Books: “I Will Greet the Sun Again” by Khashayar J. Khabushani

September 11, 2001 represented a turning point for the world. It was the beginning of an unending “war on terrorism.” And it’s led to, among other things, the fall and eventual resurgence of the Taliban, civil war in Syria, and the rise of extremist insurgencies throughout Africa.

At first, we were sure we had defined our enemy: Muslims generally and Muslim countries in particular, such as Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. But as we began to see, this blanket denunciation of Muslims themselves was bigoted and wrong. “I Will Greet the Son Again,” a sweet coming-of-age first novel by Khashayar J. Khabushani, reflects the kinder, gentler side of real-world Muslim-Americans in the 21st century.

“K” (as he is called) and his two older brothers arrive in California with their Iranian parents a few years after the Shah is deposed in 1979. They aren’t part of the uber-rich, Pahlavi-Beverly Hills set you see on reality TV; in fact they are one step above poor-as-church-mice. The father, Baba, has lost his job at Boeing and become a drunk and a bully. He beats and sexually abuses his son, and is jealous of his wife, a nurse who is no longer content with being as “an obedient Muslim wife.”

Suddenly and without informing anyone in the family, Baba kidnaps the boys and takes them on a plane back to his impoverished village in Iran. You can imagine the disconnect for three young kids raised on 7-Eleven soda pop and video games to find themselves sleeping on a dirt floor in Iran with no indoor plumbing. Will they ever return to America? That’s the climax of this gentle but thrilling novel.

But the message of “Greet the Sun” runs a little deeper than that. For K’s is the story of a kid living two lives: one as an all-American Southern Californian teenager who wants nothing more than to play one-on-one on a basketball court; the other, as the son of an immigrant parent who comes to America and never quite fits in. After 9/11, Middle America makes no distinction between the two. They hate them both.

In short, “I Will Greet the Sun Again” is an Iranian-American book worthy of your attention and respect.

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