A mini review of Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri.
With some books, you can tell within the first few passages that they will be among your forever favorites. Everything Sad is Untrue was that way for me. It is beautiful, hilarious, and heart wrenching in turns. I loved reading it.
This “autobiographical novel” tells the true story of a young Iranian refugee who gave up everything when his mother decided to follow Christ. Transitioning from wealthy, upper class son of two doctors to child of the ghetto, Nayeri found a whole new world when he left Iran for Oklahoma. (Because Everything Sad is Untrue is based purely on Nayeri’s childhood memory and is not research-driven, he calls it an “autobiographical novel” rather than an autobiography.)
Nayeri tells the story as if he were still a young boy. He’s a young boy who has turned into Scheherazade, spinning stories of life as a refugee who wants his readers to understand that people are people, no matter their origins. Sometimes his rabbit trails are confusing. But all the threads weave back together like the knots on a Persian rug: the funny bathroom stories, the explanations of Shi’ite status levels, the offhand remarks about drug smuggling or a stepdad’s abuse. Nayeri may not understand his mother’s conversion, but he deeply respects her as the original “unstoppable force,” the small person who never stops giving and working and loving.
If you can read only one memoir this year, please choose this book!
