By H. Jack Aslanian A romantic young man visits his old homeland with other new Americans of Armenian origin and encounters characters and situations familiar to anyone who has ever survived a chartered tour. Meet Sylvia (attracted to the wrong men as a lemming to the sea), Robert (no commitment, please), Zaven (old faithful), lusty Laura (she of the double negatives), sundry archetypal tourists and natives (some of whom feel infinitely superior to those who left), and Toros, the hero, wistful, charming, and savvy (who may or may not have found true love at last). As a sociological study of the interdependent societies of hyphenated Americans, Fixed Movements tells of immigrants in transition and in transit, returning to the home place to confront, often painfully, their own pasts, enduring the culture shock which must occur before roots can take hold in the new land, and possessed always of a yearning to be elsewhere. As a book to prime the traveler. Fixed Movements conjures up sights and sounds and smells and music of sensual Armenia, transporting us to the ballet, to the monastery of Geghard, on the picnic with quintessential Middle Eastern peasants, and to every corner of Yerevan the capital. Strawberry Hill Press (1986)
