My Son Goes to War Book Presented at Tekeyan Cultural Association of Armenia

The book strongly places an emphasis on the type of human being who can guarantee that a person will be alive and unharmed if another type of person appears next to him – the reckless and imprudent type of man who periodically leads to brutal wars. It must also be noted that all these passages are accompanied by descriptions of the beautiful natural scenery of the Armenian homeland.

While they serve as examples of the contrast between man and nature, they place a greater value on the homeland, for which its sons go to war.

The book is a story about the war, the love and pain of a parent and a son, and the homeland, covering a range of human emotions. However, the most important thing is the indifference of people to everything, even to the loss of close ones.

Professor Suren Danielyan observed at the TCA-Armenian event that the truth is revealed through history when we cannot process the effects of the war. “The war entered the homeland and disturbed our peace. We were not ready for that war. History once again forced us to think about indifference, to reflect on the evaluation of war with a new perspective, to have new approaches,” Danielyan said, adding that the work attests to the closeness of the genres of the novel and the essay.

Writer and public figure Felix Bakhchinyan, speaking at the same event, was of the opinion that for Grigoryan, the 44-day war with its territorial and human losses was a sad occasion instigating reflection on why that tragedy happened. “Evaluations of this global problem would remain abstract if the writer did not show how the war enters every home and destroys it from the inside and out. The tragedy of war, its deadly breath, is visible and palpable on every page. The writer’s finger is constantly on the bleeding wound, but it does not have the purpose of merely localizing the war. As gruesome as the war scenes are, war is not all about the sound of guns or even dying soldiers. War has its wonderful poetry, its spirituality, without which no war has been won yet,” said Bakhchinyan. Quoting writer Mark Aren, Bakhchinyan suggested the author should write a continuation of this story, titled My Son Returned.

According to Grigoryan, the book presentation provided an opportunity to once again think about and understand what happened to us, and to break a great evil that exists in us, which is the cause of the current misfortunes of the people: it is called indifference. “Indifference has settled in us in such a way that we don’t even notice deaths in the way we should treat these phenomena. This story is a question and an answer as to how to act when you have lost or may lose the most precious thing and find yourself in the midst of people’s indifference. What path will you choose: to go and protect your dignity, your identity, your right to be a human being, or to remain in the unknown and perish?” Grigoryan noted. He noted with regret that God tried to teach humanity a lesson because God was unable to bring it to its senses. Humanity has not matured enough to understand that it is not necessary to destroy its own kind, intelligent creatures.