The Way It Turned Out

by Herant Katchadourian

This memoir is the account of the life of the author’s spanning seven decades lived on three The Middle East, Europe and the United States. What sets this memoir apart from so many others is the breadth of its cultural dimensions and the depth of its psychological insights. Many memoirs are written by celebrities or those by pervasive traumas in their lives have a voyeuristic quality. However, there is very little in these lives with which people can identify. The author’s memoir is highly distinctive, but the issues he focuses on have many features that are common with other people’s lives, such as the role of chance and the reconstruction of past events in the light of the present. These issues are presented in a way that readers can learn and benefit from it. This book is the account of a fascinating life that is not only interesting to read but instructive by placing the various stages and facets of life in their historical and cultural contexts such as the history and culture of the Middle East, which are important but not well known.

478 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2012

Reviews

[Quiltyknitwit]

After seeing conceptual artist Nina Katchadourian's Curioser exhibit, I became interested in her family. Her parents are prominently featured in the exhibit in a video, and they seemed very intelligent and lively. The author of this book is the artist's father, an accomplished academic at Stanford for many years, and he truly has lived a fascinating life.

[Anne Haack]

I finished reading this book while traveling in Armenia in 2023. Thirty years ago, Herant Katchadourian was my professor and adviser at Stanford. His memoir is well woven and will take you around the world and through the mind and soul too.

[Joseph Haletky]

Very readable memoir of a great but humble man, one of Stanford's most beloved teachers. He weaves his own life, the history and cultures of his international upbringing, and his musings on faith, life's meaning, destiny into a delightful conversation which leaves one feeling that he has spent quality time with an intimate friend.