The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian (Epub)

Description

A haunting, deeply moving novel-an old man comes face-to-face with his past and sets out to find the love of his life and beg her forgiveness.To those around him, Emmet Conn is a ninety-two-year-old man on the verge of senility. But what becomes frighteningly clear to Emmet is that the sudden, realistic dreams he is having are memories of events he, and many others, have denied or purposely forgotten. The Gendarme is a unique love story that explores the power of memory-and the ability of people, individually and collectively, to forget. Depicting how love can transcend nationalities and politics, how racism creates divisions where none truly exist, and how the human spirit fights to survive even in the face of hopelessness, this is a transcendent novel.Watch a Video

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly Mustian’s debut novel is a meditation on memory in which the dreams of a former Turkish soldier contain the truth of his past. Emmett Conn is 92 and living in Georgia when he begins dreaming of his youth and his involvement in the Armenian diaspora. After 70 years of amnesia caused by his WWI injuries, Emmett’s past returns with a vengeance following surgery for a brain tumor. Emmett knows he fought the British at Gallipoli, was wounded, and was cared for by a nurse, Carol, whom he married and accompanied back to the U.S. But in his violent dreams, he relives his actions as a Turkish gendarme in the forced death march of thousands of Armenians into Syria. Emmett recalls snippets of his murderous and rapacious acts but also of his obsession with a beautiful young Armenian girl, Araxie. His dream life leads him to one conclusion: he must find Araxie and beg her forgiveness. Mustian’s staccato prose, an attempt to emulate Emmett’s skittish and elusive dreams, works sometimes better than others, but the novel effectively captures the human capacity for survival and redemption. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review “Mark T. Mustian has written an extraordinary novel dealing with some of the most difficult issues of the twentieth century, issues that profoundly threaten this new century as well. The Gendarme explores humanity’s capacity for large–scale evil and how that capacity expresses itself through ordinary, small–scale, individual lives. This is a harrowing and truly important novel by a splendid American writer.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Hell and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain “One reads this masterful work thinking all the while of its literary cousins—The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes, Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Books such as these, novels like The Gendarme, writers like Mr. Mustian, keep our world afloat amidst the tempests of history. Humanity would no longer recognize itself, its enduring passions and cruelties and triumphs, without them.” —Bob Shacochis, National Book Award–winning author of Easy in the Islands and Swimming in the Volcano”I love this book. The haunting lesson from this gifted writer is that even the legacy of war cannot triumph over the human spirit. Where there is love and humanity, the human spirit triumphs. Read it.” —Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author of Prayers for Sale”The Gendarme does what few have the courage to do: haunted by memories of war crimes he committed under another name, he turns and enters his nightmare to find the woman who was his enemy then and now, decades later, is still his first great love. Mark Mustian shows the reader what the face of history looks like without the makeup. Mainly, though, he paints an unforgettable portrait of the human spirit at its bravest and most resilient.” —David Kirby, member of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors, NEA and Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, and author of The Ha–Ha”Ahmet Khan’s spiritual transition to Emmet Cohn is emotionally resonant. This is an important and unique journey told with compassion and a stirring sense of humanity.” —Atom Egoyan”Why are war stories so often truly love stories? Because, as Mustian proves in The Gendarme, love in the face of war gives testimony that love endures our savagery, our violence, our hatred. In this powerful retelling of the horrible crimes committed against Armenians at the beginning of World War I, The Gendarme is a beautiful, haunting tale of survival and resilience.” —Julianna Baggott, author of The Miss America Family and The Madam About the Author Mark T. Mustian is an author, attorney, and city commissioner. He lives with his wife and three children in Tallahassee, Florida. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I am a real sucker for any book that has more than one story going on at the same time, with both stories connecting and/or resolving themselves at the end. “The Gendarme” did an amazing job of moving back and forth between two different time periods in the main character’s life. The author was able to weave in and out of the two stories, as easily as a snake glides through grass. There was not a single moment that I felt lost; I can sometimes have a hard time with the back and forth if the transitions are not well done.Alongside the author’s ability to transition seamlessly between time, this story is unique for it’s secondary plot revolves around the Armenian genocide. Although the book doesn’t center directly on the atrocities done, for “gendarme” was the term used for soldiers escorting the Armenians out of Turkey into other parts of the Ottoman Empire, it does give you some insight to what was occurring. Very similar to the sort of forced relocation of the Native Americans during the Trail of Tears, the Armenians had to travel on foot for hundreds of miles from Turkey to places like Syria. Many died on the way, faced starvation, illness, violence, and rape. It was very rare for an Armenian man to remain alive given that the Turks had convinced everyone that the Armenians were a threat due to their ties to Russia. Most of these groups being led by Turkish soldiers ended up being women and children. You can imagine what the women faced at the hands of the gendarme.As much as I enjoyed this book, I wish that the story had gone more into details about what was truly going on during these death marches. Although the author did give some insight to the violence surrounding this forced relocation of the Armenians, I felt that the author didn’t do it justice. I realize that the author was trying to show that the individuals [gendarmes] involved in this genocide, like other genocides, don’t necessarily realize the full gravity of their actions. Particularly when this hatred of Armenians within Turkey had been going on for generations, and the genocide was rationalized as necessary since it was a time of war. However, the development of the main character should not have taken away from revealing the true horrendous nature of these death marches.That is my biggest critic of this book. It doesn’t mean I don’t recommend this book, because given it’s unique story line, it is well worth the read. Not enough contemporary fiction books are written on such “taboo” topics; I do applaud the author. However, as a reader, one must realize that it was a truly horrific and violent genocide that occurred against the Armenians, and not just some sort of forced relocation with minor casualties. In addition, given that this is not necessarily a well known topic, and may be the first time a lot of readers learn about the Armenian genocide, I want it to be known that it was MUCH worse than what is described in the book.

