‘Everything Sad is Untrue’
I just read an intriguing book; Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri.
It is the author’s own story; a biography written when he was an adult, but from the perspective of when he was a teenager. This gives a fascinating insight into the workings of a young person’s mind.
It is a story of tragedy, triumph and resilience, taking place across different cultures and unmasking the internal battles faced when dealing with cultural differences and relational conflict.
For me the book is also something of a treatise on the nature of “story”. For example, one’s perspective of an event (like the author’s view of the story) depends on what has happened in his own life to help shape or distort his perceptions. You also see that as time passes and experiences unfold, perceptions of the very same event can significantly change over time. Then there are those perceptions which are bound in cultural blindness, of which the person is likely unaware. As the author recounts his story he gives ample space to question his own perception of events along the way; inviting the reader to journey along with him.
If you read it, I don’t think you will be disappointed.
(*A bit of a warning, for non mother-tongue English speakers some of the expressions may be a bit difficult to grasp.)
Alex, Feb 2021
*image posted for non commercial purposes under ‘fair use’ of copyright material in recommendation of the book
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Your comment about our perceptions of events changing over time raises the big question of what is reality? Are as perceptions AS real as the events themselves? Events can’t have any meaning for us unless they are mediated by our perception. And yet, as we well know from recent events and perceptions expressed online, perception can also make the real unreal and the unreal real. Where am I going with this – I don’t know!!! But what a far reaching issue you and the author have raised!
Thank you for the recommendation…the book sounds intriguing! I, too, am challenged by this reality that we bring who we are, our experiences and life-shaping events, into how someone or something is perceived. What can help us question whether our “perceptions” are really an accurate enough intake of an occurrence or a person? I wonder if this is where community and safe places and trusted people willing to ask hard questions become important in helping us move forward in living life well.