The Gimmicks audiobook

At the heart of the story is the Armenian Genocide, although we don’t see it happen, the underlying thing that keeps the story moving is fighting for acknowledgement by Turkey who even to this day denies it. I first became aware of the Armenian Genocide after reading Chris Bohjalian’s beautifully written novel The Sandcastle Girls. I wondered then, why I hadn’t know about before. I don’t recall this being taught in school when learning about WWI. Even today, it’s still being not just denied by Turkey, but also the Trump Administration. The Congress voted on resolutions accepting that it did occur by a Democratic House in October, 2019 and a Republican Senate agreed as recently as December, 2019 that what happened was genocide, BUT the Trump administration chose not to call it genocide (surprise, surprise, aligning itself with yet another authoritarian leader.) Here are a couple of short articles which describe it:https://www.history.com/topics/world-...https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytim...This is a story of two brothers, cousins really, but brothers to the core and the girl in their lives . Spanning the ‘70’s and ‘80’s the story of these characters from Kirovakan, Soviet Armenia is a story of love, of family, of betrayal, abandonment, of conviction no matter what. Reuben, small in stature, serious and intense and strong in his belief that he must do every he can to force Turkey to admit the genocide. Avo, giant in stature who tells jokes is not quite as intense, the opposite of Reuben. Yet the two bond in a way the impacts their lives as they time moves from one decade to another and they move around from place to place - Kirovakan, Paris, Los Angeles: “They were cousins of cousins, really, not brothers at all, but they were seven years old and the distinctions seemed theirs to make. It was as if, in the two years since the. I’m one had arrived to join the smaller one, they had spent all their multivariate powers soldering together their separate histories. Saying brother this, brother that. Making it so.” “Jart. The shattering— that was what Avo’s parents used to call the genocide, and it made sense to him that another shattering was what it would take for the world to acknowledge it, too.” It’s the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia that seeks the revenge to try to bring about this acknowledgment.Their story is tied together by Mina, Reuben’s backgammon rival and the girl the Avo falls in love with. Yes, backgammon is a part of the story as is wrestling, reflected on the cover and through the interspersed narrative of Avo’s wrestling manager. I won’t say much much about the plot, but will say that it is thought provoking and sad and worth reading.I received an advanced copy of this book from Harper through Edelweiss.

Wow. What a book. It’s unthinkable that there are no reviews for it and I’m the first one. Is no one reading it? It is a tough sell? I mean, the country seems to care about Armenians (provided they are Kardashians) and wrestling pretty much unilaterally, although, to be fair, this novel is as much about wrestling as Kardashians are about being Armenians. But really I’m trying to say that this is a stunning book, a terrific book and I can only hope my review can bring some much deserved attention and readership to it. Spanning two decades and two (or three, depending on how you think of Armenian geopolitical position) continents, the book follows a relationship between two brothers (technically distant cousins) and those around them. Growing up in a small Armenian town, the boys are as different as two boys can be. Avo is a definition of a friendly giant, Ruben is small, nerdy, solemn. Avo wrestes, Ruben wrestles his demons. Avo loves, Ruben obsesses. But they are bonded together despite their differences and so, when Ruben becomes involved in the politics of the region, he inevitably drags Avo along with him. And thus both set off on their own destructive trajectories. Avo ends up in America as a professional wrestler. Ruben ends up in Europe working for Armenian Liberation Front. And then there are also the stories of Avo’s fiancé left behind and Terry, Avo’s wrestling manager. The narrative interweave taking the readers from the early 1970s to 1989, you follow the threads and eventually get the entire tragic story. And if you’re expecting a happy ending, you probably shouldn’t read a book about a country so permanently scarred by a genocide. But endings aside, this book has so much going on. The main thing are probably the characters. Unforgettable distinct fascinating characters. Avo alone would have carried this story ably on his Atlas like shoulders, after all he is the main event here, the Armenian Odysseus, set to travel the world, desperately trying to get back to his one and only love. And Ruben, the sad, weak Ruben, destined to be the second fiddle, alone, tilting at his windmills. And Terry, a wrestler turned manager with ironed blond mane (which seems like a fairly direct rip off of a very famous blonde wrestler named Terry), who seems to be the embodiment of a disillusioned American of a certain generation, desperate to find a form of a substitute for a beloved brother killed in a war. And Mina, Avo’s Penelope, a girl whose own trajectory turns out to be way more traditional than one might have imagined. And all of their stories and all of their gimmicks. The narratives chosen by them and for them. The stories one spins to live inside. Every gimmick, every choice. These characters have an epic quality to them, the novel has an epic quality to it, a certain weight that proper literature carries, a substance, a significance. It’s such a powerhouse of a story. Much like with wrestling, it’s a fictional narrative that nevertheless ,when delivered right, will throw you down. To think that an author that young (born in 1987) can write with such restraint, sophistication and emotional intelligence is just…wow. And his descriptions too are gorgeous, bringing to life places small and large from California to the Southern Caucasus. A completely immersive reading experience. The only possible detractor (or not even a detractor, just a thought, really) is that in this fraught geopolitical times the novel doesn’t really do much to endear immigrants to the world, or at least US. Mainly they are represented as those who can be placed within various preset and prehated stereotypes…people from certain regions are depicted as somewhat backward, very much stuck in their ways, obsessed with (effectively crippled by) the past, fighting unwinnable wars, seeking unattainable legitimacy, willing to risk innocent lives for their cause, etc. Or, alternatively, as immigrants, they are insular, barely making an effort to fit in, learn the language, etc. So not a very flattering picture of a currently loathed contingent of the population in a very turbulent time. But then again, I’m not sure white nationalist and their ilk go around reading novels about other cultures, so it isn’t exactly throwing gasoline on any fires. No one has needed a reason to hate in a very long time, nor have those convictions been amenable to educated opinions and changes…hence…the world today. But all that aside, this was an awesome read, a gorgeous story, a proper literary novel and one of the best books I’ve read in ages (which given how many books I read is a high compliment indeed). Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Look, if you tell me there’s a novel about professional wrestling and the Armenian genocide, I’m going to read it. Not even because wrestling plays a part, this book is just so good. So beautifully written, emotionally rich, and historically substantial. Maybe the metaphor of pro wrestling gimmicks is a bit on the nose for a story about the lies we tell to sell a version of the world we want others to see, but the execution had me floored. This is an all-timer for me.