⭐Mark Mustian has achieved a remarkable feat with this novel: The Gendarme is a finely nuanced work that offers a balanced, nuanced and yet unstinting look at a period of history that has not received close to its due in terms of acknowledgement. It’s also an absorbing tale of a man recovering his memory and confronting his own judgement of his long-buried past. What I appreciate most about this book is that it has appeal to a wide audience, not only readers of Armenian ancestry or background — in the same way the most powerful stories about the Holocaust do. I note that some reviewers take Mustian to task for not portraying the full horrors of the death marches imposed on the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of World War I, but I think there is plenty in the main character’s gradual unspooling of his recall to create a sense of the atrocities — and how they affected not only the victims but the perpetrators, who were after not monsters but human beings carrying out the orders of their government. Mustian refuses to demonize or simplify, but he also refuses to excuse — and that, coupled with a narrative that weaves seamlessly back and forth between the main characters present and his past, makes this an important as well as a compelling read.

⭐Could any book be as good as The Sandcastle Girls, which told the story of missionaries trying to help survivors of the Armenian genocide in 1915?YES! And it’s The Gendarme, which talks about similar events, but from the viewpoint of a Turk who “escorted” the deportees from Turkey to Aleppo in Syria.Oh my gosh. This book is astounding. Not only is the language itself stunning — and the story unforgettable. But it raises really important questions. It makes me long for Ex Libris, my old book group, in order to be able to discuss it properly. The author forces us to consider the effect of violence on the perpetrators as well as the victims — and the perpetrators’ families for generations to come. What role does memory play in creating our self-image and sense of self-worth? How does the immigrant experience cause a person to re-cast themselves, and also to accept a lesser role in their new country? The fact that immigrants face discrimination due to their ethnicity creates a wonderful ironic tension in a character who was on the other end of the stick during ethnic cleansing. Fascinating!At the same time (if all of these questions were not enough), Mustian looks at aging, family relationships, race and culture in America, and conditions in mental institutions.You finish this book with a gigantic ache in your heart — yet also feel that you gained significant insights into the human condition. Plus, there’s a romantic theme running through it which helps to redeem some of the more gruesome scenes.

