I’m currently reading Daniel Nayeri’s novel, Everything Sad is Untrue which the author claims is a true story about Daniel’s experience as an Iranian child whose family escapes Iran (the former Persia) and settles in Oklahoma. I highly recommend it as a well-written, joyful, humorous, sad, and ultimately quotable book about family, culture, and tradition.
Daniel tells the story of his family in the manner of Scheherazade and claims that “every story is the sound of a storyteller begging to stay alive.” Truer words, and all that. Insightful beyond his years, Daniel relates everything from how to survive in Oklahoma as a twelve-year-old boy with an accent to how to recognize evil:
Suddenly evil isn’t punching people or even hating them.
Suddenly it’s all the stuff you’ve left undone.
All the kindness you could have given.
Imagine that for a minute.
Imagine what it means.
Well, anyway, don’t get too upset.
You can always find somebody worse-acting that you and say, at least
I’m not as bad as that guy.
And you can feel good and go to the mall and go back to being evil.
I’ll let you sit with that for a while. If you’re interested, the book is available at Amazon, ISBN 978-1-64614-000-8