Robert Hal TERTESSIAN
( n. 1974 )

Misery is the existential semi-autobiographical novel of the cycle of growth and decay that characterizes a man's superlative striving for life. This cycle is an exaggerated rendering of the tides that govern all man's lives. In it an alienated scholar passes variously through romantic and even intellectual distress to become essential. In it is expressed the inevitable balance of good for good and bad for bad that heaven tries unyieldingly to approximate on earth. It is a grand theme based on a mythic scale. And

It is shrouded in stark realism. It is the crystallization of many of the author's earlier themes but with a language style that is increasingly abstract. Set variously at Yale, West Hartford, and asylums, it is as imaginative as it is vivid.

An author and his acquaintances are among the many repatriated Armenians in the Caucasus. They arrive at a time when antagonisms begin anew between Armenia and its neighboring rival. This shock is exceeded only by the culture shock of finding that local Armenians are not the adorable, charming people familiar to them in the Diaspora but a serious, overworked, unamused race. They become involved in the social mores of the area in a way that is seemingly inextricable, finding romances among the citizens while their girlfriends do the same. It is only crisis, both personal and national, that brings a varied nation together and untangles the personal affairs of the protagonists. It is the author's return to descriptive works and is characterized by easy, grand, cantering language. It is an epic in the making.

To Make a Man is the semi-autobiographical novella of the cycle of growth and decay that characterizes a man's rise to eminence. This cycle is an exaggerated rendering of the tides that govern all man's lives. In it an alienated scholar passed variously through romantic disappointment, self denial, and even mental distress to become a modern thinker and Christian mystic. In it is expressed the inevitable balance of good for good and bad for bad that heaven tries to unyieldingly approximate on earth. It leads to the ideals that make the foundation for the new heaven and earth. It is a grand theme based on a mythic scale. And it is shrouded in stark realism. It is the crystallization of many of the author's earlier themes. Set variously at Yale, West Hartford, and an asylum, it is as imaginative as it is vivid.

This volume collects all of the fiction and drama of the author. They include Five Novellas, Five Plays, The Baptizer's Cycle, and The Underside of Yerevan. Five Novellas includes The Rite of Youth, A Balkan Epic, A Soldier's Life, The Specters of St. John's, and Notes to Poland. Five Plays includes Elihus's Folly, Christmas Day, The Church Picnic, The Widower, and Forty Three. The Baptizer's Cycle includes A Charmed Life, John in the Madhouse, and Life in the Death Camp. The Underside of Yerevan is a separate novella. The last work, The First Act, includes A Bit of Eden, Marx's Dilemma, and The Orthodox Seminary.