Saroyan has a rare sense of language usage and introduces thoughts and ideas causing you to stop and realize how the grind of everyday life can be refreshing, moving, and humorous. His writings represent a slice of life in everyday America as well as amusing insights into the wacky right braininess of a writer. Once you get through the first chapter and can stand up again, the rest of the book is one deeper-than-real-life-story after another. Like Edith Wharton, Saroyan has a command of the craft of writing that seems lost in today's works.

A masterful work. Most of them written in a thirty day period, in which Saroyan promised to send the editors od Story magazine a story a day for thirty days. He proceeded to do this and this book made Saroyan an instant celebrity.

Saroyan eventually went on to win the Pulitzer for his play "The Time of You Life", but turned it down.

This book was a stunner when it first appeared. The simple yet poetic language ran against the trend of the times.

Saroyan is a nearly forgotten genius, yet his influence is evident in even his enemies, like Ernest Hemingway.

Buy this book, read it, and then give it to somebody. They will thank you and so will I.

I think there are not many books, that can change your life. This is one of them. I was sixteen when I read this book for the first time. I was not very happy in that time and I was rather confused by life but it has changed. In these short stories I could read about thoughts and feelings, that were similar to mine, but I had not be able to express them. But angle of wiev was new. It made me to live in spite of the world.

This little book released by New Directions is bright-eyed and youthful, with hardly any of the rancor contained in Saroyan's other tales. Written all before 1940, these short pieces pick you up quickly, drop you in the middle of a bunch of scrappy kids in Fresno/San Fransisco in the depression era, and then take you back home with hardly any jet-lag.

Saroyan goes back in time effortlessly, describing a game of leap-frog (remember that game, where a line of kids crouch on the ground and one kid hops over the whole line and crouches in the front, and then the last kid gets up and hops over the whole line, to infinity...) where a tough boy and a tough girl compete brutally, leaping and crouching, all the way out into the country and to the next town, ending in a bloody brawl. And in "The Messenger", a young boy gets hilariously distracted from his extremely important mission to send a message to the town doctor. Most of the stories are light, funny and non-ironic, but at times the customary Saroyan bile simmers to the top. Like in "The Living and the Dead", where a reluctant young Communist writer, is walking down the road to town, whistling happily, and suddenly "...the whole world, caught in time and space, seemed to me an absurdity, and insanity, and instead of being amused, which would have been philosophical, I was miserable and began to ridicule all the tragic straining of man, living and dead." Like I said, MOST of the stories are light and funny...

What I like most about these is the sense of respect and compassion Saroyan shows his characters, no matter how young, simple or strange they are. He describes their lives like he was there experiencing the same bittersweet mini-tragedies and absurdities simultaneously, right along with them. He uses the vernacular of the day to write the most endearing dialogue ever, bringing these superbly-drawn characters to luminous life. Saroyan's early stories here reflect the same kind of innocent humor and subtlety as the brief output of another American master, Nathaniel West. If you liked "The Day of the Locust" or "Balso Snell", then these little classics will bring you a similarly delightful reading experience. I strongly believe Raymond Carver to be a literary son, or at least nephew, to William Saroyan here in his best form, the short story.

this saroyan collection gathers together some of the stories he wrote while living in san francisco. besides the fact that they are beautiful short stories (one of my favorites: "the mother"), they are all set in san francisco. for a sense of place circa 1930s, a great book. also, the herb caen introduction is a nice addition. makes it a piece of SF literature worth holding onto, i think.

review of: William Saroyan, An Armenian Trilogy, edited by Dickran Kouymjian William Saroyan (1908-1981) was a major voice in American literature during the 1930's and 40's. He had a brief influence on theatre, with his Pulitzer-prize winning play, "The Time of Your Life," in 1940, and other lesser plays. He wrote and produced several others, then fell into obscurity as a playwright. The "Armenian Trilogy," edited by Dickran Kouymjian, marks a departure in play writing for Saroyan, from theatrics to introspection. The three plays contained in this volume are the most "Armenian" of his writings. "Armenians," the first play, is about countrymen in diaspora, in Fresno, CA in 1921, six years after the last round of atrocities by the Turks against Armenians. Saroyan deals with regional stereotypes and larger issues of diaspora. "Bitlis," is a one-act play that features Bill Saroyan, the Armenian-American writer and his pilgrimage to his ancestral home in what was once Armenia. "Haratch," the most political of the three, Saroyan takes the stage in a visit to the Armenian daily newspaper in Paris. As strong as the plays, is Kouymjian's brilliant introduction that provides the perceptive explanation of Saroyan, the writer and the Armenian. The book is a necessity for fans of his dramatic works and those that enjoy the writings of William Saroyan, the "Buffalo Bill, " of American letters. -Y. Stephan Bulbulian, Fowler, CA

This is a marvelous and simple book. William Saroyan paints a delightful picture of what he imagines life for his son is like when they spend summers together. Whether or not Aram Saroyan actually perceived anything like his father's description is irrelevant. I first read this story a a boy of 13 or 14 years of age and always remembered it vividly. The book is a wonderful instruction manual for how a father should teach his children about the beauty and celebration of life. When I became a father 25 years after first reading the book I searched my family's house for the story. It remained as vital as I remembered. The book taught me at an early age that a good parent must permit children to see you as you truly are. And thus, one must strive to be a good and generous person.

