Everything Sad Is Untrue

Massoud arrives at Will Rogers Airport, six years after Daniel last saw him. As they hug and talk, Daniel thinks that “It was so quick, becoming a family again” (313). He feels larger than life over the phone, in all the legends and myths of their path, but “now he was so small” (314). He even brings Daniel’s stuffed sheep, who he had to leave behind when they first fled.

At this point, Daniel feels like the reader probably still isn’t even listening, and he says, “I’m sorry I wasted your time” (321).

They pick up Massoud from the motel, and he comes to Daniel’s class. Daniel thinks that his father does not speak any English, but after a rough start, he begins to speak to the class, teasing some students and making them laugh. Daniel translates when his father lacks the words. He also translates as his father tells the story of Rostam, and he talks about the difference between Sistan, a small town where Rostam was a local hero. Dastan, Massoud says, “is the land of stories. The world that we speak” (327). They then share a tray of baklava with the class. Daniel gives the best piece to Mrs. Miller, and he thanks her.

Flashing back, Daniel’s family is eventually granted asylum after being vouched for by an American family whose church had connections with Ellie’s church. This amazes Daniel, who thinks they—Jim and Jean Dawson—are the best of Oklahoma.

In the present, Daniel’s father visits their church. The pastor directs his sermon at Massoud, trying to convert him. Daniel asks if he understands the pastor, and his dad replies, “Doesn’t matter […] Look at him. Let him enjoy himself” (333). This amuses his father, but Ray is furious. He then agrees to be baptized. Daniel is happy, even though he knows that his father won’t really be a Christian and must move to the United States. When he asks his dad if he’s really a Christian, his father says, “I’m your father. I am humanity. I’m everything to everybody” (333). This, Daniel thinks, is his father’s favorite myth.

Massoud takes him to White Water Rapids, a theme park. He runs into his school bully, but he says that they’re “cool.” He then hands Daniel $5 that his dad asked the boy to give him. His father paid him $20 to deliver it, just as he paid other kids to get him fries from the concession stand. This makes Daniel think that “myths are just legends that everybody agrees on,” and, for that day, his father was the king of White Water Rapids (342).

Ultimately, this ends up being Daniel’s last memory of his father. He isn’t welcome because of Ray, and it was already legally difficult for him to get into the United States. Daniel wonders sometimes why he and his sister weren’t enough to keep him close. He thinks that he would never let go of his children.

The next day, they take Massoud to the airport, and when they come home, Ray is working in the garage and is clearly furious. When he comes in, he and Sima fight. She tells the children to go to their rooms, but they don’t move. Ray says the same, but Daniel’s sister refuses. When he gets mad at her, Sima tells him not to talk to Dina, and he slams her against the wall twice. Dina yells at him to stop and he comes toward her, but she threatens to call the police.

Daniel isn’t sure how his mom made it through the situation with Ray and the chaos of their lives after leaving Iran. He wonders if it was maybe hope, maybe a feeling that “some final fantasy will come to pass that will make everything sad untrue” (346).

He asks the reader to again imagine being in a refugee camp, first knowing that at the end of a tough year, there is freedom, but then thinking that every place is filled with difficulty and sadness. He says his mother felt both.

They leave the house, knowing that they are escaping from Ray again. They go to the motel, and Daniel packs his backpack. When his mom wakes up from sleeping off the dizziness of Ray’s abuse, she asks if Daniel is okay. He was thinking about what would’ve happened if Scheherazade ran out of stories and turned to her memories. He asks his mom if she remembers when Baba Haji killed the goat. It is his only real memory of him and he’s afraid it isn’t true. And it isn’t.

The feast, she tells him, wasn’t for Daniel. People asked Baba Haji to kill it so that it didn’t injure anyone. He may still have held Daniel’s face, but not with bloody hands. The feast was one made from a shape. He still would’ve spilled the blood. She goes on to tell Daniel that “[y]ou have to understand that means a blessing. It’s ancient.” (354). It is a show of understanding the sacrifices to get to joy. This makes Daniel realize that one day, they would be whole, even if it took a thousand years.

Khosrou begins the author’s note by saying, “this time I am thirty-six years old, with a beard, and a job where everyone calls me Daniel” (353). He explains that he began writing this book the moment he learned that his Baba Haji passed away.

He also says that all of this is true, with some modifications like name changes or combining folks together, but he also cautions, “Ah, but remember, a patchwork text is the shame of a refugee” (353). He did not use historical documents or family records since he didn’t have access to them. His mom has emphasized that his father is not as bad as perhaps Khosrou has remembered him.

He finishes by saying, “This was my life as I experienced it, and it is both fiction and nonfiction at the same time” (354). His son is now as old as he was when he left Iran, and he is named for his Baba Haji.