⭐Good use of the English language. Having read several books on the topic of the Armenian Genocide, I was surprised by the approach used by this author. The atrocities, anchored in history, unfurl through the memories of an elderly Turkish Gendarme – a representative of the oppressors, and not the accounts of the victims. Symbolism is used to illustrate good and evil, the present and the past, and the struggles within the conscience of the enforcer.A gripping and thought-provoking story! Must read!

⭐Incredible book about the slaughter of over a million Armenians in 1915, this time from the point of view of the guards (Gendarmes). I have read the books from the Armenians’ point of view and they are very good. This book describes the insane event from a different perspective and adds to the understanding (as if one could understand such incredible inhumanity to man) of it.In addition, it’s a wonderful story, full of suspense and very well written.A must read for anyone interested in this atrocious event in history.

⭐Not a bad read at all, although this book took a little time to get going for me it settled down into a good read. Once i got used to the flicking between time zones i enjoyed the story and felt some emotion with th hero and heroine loved the slight twist at the end, worth waiting for.

⭐A very interesting read. I didn’t know much about the Armenia genocide of 1915 and wonder why so little has been written about this horrendous period in Armenian and Turkish history. Flash backs cleverly used to make the story very convincing. Not so sure about the ending and the hazardous journey to New York though. Well written and use of descriptive words and phrases excellent. I found this book difficult to put down.

⭐I enjoyed this book, but unfortunately the ending was rather “soap-opera style” and almost felt like the writer was rushing to finish the book! Otherwise quite well written (up to the last few chapters).

⭐Harrowing and wonderful all at the same time

⭐Der 92-jährige Emmett Conn leidet unter seltsamen Träumen. Immer wieder träumt er von einem Treck durch eine unwirtliche Wüstenlandschaft, er träumt von unbeschreiblichen Grausamkeiten und er träumt von einem geheimnisvollen Mädchen mit zweifarbigen Augen. Emmett wird langsam klar, dass diese Träume keine Hirngespinste sondern Teil seiner Erinnerungen sind. Was ist in seiner Jugend tatsächlich geschehen und was wurde aus dem Mädchen?In THE GENDARME erzählt Mark Mustian eine tragische Liebesgeschichte vor dem Hintergrund des Genozids an den Armeniern während des Ersten Weltkriegs.In THE GENDARME steht Emmett Conn (eigentlich Ahmet Khan) im Zentrum der Geschehnisse. Er ist nach dem Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs nach Amerika immigriert und hat sich völlig in die dortige Kultur eingefügt. Erleichtert wurde ihm dies vor allem dadurch, dass er nach einer schrecklichen Verletzung seine Erinnerung an sein früheres Leben in der Türkei praktisch ganz verloren hat. Erst jetzt kehrt seine Erinnerung bruchstückhaft zurück. Emmetts Gefühle und Gedanken sind gut herausgearbeitet und nachvollziehbar. Einerseits muss er sich mit den Geschehnissen in seiner Jugend auseinandersetzen, andererseits hat er als alter Mann mit der schwierigen Beziehung zu seinen Töchtern zu kämpfen. Obwohl Emmett eine durchaus plastische Hauptfigur ist, bin ich nicht wirklich mit ihm warm geworden. Er ist mir über weite Strecken des Romans einfach unsympathisch gewesen und zwar auch an den Stellen, an denen das genaue Gegenteil erreicht werden sollte.Die Handlung von THE GENDARME konnte mich trotz leichter Ungereimtheiten gegen Ende des Buchs insgesamt überzeugen. Die Schilderungen des Genozids sind packend und schrecklich und trotzdem wird Mark Mustian in seiner Erzählweise nie reißerisch oder oberlehrerhaft. Auch die Liebesgeschichte hat mir gefallen und Emmetts Sorgen und Nöte als alter Mann sind ebenfalls nachvollziehbar geschildert. Hier habe ich mich nur ein wenig über seine Beziehung zu seiner Frau Carol gewundert, da nie wirklich klar wird, welche Stellung sie in seinem Leben und Fühlen einnimmt.Alles in allem hat mir THE GENDARME trotz meiner Schwierigkeiten mit Emmett recht gut gefallen. Durchaus empfehlenswert.

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