Ararat by Frank Westerman

Usually I put a picture of the book cover in my post, but this time I don’t. I can give you a picture of the real thing. This is Mount Ararat as it stands over Yerevan and as I see it everyday on my way to work or when I look out of my bedroom window (if the weather cooperates, that is).

For the really curious, there is a webcam on Ararat here, which gives you a live picture of Mount Ararat.

Most people, if they know anything about this mountain at all, will know Mount Ararat from the Bible as the mountain where Noah’s Ark stranded after the flood. For the Armenian people, though, Ararat has another meaning. It stands for the lands they lost, the lands of eastern Turkey that Armenians traditionally inhabited but which they lost when up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the Armenian Genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century. The thing is, no matter how closely Mount Ararat is located to Armenia and its capital Yerevan, the Ararat is located just across the border in Turkey. And this border has been closed for some seventeen years now.

The hold of Ararat over the city is impressive (more so than on the picture, I,d say). You only have to be in Yerevan on a clear day and you will immediately understand why this mountain and its location are so important to Armenians. Though I don’t have the emotional tie to the mountain that Armenians have, I still think, having lived in Yerevan for almost four years, that the view of Ararat is an impressive and beautiful sight and I often find myself looking for the mountain, just to “check if it is still there”. I have become so used to its presence.

Now, from the mountain to the book Ararat. I had it on my shelves for a year and a half before I finally picked it up. I wanted to read the book and was looking forward to it, but somehow the time or my mood were never right. Now that I read it, I kind of regret that I didn’t pick it up sooner, which is very rare for me. Usually, even if I was totally bowled over by book, I don’t feel regret at not reading it before, I am just happy that I read it all. But for some reason, this time it is different. I really wish I had picked this one up sooner. The reason why I finally moved it way up to the top of the TBR-list, is that I noticed some six weeks ago that it has been translated into English.

Frank Westerman (English version of his site is here) is a Dutch journalist and writer who was raised in a very religious (Dutch Reformed) family. He actually grew up in the same region where I was born and raised. Not the exact same area, but close enough for me to be able to relate to and recognize things he mentions in his book. So, apart from the mountain there were other connections with the book for me, which I suppose one way or another affected my enjoying this book. Over the years Westerman started doubting his religion and religion in general. Ararat is about the journey back “to his roots” and about Westerman’s search for why and when his ideas about religion changed. The central link in this personal journey is Mount Ararat. It is about religion, yes, and its role in a person’s life, but it is also more than that. Westerman fills the book with information about the mountain, the role it and the story of Noah’s Ark plays in the monotheistic religions, the arkologists (people who are searching for the actual Ark of Noah; link takes you to a Wikipedia-site with lots of links), geological information, Westerman’s preparations to climb the mountain. The book culminates in Westerman’s attempt to climb Mount Ararat. If this sounds somewhat chaotic and overloaded for a book of 284 pages (in the Dutch edition), rest assured: it is not. The book is a lot more structured than you might think based my description. Also, it is very readable, because of the changes of pace and the mix of the personal and the informative. I found the book extremely readable and enjoyed it very much. But then, I was somewhat biased from the start.

To make this review go full circle I will end with one of my favorite passages of the book, when Westerman stands somewhere halfway up the Ararat and is looking down on Armenia. I have often wondered what Armenia would look like from up there. The translation (and a bit of paraphrasing) is mine, so my apologies for any mistakes or lack of quality .

From under the screen of clouds that were gathering around the top of the Ararat, we looked down on half of Armenia, which stretched like a fata morgana towards the horizon. It was like being in the top stands of a sports stadium. Down in the arena we saw the sunlight reflect on Yerevan’s highrise buildings. With bare eyes, one could distinguish the split obelisk of the Genocide Memorial, and the statue of Mother Armenia on an opposite hill, and the miniature vulcano of the airport. Further to the west, at the foot of the now snowfree Aragats, I could see the four stately coolingtowers of Armenia’s only nuclear power plant.

This is the original quote in Dutch:

Zo van onder de luifel van wolken die zich rond de top van de Ararat formeerde, keken we neer op half Armenie, dat als een luchtspiegeling tot aan de horizon lag uitgevloeid. Het was alsof we ons in de nok van een stadion bevonden. In de arena beneden zagen we het zonlicht tegen de hoogbouw van Jerevan kaatsen. Je kon de gespleten obelisk van het genocidemonument met het blote oog onderscheiden, net als het Moeder Armeniebeeld op een tegenover liggende heuvel en de miniatuurvulkaan van de luchthaven. Meer naar het westen, aan de voet van de nu sneeuwvrije Aragats, ontwaarde ik ook de vier statige koeltorens van Armenies enige kerncentrale.(p236)

Okay then, I will give you a picture of the cover of the Dutch edition of Ararat. But only because it is such a simple, beautiful cover. Above the title it’s Noah’s Ark and it is actually cut out of the cover, so you see the first page of the inside book. That page is covered in a print of pairs of different animals that joined Noah in the Ark.

Here are reviews from English newspapers the Telegraph and the Independent, but there are more reviews out there. I haven’t found any reviews by bloggers yet, but I do know that Gondal Girl has the book on her TBR-pile (hint! hint! ).

According to his website, several other books by Frank Westerman will be translated into English, among them Engineers of the Soul, which I read some years back and enjoyed a lot (another one that’s up for a reread).