“I looked up and saw the orange sun pressing through the gray skim of the sky like a kiss through a shower door.”

Took a long time to read but enjoyable. Recommended by my son. I would recommend it.

THE GIMMICKS is a startlingly good, precisely plotted novel about the lasting impact of trauma on generations of Armenians. As a meditation on friendship and love, on the American dream and even pro-wrestling, this gorgeously written novel was a delight to read. Chris McCormick is an immensely talented stylist and THE GIMMICKS reminded me deeply of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY.

Sad. Funny. Characters you love. Writing so talented I wanted to write down sentences from the book.

This was super interesting. I bought it because it had pro wrestling in it. And too be honest I do wish it had more of that, as it’s really only a small backdrop to one part of the enormous plot. But even so I’m now so interested in the Armenian genocide and it’s denial, still to this day, that I was reading Wikipedia articles till 2 am after I finished. It really was a great novel. My one point of criticism is some of the writing seemed awkward at times. I had to re-read some sentences that read a bit awkward throughout and it could have benefited from one more draft perhaps. Overall this book was fantastic historical fiction. I would recommend to fans of Jess Walter or even Amor Towles. 3.5 rounded up.

A rather unique set of characters, combined with a powerful and contentious historical fight, creates a novel full of unexpected twists and turns, much heart ache, and a powerful lament for what-could-have-been on any number of front. If I had one complaint, it would be the storyline involving Terry Krill...which feels like a plot strand that only fits perpendicularly to the rest of the novel.

I was not sure I would enjoy this but I was pleasantly surprised how engaged I became. The characters are fully developed and you follow them thru all the ups and downs of their lives. I knew nothing about the frictions with Turkey and Russia so this was interesting aspect of the boik.I would recommend this book.

“The Gimmicks is a gorgeous epic that astounds with its scope and beauty. With empathy and humor, McCormick unravels the ties between brotherhood and betrayal, love and abandonment, and the fictions we create to live with the pain of the past. This novel will blow you away.”—Brit Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The MothersSet in the waning years of the Cold War, a stunning debut novel about a trio of young Armenians that moves from the Soviet Union, across Europe, to Southern California, and at its center, one of the most tragic cataclysms in twentieth-century history—the Armenian Genocide—whose traumatic reverberations will have unexpected consequences on all three lives.This exuberant, wholly original novel begins in Kirovakan, Armenia, in 1971. Ruben Petrosian is a serious, solitary young man who cares about two things: mastering the game of backgammon to beat his archrival, Mina, and studying the history of his ancestors. Ruben grieves the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, a crime still denied by the descendants of its perpetrators, and dreams of vengeance.When his orphaned cousin, Avo, comes to live with his family, Ruben’s life is transformed. Gregarious and physically enormous, with a distinct unibrow that becomes his signature, Avo is instantly beloved. He is everything Ruben is not, yet the two form a bond they swear never to break.But their paths diverge when Ruben vanishes—drafted into an extremist group that will stop at nothing to make Turkey acknowledge the genocide. Unmoored by Ruben’s disappearance, Avo and Mina grow close in his absence. But fate brings the cousins together once more, when Ruben secretly contacts Avo, convincing him to leave Mina and join the extremists—a choice that will dramatically alter the course of their lives.Left to unravel the threads of this story is Terry “Angel Hair” Krill, a veteran of both the US Navy and the funhouse world of professional wrestling, whose life intersects with Avo, Ruben, and Mina’s in surprising and devastating ways.Told through alternating perspectives, The Gimmicks is a masterpiece of storytelling. Chris McCormick brilliantly illuminates the impact of history and injustice on ordinary lives and challenges us to confront the spectacle of violence and the specter of its aftermath.

