Skip to main content

Module 1 - Book Review 1 - EVERYTHING SAD IS UNTRUE (A TRUE STORY) - Written by Daniel Nayeri


Module 1 – Book Review 1 

Review of Daniel Nayeri’s EVERYTHING SAD IS UNTRUE (A TRUE STORY) 

*This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University. 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Nayeri, Daniel (2023) EVERYTHING SAD IS UNTRUE: A TRUE STORY. Lantern Backpacks. ISBN: 978-1646142729 

2. PLOT SUMMARY 

Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story) by Daniel Nayeri is about a twelve-year-old named Daniel. He is a refugee from Iran who ends up in Oklahoma. The story does not follow a traditional timeline; Daniel shifts from being in his classroom in Oklahoma to flashbacks about his life in refugee camps to memories of Iran, all while including information about his family history and Persian myths. He remembers how his family had to flee Iran after his mother converted to Christianity, which placed them in danger. He moves on to tell about their lives in refugee camps in Italy before finally coming to America. After coming to America, he struggles with poverty and bullying and the struggle to fit in, but desperately tries to hold on to some part of his cultural identity. The storytelling juggles the humor and hardship of his family’s situation, and it shows the raw emotions along with the power of storytelling to preserve the memory and meaning of life, family, and experiences. Daniel tells about the separation from his father and his fear and uncertainty that came from having to start over. The story touches on themes about immigration and resilience, the struggle to belong, and the faith and hope that storytelling will help to overcome the trials people face in life, no matter what.  

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS  

In Everything Sad is Untrue (a true story), Daniel Nayeri writes a literary memoir combining folklore and personal narrative to show themes of identity and resilience. He uses two important literary elements called frame narrative and episodic structure. For the frame narrative, the main story is found in Daniel speaking to his classmates in Oklahoma about his life story in pieces about his life in Iran and family history, including their time in refugee camps and various Persian myths. These smaller stories, or memories, are framed by the scenes in the classroom and give context to the bigger picture of why the story is being told.  

The second literary device that Nayeri uses is episodic structure. This is important to the way the story is told because these separate sections, or rather, episodes, each focus on some specific event, memory, or experience in Daniel’s life. What a reader might be used to in a continuous plot following chronological order varies with Daniel’s connection to the sections, tying them emotionally or through themes or characters to the present storyline. These episodes definitely stand on their own but follow the strand of the story’s larger themes of identity, being displaced, and the struggle to somehow belong.  

One major theme in the book is the power of storytelling to not only define a person but also to survive. Daniel does his best to try to preserve his Persian heritage and make sense of all his losses. He does this through telling stories that are real, and he has lived as well as mythical stories. This shows the meaning of truth and just how stories have the capability to convey deeper meaning when shaped by memory and imagination.  

There is also the obvious focus on the experience of refugees. The story shows the hardship they face in displacement, poverty, and cultural isolation. The balance of the heart-warming humor and magical moments keeps the story from being too heavy and focused solely on the trauma the characters have experienced. Because of these elements, it is easy to develop empathy and understanding of immigrants and their journey, and it lends itself to finding a cultural perspective. This is a unique structure and leaves the reader to consider humanity’s ability to find hope in the middle of adversity.  

Books have a way of being an escape for me at times, and I have often romanticized the thought of being placed in different places and time periods. This book changed my perspective on the “escape” part, but helped me to embrace the idea of storytelling and incorporating memories as a way to keep the past of my family alive and heal traumas. I love the way Daniel doesn’t follow the traditional linear timeline and goes back and forth between his time in the present and flashbacks. The tie to Oklahoma for me is just one more reason I love this book. I teach 30 minutes from the Texas and Oklahoma state line, close to a town called Guymon, Oklahoma. In that town, the school has 37 different languages due to a meat-packing facility that employs people from all over the world. This book really made me consider its potential impact on our students and the area. This was a wonderful read, and I cannot wait to add it to my library. 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) 

Booklist starred (July 2020 (Vol. 116, No. 21)) 

Grades 7-12. “A patchwork story is the shame of a refugee.” It’s with this refrain that 12-year-old Khosrou, known as Daniel to his skeptical Oklahoman classmates, tells “a version” of his life story. Walking the line between fiction and non-, this is a kind of meta-memoir, a story about the stories that define us. It’s a novel, narrated conversationally—and poetically—by a boy reaching for the truth in his fading youth.  

