Book Review: Sara Jafari's 'Things Left Unsaid' is a tale of tentative lovers who keep connecting
Kian was 15 years old when his older brother, Mehdi, was incarcerated and blames himself partly for what happened. Shirin, for her part, battles anxiety and depression.
In high school in the northern English city of Hull, Shirin falls in love with Kian, her only close male friend, but she can't open up to him about it. Kian feels the same about Shirin; he fancies her and imagines her lips on his, but kept it quiet.
Shirin and Kian both went their separate ways after school until 10 years later when they unexpectedly meet again at a friend's party in London. They have a lot in common: They have both faced discrimination — they were their school's only two non-white students and now Shirim finds the same situation at work.
Shirin kept thinking of Kian throughout the decade-long separation. Even though Shirin kept in touch with her female friends from her high school days, she always had a sense of unfulfillment, a sense of pessimism and skepticism. Her parents had separated when she was in college.
'Shirin thinks there is an ugliness inside her sometimes, some kind of repressed anger that she takes out on other people in her mind,' the author writes.
But her thoughts of Kian, and her desire for them to be together again one day, give her a sense of hope and relief.
When the two reunite again in London at their friend Millie's 27th birthday party, Shirin's love for her old friend resurfaces. But it comes a little too late: Salma, who Kian was now seeing, is also at the party. Shirin even asks Kian to kiss her, but he doesn't because she's drunk.
These would-be lovers have one final meeting — at a dinner party in New York in 2020, where Kian is now living. She confesses to having a lot of regrets and that she had been thinking about him during their decade-long separation. Kian confesses he had imagined her kissing him while they were in school.
'Why didn't we make it work?' Kian asks, adding that he wanted it to. Shirin responds with 'I want that, too…'
Could this time be the time they finally get together? Or has a gulf developed between them?
Beautifully written in simple language, the London-based British Iranian author Jafari continuously pulls anxious readers along to find out what becomes of Shirin's and Kian's craving for each other.
___
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San Francisco Chronicle
5 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Learn about the 5 people charged in connection with Matthew Perry's death
LOS ANGELES (AP) — One year ago, federal authorities announced that five people had been charged in connection with the ketamine overdose death of Matthew Perry. All five have now agreed to plead guilty, including the personal assistant of the 'Friends' star, an old acquaintance and two doctors. On Monday, Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors say was a dealer known as the 'Ketamine Queen,' became the fifth and final defendant to reach a deal and avoid trial. Here is a look at each of the defendants. Jasveen Sangha Sangha admitted in her plea agreement that she sold Perry the lethal dose of ketamine in the days before his death on Oct. 23, 2023. A 42-year-old who was born in Britain, raised in the United States and has dual citizenship, Sangha's social media accounts before her indictment last year showed a jet-setting lifestyle, with photos of herself in posh spaces alongside rich-and-famous faces in Spain, Japan and Dubai along with her dual homes of London and Los Angeles. Prosecutors say that lifestyle was funded by a drug business she ran for at least five years from her apartment in LA's San Fernando Valley. They say she presented herself as 'a celebrity drug dealer with high quality goods" and missed no opportunity to promote the idea that she was known to customers and others as the 'Ketamine Queen.' Her lawyers have derided the title as a 'media-friendly' moniker. Sangha went to high school in Calabasas, California — perhaps best known as home to the Kardashians — and went to college at the University of California, Irvine, graduating in 2005 and going on to work at Merrill Lynch. She later got an MBA from the Hult International Business School in London. She was connected to Perry through his acquaintance and her co-defendant, Erik Fleming. In a raid of her apartment in March 2024, authorities said they found large amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine. She was arrested and released on bond. In August 2024, she was indicted again with charges that tied her to Perry's death, and has been held without bail ever since. CHARGES: Three counts of distribution of ketamine, one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury and one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises. SENTENCING: A judge will set her sentencing in the coming months after she appears in court to officially change her