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

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

Mark Arax. Simon & Schuster, $24 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-684-80845-1

In 1972, Arax's father, Ara, was killed by two shooters at his Fresno nightclub, when Mark was 15; the murder was never solved. But the bond between father and son was especially strong, and Mark, who went on to become a journalist with the Los Angeles Times, struggled for years with his compulsion to solve it. Eventually, he moved back to his hometown for that purpose. This unusual, introspective memoir is the result. It reveals that the large Armenian American community in Fresno was made up of survivors of the 1915 Turkish massacre and their descendants, who fought against constant discrimination. Mark's father and his uncle built a chain of five groceries, which failed, and Ara then bought the nightclub, where drugs became an increasing problem. The idealistic and stubborn Ara came to know who the big drug dealers were. Determined to blow the whistle on them, he revealed his plans to some of the very policemen who were protecting them. The murder came soon after. Mark developed a clear idea of who the architects of the slaying were as well as insights into his father, other family members, the ``fetid town'' and, most important, himself. Although overlong, his book makes for absorbing reading. (Feb.)