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| Image: Penguin Random House |
Excepting for Waiting on Wednesday posts, which are all about book that are coming and #tbt posts, which are all about books ten years or older that should not be forgotten, the remaining posts are mainly inspired by what I have recently read. Teen Tuesday usually features books for seventh and eighth grade readers that have slightly more mature content. The majority of my reading is of books that anyone can read. The last two YA books I read this summer, while quite entertaining, are a bit too mature for middle school and more appropriate for high school readers. So I reached back to 2018 in my reading archives to find one I loved, but curiously did not feature on Teen Tuesday.
Teen Tuesday features Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. Darius Kellner is a very depressed high school student who is obsessed with artisanal tea, all things Star Trek and Tolkien. He's overweight, not athletic and bullied at school. He also feels like he doesn't fit in at home. He calls himself a "fractional Persian" from his mom's side and thinks his "ubermensch" white father hates him. The family travels to Iran to visit his grandparents. Babou is terminally ill. Darius worries about his grandfather's judgment of him. He's worried because he doesn't speak enough Farsi. He's worried that Babou will think him weak because he takes medication for his depression. But Iran is a wonder to Darius. He finds himself accepted. He loves the culture and the food. He even makes a friend in Sohrab, who calls him Darioush, the Persian variation of his name.
Teen Tuesday features Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. Darius Kellner is a very depressed high school student who is obsessed with artisanal tea, all things Star Trek and Tolkien. He's overweight, not athletic and bullied at school. He also feels like he doesn't fit in at home. He calls himself a "fractional Persian" from his mom's side and thinks his "ubermensch" white father hates him. The family travels to Iran to visit his grandparents. Babou is terminally ill. Darius worries about his grandfather's judgment of him. He's worried because he doesn't speak enough Farsi. He's worried that Babou will think him weak because he takes medication for his depression. But Iran is a wonder to Darius. He finds himself accepted. He loves the culture and the food. He even makes a friend in Sohrab, who calls him Darioush, the Persian variation of his name.
I often use the phrase, "heartbreaking and hilarious" in my posts. Though depression is a disease with serious consequences, there is an unfair stigma associated with it. In this heartbreaking and hilarious first-person narrative, Darius paints an intimate portrait of pain, of needing to belong and of learning to love oneself. Darius became a character of my heart. I may find characters endearing and memorable; but very few take up residence in my heart.
I was so happy to have read this with my ears. When words and phrases in foreign languages are part of the narrative, I either skip over them completely or stop the flow to mangle them phonetically. New-to-me narrator Michael Levi Harris did a lovely job of portraying Darius in all his uncertainty, but also brought the melodic Farsi to life, adding to my enjoyment.
Darius the Great is Not Okay was Mr. Khorram's debut novel. It won the William C. Morris Debut Award; the Asian/ Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature; was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and was named one of TIME magazine's 10 Best Young Adult and Children's Books of the Year. Tune in tomorrow for some news about Darius!
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