Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri
46/30 | Started 10.25.22 • Finished 11.07.22 | 4 stars
Really enjoyed this book, which was nothing like anything I've ever read before. I can see how some people would have a hard time with it. It reads quite a bit like stream of consciousness - the narrator, Daniel, will be telling one story and launch into another story in the middle of it.
But like you, I was made carefully, by a God who loved what He saw. Like you, I want a friend.
I found the parallel with Scheherazade and the 1001 Tales to be quite compelling. Daniel repeatedly references her when weaving his own tale of survival in the face of a certain kind of death: the death of his culture, his memories, his own self. His stories are beautiful and heartbreaking and amusing and though he does learn that his memories might be flawed, they are true to him, and they make up his life. There's also a lot of exceptional writing about God, and what he must be like if he is truly God.
Does writing poetry make you brave? It is a good question to ask. I think making anything is a brave thing to do. Not like fighting brave, obviously. But a kind that looks at a horrible situation and doesn’t crumble. Making anything assumes there’s a world worth making it for. That you’ll have someplace, like a clown’s pants, to hide it when people come to take it away. I guess I’m saying making something is a hopeful thing to do. And being hopeful in a world of pain is either brave or crazy.
I'm not sure what else to say about this one. You kind of have to read it to see.
I think He’s a God who listens as if we are his most important children, and I think He speaks to tell us so.