Horn Book Magazine (November/December, 2020) 

Framed loosely as his twelve-year-old self's responses to a series of school assignments, Nayeri's fictionalized memoir swirls through his own memories as well as stories from his family history, circling around major events and pausing to include his Oklahoma classmates' reactions to his tales of early childhood in Iran. An author's note acknowledges the fallibility of memory as well as some deliberate alterations; it is, as Nayeri puts it, "both fiction and nonfiction at the same time." Kirkus Reviews starred (May 15, 2020) 

At its most basic level, Nayeri’s offering is a fictionalized refugee’s memoir, an adult looking back at his childhood and the forced adoption of a new and infinitely more difficult life. In under 400 pages he recounts Persian myth and history, leads readers through days banal and outstanding, waxes philosophical on the nature of life and love, and more. The language is evocative: simple yet precise, rife with the idiosyncratic and abjectly honest imagery characteristic of a child’s imagination. (Historical fiction. 10-18) 

Publishers Weekly (June 15, 2020) 

The chapterless "patchwork story" follows Daniel through his dreamlike early childhood in Iran, a year in an Italian refugee camp with his sister and "unstoppable" mother (but without his larger-than-life father, who chose to stay behind), and their eventual asylum in Oklahoma. Interspersed with his experiences is the narrator’s accumulated wisdom on a broad range of subjects-cultural differences in bathroom habits, the creation of Persian rugs, the roots of today’s conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis-which help establish Daniel’s identity as a knowledgeable, thoughtful storyteller. Ages 10-up.  

School Library Journal starred (July 1, 2020) 

Gr 4-8- Nayeri weaves stories within stories in this fictionalized account of his formative years. The themes of family, love, and truth are as strong as those of faith, endurance, memory, and storytelling as Khosrou (also known as Daniel) tries to tell the tales of his beautiful, complicated life and family. Without being didactic, the text communicates the universality of the human experience and the lack of empathy shown by some, not all, of those he encounters in the U.S. and in the refugee environments.  

5. CONNECTIONS  

Related Books – Other books related to themes of refugees, identity, resilience, family separation, war, and hope 

  • Sepetys, Ruta. BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY. ISBN 978-0142411995 

  • Hosseini, Khaled. THE KITE RUNNER. ISBN 978-1-48980-294-1 

Enrichment Activities -     

  • Cultural Connections Assignment - Have students research some aspect of Persian culture mentioned in the book, such as poetry, food, mythology, religion, or history. Have them show how culture helps Daniel maintain a sense of belonging. 

6. AWARDS 

  • Michael L. Printz Award 2021 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Module 2 Traditional Literature - THE LION AND THE MOUSE - Written by Jerry Pinkney

  Module 2 – Book Review 3   Review of J erry Pinkney ’s THE LION AND THE MOUSE   *This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University.     1. BIBLIOGRAPHY   Pinkney , J erry . ( 2009 ). T he Lion and the Mouse . Little Brown and Company . ISBN: 978 0316013567     2 . SUMMARY   Pinkney’s illustrated retelling of Aesop’s fable “The Lion and the Mouse” does an incredible job of telling the story of a mighty lion and his unlikely friendship with a mouse. The tale happens when the mouse accidentally wakes the lion, who is quite angry and is captured. However, the lion lets the mouse go, who is grateful and promises to help the lion when he needs it in the future. The lion eventually needs help when he finds himself trapped in a poacher’s net. The mouse comes to help by gnawing through the ropes of the net to free the lion. The lion sees that even the smallest of animals can help and recognizes the importance of kindness ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Module 6 Fiction, Fantasy, YA: When Stars are Scattered - Written by Victoria Jamieson

  Module 6 – Book Re view 3   Review of Victoria Jamieson’s When Stars are Scattered   *This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University.   1. BIBLIOGRAPHY   Jamieson, Victoria (2 0 20 ). WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED . Dial Books for Young Readers . ISBN: 978-1-72548-313-2   2. PLOT SUMMARY   Victoria Jamieson's graphic novel "When Stars Are Scattered" is a story about two brothers named Omar and Hassan. The brothers live in a refugee camp in Kenya they moved to after fleeing their home in war-torn Somalia. Jamieson writes about their struggles as refugees and how they dream of a better life while living in the camp. They face constant uncertainty and focus on their desire for education. As the older brother, Omar takes on caring for his younger brother and must face the circumstances of survival and the hope of a better future for both. Jamieson manages to use her storytelling along with illustrations in the graphic novel to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Module 6 Fiction, Fantasy, YA: Echo - Written by Pam Munoz Ryan

  Module 6 – Book Re view 1   Review of Pam Munoz Ryan’s Echo   *This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University.   1. BIBLIOGRAPHY   Ryan, P. M. (2 01 5 ). ECHO . Scholastic Pres s . ISBN: 978-0-439-87402-1   2. PLOT SUMMARY   In "Echo” written by Pam Munoz Ryan, a story connects three main characters through the space of time in the years from the Nazi Germany, through the Great Depression in America, and finally California in the 1940s. Each time period is connected by a magical and mysterious harmonica and the interactions of three different main characters, Friedrich, Mike, and Ivy, respectively. First, the harmonica finds its way into the hands of Friedrick who struggles with his love for music in Nazi Germany and has a magical encounter with the harmonica on his journey to escape the oppressive regime to find freedom. For him, the harmonica symbolizes hope and resilience. Next the harmonica connects with Mike who is ...
Post a Comment
Read more