Assyrian Tales and Confessions

A book by Mikhael K. Pius

Review by Basil K. Pius

Assyrian Tales and Confessions is a 120-page spirited little book of ten stories and thirteen amusing personal essays, illustrated by several delightful cartoons and sketches. Michael (also known as Minashi) delights the reader with earnest details and personal honesty in sharing some heartwarming anecdotes, especially of his growing up days in British camps in Iraq, where a community of civilian and military Assyrians worked and played, fought for and served the British loyally through two world wars in a lifestyle and culture of their own.

The author tells of a lonely old Assyrian in America yearning for ethnic companionship. ..A teenager gripped by a secret desire to smoke and drink to prove himself a man... A loyal friendship in America between two young Assyrians that ends up in a romantic tragedy... A little boy who learns the lessons of obedience the hard way - just to mention a few of these tales.

Whether Mikhael describes his unforgettable childhood bus rides to the bustling Capital "The City of a Thousand and One Nights" with his grandmother during the 1930s or his daredevil jump off a speeding bus in Habbaniya in 1940, he never hesitates to take the reader by the hand to share his youthful personal secrets: his early smoking addiction; his indelible fascination with cinema; his humiliating assignment as a sports reporter; his embarrassing stage fright; his terrifying "bull-fight" as a matador, or his other foibles.

As Mikhael rides the waves into a nostalgic ear of a simple lifestyle, he definitely awakens in his mature reader a deep sense of longing for the unembellished past. As a result, it is easier for the reader to identify with the long-awaited dreams of a young introspective Assyrian, now fundamentally self-educated, and dedicated enough publish his own book in his "dreamland" country in the winter of his life.

This collection will make a delightful reading investment, or gift, to any Assyrian family, or relative or non-Assyrian friend, on any occasion - not necessarily for its underlying moral value but for its simplicity of style and entertaining quality.