It was true. The largest fish, a leviathan nearly the size of Laleh’s hand, only had its right eye. The left side of its head— face—(do fish have faces?)—was all smooth, unbroken orange scales. Sohrab makes sure people speak English so Darius can understand what's going on. He gets Darius an Iranian National Football Team jersey that makes him feel like a True Persian for the first time. And he understands that sometimes, best friends don't have to talk. Darius has never had a true friend before, but now he's spending his days with Sohrab playing soccer, eating rosewater ice cream, and sitting together for hours in their special place, a rooftop overlooking the Yazdi skyline. But when his family heads to Iran to visit Darius' grandparents (his first trip to his ancestral home), he hopes that things will be different. While he absolutely loves spending time with his grandmother, he feels ill-at-ease around his grandfather, who is terminally ill. He feels his grandfather looks at him as disapprovingly as his father, especially when he learns Darius takes medicine for depression. Plus, he doesn't speak Farsi, and his younger sister has no problem communicating with everyone. Yes, NCT 127, ATEEZ, MCND, BTS helped me calm down in about 40 minutes and then I was able to finish reading it up.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay Quotes by Adib Khorram - Goodreads Darius the Great Is Not Okay Quotes by Adib Khorram - Goodreads

One more thing: Darius father has two mum's, and the fact that this is portrayed in a basically off-hand way like it is the most normal thing in the world, makes me want to wave rainbow flags and throw glitter. Which defeats the cause, I know. Darius the Great Is Not Okay brings Iran alive, with sounds and smells and imagery, and you'll tearfully be rooting for Darius as he struggles with this mental health, identity, and his place in the world.” Most Haft-Seens have vinegar and sumac and sprouts and apples and pudding and dried olives and garlic on them—all things that start with the sound of Sin Farsi. Some people add other things that don’t begin with Sto theirs too: symbols of renewal and prosperity, like mirrors and bowls of coins. And some families—like ours—have goldfish too. Mom said it had something to do with the zodiac and Pisces, but then she admitted that if it weren’t for Laleh, who loved taking care of the goldfish, she wouldn’t include them at all.

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I was a big fan of the friendship between Darius and Sohrab. Sohrab was born and raised in Iran, and is kind of like a family member. He becomes Darius’s best friend, and their friendship grows as Sohrab invites Darius to play soccer together, shows him a little of Yazd, shows him new cultural aspects, listens to Darius when he’s upset, and go to each other’s houses. Their friendship is in innocent, full of a couple firsts for Darius, since he’s never really had a friend like Sohrab. They share differences yet get along well. Their fights are realistic for teenagers, yet are solved maturely. They learn from their past, move forward, and let it go. I loved how close they became, to the point where Sohrab was able to read Darius well. He’s friendly and gets along with everyone, but he understands Darius on another level. He’s caring, respectful, and understanding, never showing a sign of impatience or annoyance with Darius. He also never made Darius feel like he wasn’t Persian enough or that he [Sohrab] was more Persian than Darius. Upon discovering his babou (Darius's mom's dad) has a brain tumor, the family decides to take a trip to the desert city of Yazd, Iran, where Darius's grandparents live. Darius has not seen his grandparents in a long time, and has only talked to them through video calls, but Darius speaks little Farsi compared to his mom and sister, so he easily gets lost in the conversations. Upon arriving, Darius instantly connects with his mamou (grandmother), but struggles to get to know his babou. Not to mention the slightly offensive and patronizing attitude of the publishing industry through all of it; I very much doubt this novel would have earned its six-figure advance had the 2016 US Presidential election turned out differently. I do think so. At first it seemed like there was a surge in books about suicide, but lately there have been books that look at mental illness as a part of a person rather than a crisis. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks eloquently about the dangers of a single story. For a long time, suicide was the single story for mental illness, but we’re finally seeing multiple stories, and I’m hopeful that trajectory will continue. Dad swallowed his pills dry; his prominent Teutonic Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he did it. And then he turned to me and said, “So, you heard that Babou went to the doctor today?”

Darius the Great Is Not Okay Themes | LitCharts Darius the Great Is Not Okay Themes | LitCharts

As a child of immigrants who hasn’t seen her grandparents in ten years, I was deeply moved by Darius’s story. What is one thing you’d like children of immigrants to know as they grow older and face the world? And while Darius does get to know his grandparents and aunts and uncles, he ends up also growing closer to his dad, who he hasn’t been on really good terms with. It was honestly so beautiful to see their relationship developing, especially because they also talked about depression (which his dad has as well!). One of the things I loved most about this book was the depression representation, which was… absolutely amazing. Granted, I haven’t seen a LOT of depression rep in books, but this is definitely one of the best representations I’ve read. You know, he is okay,” Mamou said. She glanced at Mom and said, “Jamsheed took him to the doctor today.”

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Khoobam, merci,” Laleh said, and before I knew it, she had launched into her third retelling of her latest game of Heads-Down, Thumbs-Up. Without his Persianness, in other words, Darius is a socially isolated, monosyllabic, and not-very-well-defined character. Which is not only a writerly failing on Khorram's part, but somewhat sociopolitically problematic. I am, on the one hand, cheered by the proliferation of Iranian-American literature since the advent of the Trump era, and on the other hand, a little concerned by the commoditization and solidification of the Iranian-American identity, of which Khorram seems guilty here****. Darius meets Sohrab, the son of one of Babou's neighbors. Sohrab invites him to play football, which Darius enjoys, but while showering after the game, other boys make fun of Darius' penis, calling it " Ayatollah", and Sohrab joins in. This leads to Darius leaving and having a breakdown, but Sohrab comes to apologize later in the day. Sohrab and Darius continue to bond as they hang out and begin to play football frequently. Darius feels comfortable around Sohrab; Darius feels like he can be himself around him. They often visit a rooftop (pictured in the cover) that provides a view of the city and an isolated place to talk. Darius the Great Is Not Okay is a young adult novel by Adib Khorram, originally published August 28, 2018, by Dial Books. The book has received various awards and has been translated into eight languages (Russian, Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Dutch). [1] Darius the Great Is Not Okay follows the personal journey of Darius Kellner, an Iranian–American teenager with clinical depression, as he makes a best friend for life, reconnects with his grandparents, and repairs his relationship with his father. Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's about to take his first-ever trip to Iran, and it's pretty overwhelming—especially when he's also dealing with clinical depression, a disapproving dad, and a chronically anemic social life. In Iran, he gets to know his ailing but still formidable grandfather, his loving grandmother, and the rest of his mom's family for the first time. And he meets Sohrab, the boy next door who changes everything.