Name: The Hundred-Year Walk
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)
ISBN: 9780544811942

Dawn Anahid Mackeen

The inspiring story of a young Armenian man s harrowing escape from the massacre of his people and of his granddaughter s quest to retrace his steps"

An Armenian Odyssey

The Hundred-Year Walk

Dawn Anahid MacKeen

A Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist and New York Post Must-Read. “An emotionally poignant work” of survival during the Armenian genocide (Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan’s Inheritance). Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million people—half the Armenian population—were killed. In The Hundred-Year Walk, MacKeen alternates between Stepan’s courageous account, drawn from his long-lost journals, and her own story as she attempts to retrace his steps, setting out alone to Turkey and Syria, shadowing her resourceful, resilient grandfather across a landscape still rife with tension. Dawn uses his journals to guide her to the places he was imperiled and imprisoned and the desert he crossed with only half a bottle of water. Their shared story is a testament to family, to home, and to the power of the human spirit to transcend the barriers of religion, ethnicity, and even time itself. “This book reminds us that the way we treat strangers can ripple out in ways we will never know . . . MacKeen’s excavation of the past reveals both uncomfortable and uplifting lessons about our present.”—Ari Shapiro, NPR “I am in awe of what Dawn MacKeen has done here . . . Her sentences sing. Her research shines. Her readers will be rapt—and a lot smarter by the end.”—Meghan Daum, author of The Problem with Everything “Harrowing.”—Us Weekly “This previously untold story of survival and personal fortitude is on par with Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Colleen

4 Stars
 
With 2018 being the 100-year anniversary of the end of WWI, I have been trying to read more books, both fiction and nonfiction, that involve that time period. The Armenian Genocide is certainly one of the most overlooked events from that time.
 
In 2015, I read  Orhan’s Inheritance , a historical fiction novel about the Armenian Genocide. It struck me that I had barely even heard of those tragic events, so I started researching. The sad fact is that even over a century later and despite undeniable evidence, the Turkish government officially denies that genocide occurred. It’s proof that history is written by the victor. And while the American government previously recognized those events as genocide, they will no longer officially call it genocide. It’s been downgraded to the generic category of “tragedy” because of flimsy excuses that there isn’t enough proof that 1.5 million people were slaughtered. To learn more, I picked up The Hundred-Year Walk, a nonfiction account of the genocide.
 
Dawn MacKeen grew up hearing bits of her grandfather’s experiences during the Armenian Genocide, but never gave it much focus. After the surviving the tragic events of the genocide and seeing them ignored by most of the world, Stepan Miskjian spent the rest of his life journaling his experiences in effort of keeping them from being forgotten. After years of her mother’s urging, MacKeen put her journalistic skills to use reconstruct and retrace her family’s journey and the history surrounding them.
 
The book alternates between a third person retelling of her grandfather’s journal and MacKeen’s efforts to translate the journals, research events, interview survivors, and eventually retrace the path of her grandfather. The events leading up to and during the genocide were horrifying to read. But MacKeen’s own journey was not without its own danger. Her travels included tense situations in Turkey and the deteriorating situation in Syria. While she was researching her book, Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist was assassinated for his very vocal attempts to get recognition of the genocide.
 
The reason this book gets four stars instead of five is because of some issues with the writing and format. What those people went through was a tragedy and a travesty. But I also have to look at the book as a whole. Journalistic writing is very different from book writing, and many writers have difficulties switching between. There are some pacing issues. Certain parts of the book were more engaging than others. It was also hard to remember who the side characters were especially since some of them were mentioned so sporadically. Sometimes the narrative stayed focused on the author’s family and at other times it went for a broad overview of historical events. It wobbled between broad biography and intimate memoir.
 
This is a wonderful book for anyone who likes emotional memoirs or who wants to explore an overlooked part of history. It’s an emotional and tragic story. Obviously, a book about genocide is going to have graphic content. Those events were horrific, but they are so important to be aware of. You shouldn’t try to study WWII without first understanding WWI. And what happened to the Armenians had farther reaching affects than anyone expected. One thing that stood out to me was the pleas of certain officials to intervene on behalf of the Armenians. The ambassador’s pleas to America were haunting enough, but I had no idea that some people in Turkey reached out to their ally, Germany, to try to intervene. Not only did they not help, the Armenian Genocide became an inspiration for the Holocaust and proof that such horrors could be gotten away with. Hitler himself said, “Our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
 
These events shed light not only on past events but also on current ones. It gave me chills to see echoes of the same sentiments that people still bandy about today. Xenophobia is as rampant today as it was back then. Just look at the treatment of Syrian refugees. Look at the treatment of immigrants in the United States. What ethnic cleansing didn’t start with small grudges? Then those grudges escalate to blaming an ethnic group for economic hardships. Bad people use those grudges and prejudices as a foundation to slowly build hatred towards and fear of a minority. That’s not to say that an ethnic cleansing is right around the corner, but it is clear how easily people are manipulated from dislike to outright hatred.
 
It is absolutely vital not only to recognize past events but also to identify when the patterns of prejudice repeat themselves. That is why books like The Hundred-Year Walk are so important. We have the ability to speak for those who were harmed in the past. And we have the ability and responsibility to speak for those who are persecuted in our own time. Each voice that joins in helps to prevent some future villain from saying, “No one remembers that. No one cares.”


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Attention to Details: 4 Stars
Emotional Level: 5 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars

Francine Corry

"The inspiring story of a young Armenian's harrowing escape from genocide and of his granddaughter's quest to retrace his steps. Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard fragments of her grandfather Stepan's story, of how he was swept up in the deadly mass deportation of Armenians during World War I and of how he miraculously managed to escape. Longing for a fuller picture of Stepan's life--and the lost home her family fled--Dawn travels alone to Turkey and Syria, across a landscape still rife with tension. Using his long-lost journals as a guide, she reconstructs her grandfather's odyssey to the far reaches of the Ottoman Empire, where he found himself in the midst of unspeakable atrocities. Part reportage, part memoir, The Hundred-Year Walk alternates between Stepan's tale of resilience and Dawn's remarkable journey, giving us a rare firsthand account of the twentieth century's first genocide. It's filled with edge-of-your-seat escapes and accounts of lifesaving kindnesses in the harsh desert. And it's in the desert that Dawn finds the unexpected: the secret to Stepan's survival"--

The Hundred-Year Walk An Armenian Odyssey

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