In My Father's Name: A Family, a Town, a Murder

by Mark Arax

Book Overview

Two decades after his father's unsolved murder, Mark Arax uprooted his family and returned to Fresno under an assumed name, determined to put the past to rest. This "vivid memorial to the incidental victims of homicide" (Rosellen Brown, "New York Times Book Review") presents a "compelling record of how circumstances shape us, the way a single event can redirect our lives" (David Ulin, "Newsday"). Photos.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684808455
• ISBN13: 9780684808451
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A Father's Murder Leads to an Authentic Identity

Mark Arax has written a superb novel chronicling his zealous search for the identity of the men who gunned down his father in his own bar in Fresno back in 1972 when Mark was 15. The gripping story takes us from Fresno to LA to NY to Mexico and Anatolia, the Ottoman empire, 1915, San Francisco, and back to Fresno to circle around the little city of corruption and crime, related to the pernicious drug trade. Armenia, a nation of people erased from its ancestral homeland, submitted to genocide by the Turks and dispersed in this American century, to America which promised freedom and opportunity, delivered new strife, leading to new crises. This epic saga tells of three generations of Arax family members overcoming impossible odds to finally make a decent home for themselves in Fresno only to have it shattered by a cold blooded murder on a Sunday evening in a shady bar just before Mark's dad was to have made a public announcement, naming names, letting the public know what went on in city hall and at police headquarters. He was executed Mafia style with a son left in its wake holding on to a bag of questions and a burning desire to get some answers. And yet, this state is endemic to the Armenian existence in its diaspora. The resonances between Mark Arax's saga and that of every post-genocide Armenian are loud and clear. Why were over a million of their forefathers so brutally and systematically slaughtered like cattle at the turn of this century? Why was the life of every Armenian in the Ottoman empire so cheap and worthless? What had Armenians done to deserve the racist wrath of Turks, Kurds and other nomadic bands of brigands in the Anatolian plains, the ancestral homeland of all Armenians? Why do Turks today not admit what is so plainly true? Why the denial and historical revisionism? How are dignity and justice to be restored when nations place economic or strategic considerations before the demands of historical truths? How can democracies and free nations join in the Turkish lie that nothing happened in 1915, it was just war, things like that happen all the time, let bygones be bygones...? Mark Arax would not stop asking his haunting questions either. His father was murdered. The police never even tried to solve the case. Mark would do his damnedest to get to the bottom of it himself, and he would do it at any cost. Mark Arax was rewarded for his quixotic aspirations by much more than he could have imagined. While the minutest details of his father's murder are still unresolved, what Mark discovered was more precious and more lasting than the particulars of a case of a Fresno drug mob and city hall -- about to be exposed -- hit. Mark Arax found the true identity of his people, the Armenians in the Californian diaspora, and their struggle to preserve their traditions and rich heritage. Through all this, Mark fathered himself to become a gifted professional journalist, a responsible fat

An Amazing Story

When I first started this book, I was amazed at the description that Arax gives of Fresno. Being a life-long resident of Fresno, I can imagine everything he describes. Then I read about the corruption that I'd heard about all my life, and see the proof of it all. I was shocked beyond belief. Then I read about these supposedly upstanding citizens that I've heard about all my life (who has community centers and arena's named after them here in Fresno) and I feel like a veil has been pulled from my eyes. Mark Arax tells a story of life in a lot of small, and large, cities. The one part of the story I wish would have been included (but it is safer for him NOT to include, being that he is still a resident of Fresno) is not only the corruption of the past, but the corruption of the present as well. He describes how the city of Fresno was built upon corruption, ran in corruption for many years, and hinted to the present day corruption, but had to stop. Hopefully he will write another book about Fresno, and reveal something to everyone.If you like to read, and you like to be trapped by a book, then I suggest you purchase this book.

Author Connects The Dots For Reader

I'm originally from Fresno, California and at the time of this murder, my grandfather, Ted C. Wills Sr., was Mayor of the city. When I picked up this book, I didn't know what to expect. What I found was validation.For years I struggled with the bits and pieces of recollection I had regarding this period of my youth. Arax's book not only validated my experiences, what I had witnessed, but connected many of the dots regarding other incidences related to my past. The cover ups, illegal activity and silent handshakes were a part of my youth and Arax described this perfectly.The author's well placed words painted one vivid picture after another about a mystery which is reality based. At the end of the book, the pictures come together as one complete "town" portrait. In doing this, he brilliantly exposed the "dark side" of not only my history, but of a town bent on keeping up appearances, at all costs. Secrets were taken out of the closet and placed squarely on to the laps of the public at large. "If we do not expose our secrets, we are bound to repeat them."I strongly suggest this book to anyone interested in seeing how organized crime on a local level works. Along with this, I hope that readers will appreciate how the author was able to weave powerful Armenian history with not only his own family of origin, but with the political and criminal drama of a small town.

All You Want to Know about Fresno, and Then Some!

Mark Arax's book is a one of a kind. It is a history of a family, a history of the Armenian people, the history of Fresno. The one thing that stands out the most about this book is the stark honesty of it all, so much so that at times the effect on the reader is unsettling. As I read this book I found myself strongly disliking the author and then liking him very much. Filled with many unusual, colorful, complex and interesting characters, this true story at times reads like a novel. The story of how a young man, a newspaper reporter, goes out to find his own father's killers, is the stuff of movies and I am surprised that this book has not been made into a movie. But upon reflection, perhaps this book is too real for Hollywood. I am sure it is too real for some of the local people in Fresno who may feel he has slighted the town. But above all, after reading this book, I was left impressed with the author's toughness, his doggedness, his camera-like mind, his no holds bared approach and his take no prisoners attitude. I would suggest that this book would make very fine reading for anyone interested in California history, and also for any interested in the dark side of small town politics. A well-done, very unusual book.

Fascinating!

This is an incredibly personal and moving story about the author's search for his father's killer. I couldn't put it down...and I found myself reliving this amazing journey long after I finished the book. I couldn't stop thinking about all the lives that had been forever changed by a gunman's bullet, most wrenchingly that of a young boy who would making solving this mystery his life's quest.