Michael J. Arlen is an Armenian-American

Armenian-American

Armenian Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Armenia. During the United States 2000 Census, 385,488 respondents indicated either full or partial Armenian ancestry...

 writer and former television critic of The New Yorker

The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

. The son of the prominent Armenian-American

Armenian-American

Armenian Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Armenia. During the United States 2000 Census, 385,488 respondents indicated either full or partial Armenian ancestry...

 writer, Michael Arlen

Michael Arlen

Michael Arlen , original name Dikran Kouyoumdjian, was an Armenian essayist, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and scriptwriter, who had his greatest successes in the 1920s while living and writing in England...

, he is the author of Living Room War, a book on the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

's portrayal and the social culture of America in the media in the USA. He is also the author of Exiles and the critically acclaimed Passage to Ararat, both of which are autobiographical narratives of Arlen's Armenian ancestry.

Arlen grew up in England and went to a boarding school in France prior to the outbreak of World War II. As a result of the war, Arlen's family moved to the United States and he became an American citizen at the age of 21.

Works

• Living Room War (1969)
• An American Verdict (1974)
• Exiles (1970)
• Passage to Ararat (1975)
• Thirty Seconds (1980)