I don't know where to start. This is a tale of three people, cousins Avo and Ruben, and their friend/love interest Mina from the 1970s to 1989, It's also a tale of immigrants, wrestling, and backgammon. Most importantly, however, it's the story of how the Armenian genocide has echoed down the years. It starts in the Armenian SSR, where Avo and Ruben conspire for Ruben to replace Mina in a backgammon tournament in Paris, where he joins an Armenian liberation about and disappears into the mist, until he convinces Avo to go to California, where Avo takes advantage of his size and becomes a wrestler. Mina, meanwhile, is left behind by both men. Oh, and McCormick throws in Terry, who is Avo's coach who has his own issues. I liked the shifting voices, which helped to pull some very different strands together. It helps, I think, to have some knowledge not only about Armenia (and certainly the genocide) but also the time frame of the novel but if you don't (and actually even if you do), you might find yourself doing some googling. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. An ambitious novel for fans of literary fiction.

Arvo and Ruben are cousins who first met each other at 15 years old, after the death of Arvo’s parents in a factory fire. Arvo moves in with Ruben’s family, where they live in Kirovakan, Armenia during the USSR occupation, which still bears the scars of the Armenian genocide from WWI. Arvo is the brawn, big and strong while Ruben is the intellectual and talented backgammon player competing against local girl Mina, who is favored by their teacher. Ruben is a nationalist, angry at the Russian occupiers and ruthless, ready to manipulate Arvo into doing whatever Ruben needs to get ahead in life, while remaining insistent about returning glory to Armenia. While Arvo loves Mina (who loves him back), he is constantly pulled between Mina’s love and Ruben’s expectations of Arvo joining him in his quest for glory. I went into this book completely blind to Armenian culture and history. The author does an absolutely brilliant job of interposing historical fact with the fiction of the novel. This novel is incredibly sad but it also examines lives full of choices taken or paths not taken. It was fascinating.

Chris McCormick masterfully creates a world full of history and captivating characters. I was so invested in the lives of Ruben, Avo, and Mina. I love how McCormick braided the narrative. It jumps back and forth between Armenia in the early 1970s and America in 1989, and points and places in between. He ends chapters with the reader wanting to know more. It can be risky for authors to jump around in the narrative, focusing on one character and then another. In my experience, there's always one character whom I really grow to love, and other characters recede in the distance and I get impatient wanting to get back to the beloved character's story. But I loved all the characters in this book. It is tough to give them all equal weight, but McCormick does it so well. I definitely had the most affection and sympathy for Avo, and I'm glad that McCormick made me wait until the very end to discover his fate.

The Gimmicks is a study in contrasts: backgammon and professional wrestling, two non-biological brothers and the woman both love, life in Soviet Armenia and life in the United States, the elegance of the 7th century polymath Shirikatsi and the destructiveness of ASALA. Monte Melkonian and Hagop Hagopian appear in the novel as they did in actual life. Hidden beneath this story of love lost and found, causes discovered and forgotten, and justice sought and denied is the Armenian Genocide. Different from and yet on a level with David Kherdian’s The Road from Home and Chris Bohjalian’s The Sandcastle Girls, the novel is artistically plotted and moves across decades and political movements while touching upon the intricacies of competitive backgammon and professional wrestling. My sole caveat is that the cover design does not indicate the depth of the book. I look forward to reading more from Chris McCormick.

The writing was great but I’m conflicted over how I feel about the ending: i understand the stylistic choice to not spell everything out but I wanted more closure for/with Avo in particular.I felt like a lot of key points in this book were inferred or gleaned from close reading, so I might have to go back and reread it to fully understand what happened. I think this is due in part to the shifts in time and perspective, which I didn’t love as they’re not as clear as they could be. That being said. I appreciate that we get layers on the characters and subtle twists with different perspectives as time goes on. Beyond the substance of the book and the writing itself, I think there’s interesting analysis to be had into why the author chose to tell it initially from the “american” perspective tho this is a book in part about about immigrants and “other”ism.