Got some feedback for Scenes of the Father - my new book with Chee. It's an illustrated storybook.
Rushing to get everything done for the four-five titles we are publishing in three months, we left out the foreword/afterword thing I wrote in January.
So, for posterity's sake, here it is:
Afterword (or Foreword, whichever fits)
This book is a lie.
Things didn’t happen as they did – not exactly. Some of the dates I might have gotten wrong. Some of the quotes, the images inside your head – they’re all wrong. Not exactly right.
These are viewed through my own fuzzy memories of stories told by an old man through his own fuzzy recollections. And then Chee came into the picture and he brings his own fuzzy brushes to draw this book.
His art is amazing, of course. All my friends are extremely talented and Chee’s drawings are exceptional, though as with the famous pipe painting, these are not exactly how things are or were.
But such is the nature of writing or any attempt to capture any details or nuance from real life – it will always fail. In Chee’s case, it fails in spectacularly beautiful fashion. I can’t be more pleased with how the art turned out for this book.
And thank you, my friend, for liking my little story enough to breathe new life into it.
At the time of writing, my father is warded in the hospital (he's now out). His health has deteriorated slowly over the years, having suffered from four strokes and a host of old people’s ailments. Only one good thing came out of it – a couple of years ago, he forgot to buy cigarettes so now he doesn’t smoke.
Aside from that, it has been painful, watching him grow old and frail ever so slowly. Despite the fact that he shouldn’t be able to walk, he sometimes does so out of sheer willpower.
He doesn’t ride on his tractor anymore – the old thing is just gathering dust and rust.
Instead, my father’s ride is now a wheelchair, which he hates.
Nobody knows who’s going to go or stay, when or where we will leave forever. But I hope that whenever that happens for my father, for all his good and evil deeds, that the journey would be a peaceful one.
And that’s the truth.
Amir Hafizi
Jan 15 2016
