Natalie's Review of The Knock at the Door
The Knock at the Door by Margaret Ajemian Ahnert is a memoir that tells the story of her mother’s experiences before, during, and after the Armenian Genocide. Throughout the book, the chapters alternate between Margeret’s point of view and her mother, Exther’s, point of view. Each chapter includes a title, who the speaker is, and when the chapter takes place. This jump over time and between generations shows the lasting effects of the genocide, even eighty years later. It also shows that not only Esther, who experienced the genocide, was affected by it, but also her family for generations feels a connection to it. While it showed that the genocide continually touches people’s lives even today, it sometimes became repetitive. In present day, Margaret would ask her mother about a certain story or event, then her mother would explain it. The next chapter would be when Esther was a young girl and the same event that was just explained would occur. Margaret’s story was much less interesting than when her mother was telling the story during the genocide. The book would have been more enjoyable if some of the chapters from Margaret’s point of view were taken out of the middle of the book. They just seemed to be an interruption from the real story.
I liked that Esther’s story started before the genocide began. It gave the reader an idea of the aspects of Armenian culture and life. Esther describes their holiday traditions of baking a coin into a piece of bread and her Grandmom’s healing rituals. This is a nice touch because it allows the reader to see not only was the genocide about killing off people, it was about killing off their culture, as well. It also made the reader more attached to Esther before these horrible events started happening to her.
The middle of the book, during the genocide, was sometimes hard to read. It described how her father was put in jail and then marched out to a killing field. The book then turns to her experience of the death march. One morning, the soldiers came to their door and told them to leave immediately. When they protested, the soldier said, “Whoever remains will be shot,” (1171). This quote alone shows how they had no choice but to abandon their homes and belongings. She also goes into graphic detail about how she saw “a deep pit by the side of the road filled with the naked bodies of young and old men,” (1219). Later, Esther is raped, kidnapped, beaten, and married against her will. While these details are important for readers to understand how traumatic the experience was, it could be controversial to teach this to some students. It is possible that some parents would not approve. I would definitely send a note home to inform parents of the content of the book. I would also warn the students before of what they are going to be reading.
This memoir was a quick read and easy to understand. However, some of the content was a little heavy and depressing, although she did survive in the end and have a happy life. I think it is definitely plausible to read this in a class, but there would need to be a lot of outside background information about the genocide. That was my one critique of the book. If I had not done research about the Armenian genocide beforehand, I would have been very confused as to why these events occurred. It does not give readers a deep understanding of the political unrest and large scale events that led up to the genocide. It only provides an emotional, personal account. In conjunction with some factual articles about the Armenian Genocide, it would make this book even more meaningful to the students. I would read it in at least a junior classroom, if not senior.
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10