Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Product Information

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. I got super attached to all the characters! There's nothing like ten other side characters. Every character is my family now. The good, the bad and the damn fathers. Father issues. Lots of it here. I was one tiny pulsar in a swirling, luminous galaxy of Iranians, held together by the gravity of thousands of years of culture and heritage.”

Darius the Great Series by Adib Khorram - Goodreads

Darius has an American father (though I did have a feeling that there might be some German roots) and a Persian mother. He loves Star Trek and The Lord of the Rings but not as much as he loves his 8-year-old sister Laleh. At school, he is the weird, chubby loner, who falls victim to his classmates' jokes. And he has to take his medicine every day, or his depression will get out of hand. For all of his life, his Persian grandparents have only ever been pixels on a computer screen, but now he and his whole family are going to visit them in Yazd, Iran for the first time in his life. The only downside is that his grandfather, his Babou, suffers a brain tumour and does not have much time left. But I think it is the father-son relationship in this book that I loved the most. Both are on medication for depression. Darius always thought that his father is ashamed of him because of his obesity, depression and that's why he keeps an hawk eye on his eating habits. He is ashamed of Daruis's depression. Being in Yzad brought these together and broke the ice that they both had felt previously. It was cute to see the duo interacting. I enjoyed and adored each and every character and their relationships so much. This is really a beautiful, feel-good book that just highlights the beauty of relationships. Not romantic relationships. Just relationships in general. The beauty of masculine affection. We always see very affectionate female friendship bonds, but we rarely see male ones. Not like the one Darioush and Sohrab shared. It was truly a beautiful thing to witness.In a few days before Darius and his family must leave Iran, Darius decides to buy Sohrab a pair of cleats as a gift. He visits the house to find their family in grief. Sohrab lashes out at Darius before revealing his father has just died (who was previously revealed to be jailed by the Iranian government for unknown reasons). Sohrab complains that Darius is always crying but has nothing to be sad for, and tells him to leave. Darius runs to the rooftop and cries. I had pretty high hopes for this and I actually thought I would love it, but sadly that wasn't really the case. It isn't a bad book by any means it just didn't have that big of an impact on me as it seems to have had with other people. Maybe I just wasn't really the intended audience for this book, although from the sypnopsis it seemed like everything I would love. Trudon, Taylor (October 12, 2018). "Young Adult Books That Plunge Into the Ecstasies, and Agonies, of Teenage Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved January 1, 2022. Climax: After Sohrab lashes out at Darius, Darius and Dad speak honestly with each other for the first time.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay | Penguin Random House Secondary Darius the Great Is Not Okay | Penguin Random House Secondary

It’s great that this is an own voices novel, as it follows Persian character who has depression, much like the author, as I feel many things are much more authentic, especially dealing with things like depression and what they can mean culturally. It also helped me learn, or at least understand some basic aspects of Persian culture and what it is sort of like and really shows how contrasting and different it is to other cultures. It was great exploring a bit about another culture that I didn’t know a whole lot about and then I can go on and do more research about certain things that I have been introduced to. 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.

Again, it's not that the book is bad relative to other published novels. It's that the book is so bad, it's difficult to understand how exactly it got published in the first place. It's repetitive and clumsily written and, despite the large font size and generous spacing of the physical text, somehow a chore to read--it took me weeks to get through this. And moreover, there's a hollowness and empty sentimentality at the novel's core that not only fails to make any meaning of the Persian-American experience, but makes the reader feel kind of sad and betrayed at the hands of Khorram. Everything changes when Darius meets Sohrab, the son of friends of his grandparents. With Sohrab, Darius plays soccer (and enjoys it for the first time), visits various historical landmarks and tourist attractions in the area, and learns about both his heritage and his grandparents, who have been a part of Sohrab's life as long as he can remember. More than that, however, Darius finds he can confide in Sohrab and share the things that sadden him or cause him to feel inadequate, and he knows not only does Sohrab listen, but he identifies with the feelings as well.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay - Penguin Random House

I wish you could see yourself too.” I swallowed. “You’re the only person who never wanted me to change.”This definetely wasn't one of the worst book I've read this year, but I still had way higher hopes considering how many people actually love it and I ended up being let down. I know so many other people will be able to enjoy it so please don't let anything I said discourage you from reading this book. This story wasn't for me, but I'm sure there are many other readers who will be able to see themselves in Darius' place. Oohoohoo, look at my emotions go on a rollercoaster. I mean, I don’t tear up very often reading books, maybe it’s because I haven’t gotten to the really depressing part of literature yet. Like, when I read this, I had some tears in my eyes, especially at this one scene near the end, but it wasn’t like full on sobbing, so I don’t know if I should be glad that a book has yet to destroy me like that, yet(I mean I know it’s coming eventually). What I’m getting at is, is that not a lot of books can make me feel this way, which clearly meant that this book did something right for me to care this much. The SF Master, Van Vogt, said it best (symbolically) in his novel The World of Null-A: America is Aristotelian in its thinking. Narrowly so, in fact! I definitely recommend this though, especially if you're interested in friendship and family dynamics. Anyway! Let’s continue to talk about the book and the strong focus on Darius’s friendship with Sohrab instead. And let me tell you, I adored the fact that there was such a strong friendship representation in this story without it turning into anything romantic in the end. I think the potential was definitely there but it didn’t happen and I appreciated that the author decided to focus on all the other topics first. It rounded the entire story off and made room for a potential exploration of Darius’s sexuality in the next book. So kudos to Adib Khorram for tying up all the loose ends in the first book while still giving Darius time and room to explore this important part of himself in the second instalment. And I’m convinced this will happen in book two!

Darius the Great Is Not Okay Babou Character Analysis in Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards Acceptance Speeches Roundup". The Horn Book. January 10, 2020 . Retrieved January 1, 2022. But the book, unfortunately, is bad. And not, mind you, bad in a failed-to-meet-expectations way (it's bad in that way too, but more to the point), but bad in a "show-don't-tell," Creative Writing 101 way.Over the next week, Sohrab joins Darius’s family to visit Dowlatabad, a palace and gardens, and invites Darius to play soccer again with Ali-Reza and Hossein. Though the boys continue to call Darius “Ayatollah,” Sohrab tells the younger boys they’re playing with that this is because Darius is in charge—and Sohrab and Darius shower after the other boys are finished and have already left. They play daily for the rest of the week, and then Sohrab and his mom join Darius and his family for chelo kabob, a huge treat, at the end of the week. After the meal is over, Sohrab and two of Darius’s older cousins, Parviz and Navid, teach Darius to play Rook. Darius is terrible at it, but he has fun. I was used to being a disappointment to Dad, and being a disappointment to Babou didn’t seem that different. But I hated that he was disappointed in Laleh too, for something she couldn’t change.