1890s-1916, but I was not aware that so many of the Armenians were sent to "camps" in what is now Syria.I wasn't crazy about the modern narrator's story, but it does act as a framework for the novel to help introduce readers to the terrible events of the time and the massacres under cover of WWI when the world was occupied with European war.
Anna says:
The main reason I got this book is because it was 1.99 on an ebook special, I had read Midwives & loved it but in reading reviews of other books by Bohjalian nothing sounded that good. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It is about the Armenian Genocide from 1915 a1916 which I knew nothing about & the love story of his grandparents, Elizabeth an American, Armen an Armenian. The book is a work of imagination although memoirs of some of the actual people there were used. As wth any book on genocide it was painful to read at times. I found it hard to put down & educational.
monthlyapril says:
I read this for a book club and I thought I would like it and really wanted to like it. I knew almost nothing about the Armenian genocide, and I really like historical fiction when it is well done. Unfortunately, this is not. I never felt close to the characters, never understood most of their motivations, never understood when they would claim they were deeply distraught or teary-eyed, and didn't much care what happened to them. We're constantly told that the grandparents in this story endured great tragedy, but for the most part, particularly for the grandmother, I don't really see what that was.The story is told from different time periods - a present day grown woman and her grandparents when they were young, back in 1915. I think it would have worked better if the chapters had alternated POVs and time periods, but instead different sections of each chapter would abruptly switch either time periods or character POVs and it interrupted the flow. There were too many characters, and I didn't identify with any of them. I never feel the love or the spark between the grandparents, Armen and Elizabeth. The present day character wants to travel from NYC to Boston to do some research and her husband objects. But I thought the objection was stupid and not at all compelling, and it's quickly resolved. I don't know why the objection was included at all. And she travels to Boston because she sees this photograph printed in the paper of someone who shares her last name. But I never really see why this is so compelling to her. And I didn't understand why the German soldiers would take the photo initially, or why any of the Americans would want to sneak this photo to America, although perhaps I would have felt this more if there had been more of a focus on one character. But I'm just told the characters feel compelled to deliver these pictures and I have to accept it. I like that this story sparked interest in the Armenian genocide and in the history of that part of the world, but the story part of it falls seriously short.MoreLess
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Guest 4 years ago
Everyone should read this book at least once in their lives. It tells a story of resilience of humans, of a nation. It also tells the story of the Armenian Genocode which happened in the Ottoman Turkey in the early 20th century and is until now denied by the Turks. This happened during the WW1, 1.5M Armenians were killed in ways unimaginable in our minds now. The book goes back and forth in time and tells the story through the characters' lives. It is a must read, it will change how you view the everyday life, you will rise above the small problems of everyday life and gain more appreciation and gratitude of what you have.Write Review:
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