This is Linda Allen, a radio reader in Amarillo offering my thoughts on a unique true story titled Everything Sad is Untrue. Author Daniel Nayeri’s given name was Khousrou before he landed in the US and became known as Daniel, the simplification undergone by many immigrants over time to make their names more American and create a new identity. He wrote his childhood story in 2020 and shares what he remembers of fleeing what was then Persia with his mother and older sister.
Daniel was only six years old when his family's exodus became imperative due to his mother’s conversion from a privileged class of Islamicism to Christianity around the time Muslim fundamentalists took power from the Shah and everything changed. Being able to leave the country at all was due to a series of unlikely events and distractions. The exiles relied on kind strangers the first year and were in a refugee camp in Italy for the second year while his mother tried to gain access to asylum opportunities in the United States. Eventually they made their way to Oklahoma and began their new life.
By then Daniel had turned eight and begun to learn English. The storytelling begins as he’s in middle school. Consider for a moment your own memories of the middle school minefield of navigating relationships, hormonal awakenings, and social and physical awkwardness. Those years can truly be fraught and anxiety filled. Now imagine being the only adolescent in the school who looks like you, speaks Farsi better than English and brings home cooked lunches your peers think are “weird and smell awful.”
Riding the bus is a nightmare of creative abuse but the first law of kid code is never snitch so you endure the indignities stoically and maybe cry at night. Add to that the loss of all the familiarity and beauty of your former home, financial insecurity because your mother can no longer work as a doctor, and a menacing stepfather and you’ll have some idea of Daniel’s situation.
As he moves through his new reality Daniel tries to reconcile his past of being born in the “land of stories and genies” and now finding himself in the “land of concrete and weathermen” by telling stories to his disbelieving classmates. His father, a dentist, stayed in their homeland so he talks to Daniel on the phone while Daniel tries not to rile his volatile, inscrutable new stepdad.
Using the unique perspective of first person as a middle school age boy lends strength to Nayeri’s narrative. He’s able to share the difficulties with straightforward, unadorned honesty from a thirteen year old’s mind that includes favorite snacks and how to excel at video games. Although this book is intended for young adults - and I do think they’ll enjoy it - it was far from an easy read for me.
As an adult with a fully developed capacity for empathy I set it aside when the going got tough for Daniel more than once. The middle school language belies the adult themes.
But this is not a tale of woe meant to engender sympathy or sorrow - it’s a story of gratitude, empowerment and realization for Daniel that his mother is unstoppable.
There’s humor as well when Daniel’s father comes to visit and plays Disneyland dad by taking his kids to the water park where he comes off as a big spender doling out cash to get kids to fetch him drinks and snacks while his own daughter and son avoid him. The locals realize Daniel’s stories may be true.
“Everything Sad is Untrue” brought me new knowledge and awareness thanks to young Daniel.
You’ve been listening to Linda Allen for the HPPR Radio Readers Fall Read.
