Draining the Sea
A striking literary exploration of the effects of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, the Guatemalan civil conflict of the 1980s, and present-day Los Angeles.
Marcom sifts through the incongruities of history and memory as the story unfurls inside the mind of a man who spends his days driving the streets of Los Angeles, racked by visions of the Guatemalan civil war and, in particular, of a beautiful young woman who died violently in it. He was in love with her but, it seems, may have played a role in her death. He also is very aware of the United States' complicity in the horrors of that conflict, further twisting his anguish. And in his mind, her fate resonates with his own childhood as the grandson of survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
Micheline Aharonian Marcom, herself descended from Armenian Genocide survivors, has always been haunted by the long-term effects of atrocity. Now, in Draining the Sea, Marcom's work culminates in a darkly lyrical novel that offers a powerful testament about the far-reaching effects of political brutality.
“Intensely felt.”
“She is among a growing number of contemporary novelists writing about the inhumane landscape of genocide…Draining the Sea is a noble effort.”
–Los Angeles Times
“Marcom’s language is always fervent, whether gorgeous or foul.”
“A florid stream of consciousness….Marcom weaves references and imagery from religion, mythology and Guatemalan, Armenian and American history, and indicts the powers-that-be for turning a blind eye toward the slaughter of indigenous people. The novel’s evocative imagery and explicit prose can move as well as chill.”
–Publisher’s Weekly
“Marcom's powerful prose and the parallels she draws between genocide all across the world—be it the Armenian genocide or the Guatemalan civil war—are shocking and will hopefully, have readers sit up and take notice. Marcom has admitted that while literature might not be able to redeem suffering, it can at least “make something beautiful out of something awful and atrocious.”
–Mostly Fiction Book Reviews
“In her distinctive voice that brilliantly represents the bleak and hallucinatory world of her characters, the story unfolds through the “unhistories” of humanity, reaching us as though from an underworld of torture. Stylistically Marcom’s prose reenacts trauma through non-linearity, compulsive repetition and negation. Language is deliberately broken down….The essaying of such sordid things is difficult, yet Marcom’s book is articulate and relentless in its search for optimism and beauty.”
–Review of Contemporary Fiction