Births

by William Saroyan, Aram Saroyan (Illustrator)

The distinguished American writer presents his thoughts on birth, childhood, human nature, and a variety of other subjects

125 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

William Saroyan was an Armenian-American writer, renowned for his novels, plays, and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his unique literary style, often characterized by a deep appreciation for everyday life and human resilience. His works frequently explored themes of Armenian-American immigrant experiences, particularly in his native California, and were infused with optimism, humor, and sentimentality.
Saroyan's breakthrough came with The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), a short story that established him as a major literary voice during the Great Depression. He went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940 for The Time of Your Life, though he declined the award, and in 1943, he won an Academy Award for Best Story for The Human Comedy. His novel My Name Is Aram (1940), based on his childhood, became an international bestseller.
Though celebrated for his literary achievements, Saroyan had a tumultuous career, often struggling with financial instability due to his gambling habits and an unwillingness to compromise with Hollywood. His later works were less commercially successful, but he remained a prolific writer, publishing essays, memoirs, and plays throughout his life.
Saroyan's legacy endures through his influence on American literature, his contributions to Armenian cultural identity, and the honors bestowed upon him, including a posthumous induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame. His remains are divided between Fresno, California, and Armenia, reflecting his deep connection to both his birthplace and ancestral homeland.

Reviews

[Mark L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saroyan wrote the stories of his first book, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze," at the rate of one a day for thirty days. Thirty years later, he tried the same exercise again. It kind of goes with his vice of gambling-- the attitude of "Let's see if I pull this trick off according to my self-imposed rules." Anyway, after another fifteen years, here he is in Births spending a month expounding on the theme of births for twenty or thirty minutes every midday. (He notes the dates and times for us.) But he regrets the monetary gambling that lost him a lot of money earlier in his life. And toward the end he admits not being entirely happy with Births, which wasn't published in his lifetime. He doesn't regret his self-imposed rule of doing no research and checking no facts. He begins to think, though, that maybe he needed the guidance of a gimmick-- like the list of the year's departed notables that he used in his previous book Obituaries.

In the course of the month, he circles around the idea that everything is of great significance (and what is more so than a birth?) whereas everything is also of no significance at all. And the idea everyone is absolutely unique (even at birth, if we could perceive the uniqueness; or maybe not), whereas everyone is really quite the same. And the idea that those paradoxes should be amusing.

It's all couched in long, sonorous sentences, and I have no idea how much editing went into the book but toward the end I noticed-- along with a misprint or two-- some sentences in which I couldn't make out the structure even after a couple of readings. The whole thing could have been edited down into an essay a quarter the length, but then the improvisational music of the language would have been lost, along with the twists and turns of thinking, and it wouldn't have been Saroyan.