Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Tea is one of the most prominent motifs in the novel, often serving as a means for Darius to negotiate his identity as a Persian American. Early in the novel, Darius jokes that he has “inherited a full-strength tea-loving gene sequence from [his] mom” (2), and the Persian style of tea and the customs surrounding tea play an important role in the Kellners’ lives; Darius, for instance, makes Persian tea (brewed with cardamom) for himself and his sister whenever he has an afternoon off from work. Tea is so central to Iranian culture and social life that Darius brings his grandmother a tin of tea as a gift, and his grandparents reciprocate with an antique tea pot for his birthday.

Darius, however, has grown up in the multicultural United States and enjoys a range of teas from around the world; he hopes to one day intern at a boutique tea shop. This sets him apart from the rest of his family, for whom tea is tightly intertwined with Iranian identity:

No one else in my family drank genmaicha. No one ever drank anything besides Persian tea. […] My parents didn’t know genmaicha had toasted rice in it, mostly because I didn’t want Mom to know.