Bloodvine: A Novel - Hardcover

A second-generation Armenian American, Aris Janigian was born in Fresno, California. Now a professor of humanities at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, he returns to the Fresno area annually to work as a grape packer and shipper. He is, with April Greiman, author of Something from Nothing.

In this novel based on his own family, Janigian describes the troubled relationship between two Armenian American half-brothers who grow grapes in the 1950s on a 50-acre plot near Fresno, which was left them by their mother. Even with one leg withered by polio, Andy Demerjian seemed to be the child favored over his older half-brother, Abe Voskijian, whose shrewish wife Zabel nurtures distrust between the two men. When crop failures force them to get a GI loan, for which only Abe qualifies, Andy signs over his interest in the land, a measure intended to be temporary but which ultimately leads to an irreparable breach. With a backdrop of the Turkish genocide of Armenians (portrayed in brief but horrific detail), this story sheds light on life in an Armenian American community as it describes men growing grapes while at the mercy of nature. Although the chronology is choppy and the conclusion weak, which may limit interest, the characters are well drawn in this obviously heartfelt effort. Michele Leber
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