Living with Depression

There's another Intergenerational Book Club coming up.  This is a  book discussion group between the high school and the senior center.  The book is Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

I finished the book rather quickly because I found it so interesting.  All my other reading was set aside.  Darius lives a somewhat unhappy teen life.  He is bullied.  And he has mental depression. Depression is a major theme in the book.  There are some good descriptions of what depression episodes look and feel like, described by both Darius and his father (who also suffers from depression).

Darius' mother is from Iran.  Her parents still live there.  The family skypes regularly.  Once the grandfather is diagnosed with brain cancer, Darius' family visits Iran to see his grandfather for the last time.

While there, Darius makes friends with Sohrab.  They bond immediately, learning from each other and appreciating their similarities and differences.  Much to Darius' surprise, he is a pretty good soccer player.  In fact, by the end of the book, Darius tries out for his own high school soccer team and makes it.  Soccer isn't the only positive thing Darius learns.  He grows closer to his father.  He understands him better.  He develops a relationship with his grandparents.  He loves his mother and sister even more.  And the friendship between Darius and Sohrab continues on, thanks to social media and email.

This book is for young adults but you can tell that this senior citizen enjoyed it,
too.