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Insecure high school boy.
Loves “The Lord of the Rings”.
Doesn’t have any real friends.
Better at sports than he realizes.
Struggles with depression.
Never feels good enough for his father.
No, no, no, I’m not talking about my own adolescent self.
That’s Darius Kellner, the protagonist of Adib Khorram’s YA novel “Darius the Great is Not Okay”.
Here’s what happens.
Darius takes a springtime trip with his family (mom, dad, little sister) to his mom’s home country. While there, he connects with his sprawling extended family, all manner of grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.
Throughout the holiday, he feels alternately awkward and graceful. Depressed and elated. Outcast and beloved. The family makes outings to local landmarks. They celebrate a national holiday. Darius plays soccer with some neighborhood kids. He is teased. He is defended.
For the first time, Darius makes a true friend, Sohrab, the kind of friend who helps you realize your own amazingness.
I dug the book.
Not because of its accolades (it’s one of Time magazine’s “100 Best YA Books of All Time”), but because it’s well-written and I’m a sucker for stories of shy, book-nerdy kids.
Especially if they are good at sports.
Especially if they feel they can never measure up to their father’s expectations.
Ahem.
So, the scene where Darius and his father reconcile wrung me out.
Darius has clambered a rooftop refuge in a public park after an argument with Sohrab. His dad finds him and opens up about his own struggles with depression, how dark things got at one point.
The wall between them crumbles.
It’s the kind of connection I craved, but never got, with my own father.
Strange to think it came in a book I found by doing a search on “best kids books about Iran”.
Darius’s grandparents are Persian. Their home city is Yazd, in central Iran. The sightseeing trips include visits to Persopolis, the Tower of Silence, and Dowlatabad Garden. The holiday they celebrate is Nowruz.
Then again, maybe it’s not so strange.
People are pretty much the same. We all want to be loved, please our parents, make friends, eat too much great food. We all want to dance. We all want to belong.
Happy reading,
Jeff
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Image credits: Persopolis: Alborzagros; Tower of Silence: Diego Delso; Dowlatabad: Bernard Gagnon.
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