Boys and Girls together is the story of raising two small children while writing plays and trying to hold a once sexy marriage together. Saroyan's best writing are found in his plays and short stories -- My Name is Aram is the best -- but this novel, long out of print, can make anyone who is strugleing with child raising, writing and love smile: Saroyan makes us laugh because raising children and staying married are difficult things and the way saroyan gets through difficult things is by never taking anything too seriously. There is a wonderful part in this book where he explains the reasons for NOT having children with any of his girlfriends that were around before his wife. And this coming from the man who married and divorced the same woman twice...

When I started reading this book I really wanted to love it. However, I was a little dissappointed by the language which as others has said is at a third grade level. Also, the characters were a little fake, but its literature and thats ok. That being said, this book was an excellent story with many morals behind it and a good deal of metaphor. The best chapters in the story were those that could be read as a short story within the book itself, such as the tale about Mr. Ara's store. Overall the story was very good, but not quite excellent either. the morals and style of life portrayed in the book make it worth the time to read it however.

This book is an episodic novel centered on the Macauley family in the town of Ithaca, California, in the San Joaquin Valley in the early 1940s (Saroyan [1908-1981] was born in Fresno, California, and much of what he describes of the life of Ithaca relates to Fresno). The central characters are the fourteen-year-old Homer Macauley, who is working as a telegraph messenger, and his four-year-old brother Ulysses (note the names of Homer, Ulysses, and Ithaca!). Through them we see the people and the vitality of this small community and the impact of World War II. The war is having a deep effect on Homer because he finds himself acting as a "Messenger of Death" since he has to deliver telegrams to family members from the Government informing them of the death of a loved one. This book appeared in 1943 in the middle of the war and, in my opinion, much of its popularity is due to the comfort it gave to many families throughout the U.S. who had family members in the armed forces overseas. Families of widely different backgrounds and heritages as well as entire communities were holding together in this time of strain and concern just as Ithaca was doing. [One minor character in the book is Big Chris, who appears a couple of times in the book, always acting as a guide or "savior." Was Saroyan trying to say here that He is always there in times of need? Or, am I reading too much into the symbolism?] This was a required novel in one of my English classes when I was a kid. And, I discover that it is still a required text more than thirty years later!

The "Human Comedy" is the story of a family in Ithaca, California, during World War II.. A mother, 3 sons and a daughter.. The oldest son, Marcus, is in the Army.. Matthew is a teenager who works as a messenger in the Telegraph Office and has to deliver, from time to time, some bad news which affect him profoundly.. Ulysses is a 4 year old adorable child and Bess is 16, still in school..

The book is full of heartwarming and philosophical dialogue.. some parts of this book are great for parents to read to their children!!

This is a pleasing book for all of you with consciences. Personally, it kind of bugged ME. OK, well first of all, let me introduce myself. I am Mr. Garden, a hobo who lives in Iowa. I live in a barn, and this is the one book that is in my possession at this moment. But, I was just thinking, why would someone write words that don't even mean?

I am a high school student, and we read an excerpt from this book in our literature class. I immediately was intrigued by Saroyan's method of writing and the fact that his novels are autobiographical. This is a story of Aram Garoghlanian, a boy living in Fresno with his large family of Armenian immigrants. Throughout the book, such ideas are touched upon as maturity, honesty, and acceptance. My Name is Aram is a portrait not only of Aram Garoghlanian and William Saroyan himself, but Americans in general. Americans struggle with basic values and ideas everyday, and accepting our eccentric family members is something we learn to do. Saroyan describes small details in hi writing that bring the story to life and open up a new world. Readers will soon realize when they open this novel that each of us holds Aram inside us, whether it means we struggle with the idea of stealing a horse or keeping the families reputation. I strongly recommend this book to anyone.

At first when I read the first page,I thought that it is a very good book for everybody. After I read all of them, Iam filled with admiration. It tell us "THE LIFE OF AN ARMENIAN FAMILY IN THE BEAUTIFUL SAN JUAQUIN VALLEY". It is a very fun and easy book to read.