plea. She could get up to 45 years in prison. WHAT THEY SAID: Sangha's lawyer Mark Geragos says 'She's taking responsibility for her actions.' Kenneth Iwamasa Iwamasa, Perry's live-in personal assistant, was intimately involved in the actor's illegal ketamine use, acting as his drug messenger and personally giving injections, according to his plea agreement. It was the 60-year-old Iwamasa who found Perry dead in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home on a day when he'd given him several injections. He would become the first to reach a deal with prosecutors as they sought to use him as an essential witness against other defendants. Iwamasa said he worked with co-defendants to get ketamine on Perry's behalf, including Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who taught him how to give Perry the injections. 'Found the sweet spot but trying different places led to running out,' Iwamasa told Plasencia in one text message. Iwamasa said in his plea deal that he injected Perry six to eight times per day in the last few days of his life. CHARGE: One count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. SENTENCING: He's scheduled to be sentenced November 19 and could get up to 15 years in prison. Dr. Salvador Plasencia 'I wonder how much this moron will pay?' That was a text message Plasencia sent to a fellow doctor when he learned Perry wanted to be illegally provided with ketamine, according to a plea agreement where the doctor admitted to selling 20 vials of the drug to the actor in the weeks before his death. Plasencia, a 43-year-old Los Angeles-area doctor known to patients as 'Dr. P,' was one of the two main targets of the prosecution and had been headed for a joint trial with Sangha when he reached the plea agreement in June. According to court records, Perry was connected to Plasencia through another patient. Perry had been getting ketamine legally from his regular doctor as treatment for depression, an off-label but increasingly common use of the surgical anesthetic. But the actor wanted more. Plasencia admitted to personally injecting Perry with some of the initial vials he provided, and left more for Iwamasa to inject, despite the fact that Perry froze up and his blood pressure spiked, after one dose. Plasencia graduated from UCLA's medical school in 2010 and had not been subject to any medical disciplinary actions before the Perry case. He has been free on bond since his indictment. His lawyers said he is caregiver for a toddler child. Plasencia even got to keep practicing medicine after his indictment, but had to inform patients of the charges against him and couldn't prescribe dangerous drugs. He now intends to voluntarily surrender his license to practice, according to his lawyers. CHARGES: Four counts of distribution of ketamine. SENTENCING: He's scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3 and could get up to 40 years in prison. WHAT THEY SAID: His lawyers say he's 'profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry.' Erik Fleming Fleming, 55, was an acquaintance of Perry's who learned through a mutual friend that the actor was seeking ketamine, according to his plea agreement. He told Iwamasa in text messages that he had a source known as the 'Ketamine Queen' whose product was 'amazing,' saying she only deals with 'high end and celebs.' In all, prosecutors say, Fleming delivered 50 vials of Sangha's ketamine for Perry's use, including 25 sold for a total of $6,000 to the actor four days before his death. CHARGE: One count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. SENTENCING: He is scheduled to be sentenced November 12 and could get up to 25 years in prison. WHAT THEY SAID: Fleming's lawyers have declined comment. Dr. Mark Chavez Chavez, a San Diego doctor who ran a ketamine clinic, was the source of the doses that Plasencia sold to Perry, according to their plea agreements. Chavez admitted to obtaining the ketamine from a wholesale distributor on false pretenses. Chavez, 55, graduated from UCLA's medical school in 2004. He has surrendered his medical license. CHARGE: One count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. SENTENCING: He is scheduled to become the first defendant sentenced, on Sept. 17. He could get 10 years in prison. WHAT THEY SAID: His lawyer says he's 'incredibly remorseful,' has accepted responsibility and has been 'trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong.' ___ A version of this story first ran on Aug. 15, 2024.
San Francisco Chronicle
11 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
'Ketamine Queen' accused of selling fatal dose to Matthew Perry agrees to plead guilty
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman known as the 'Ketamine Queen,' charged with selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him, agreed to plead guilty Monday. Jasveen Sangha becomes the fifth and final defendant charged in the overdose death of the 'Friends' star to strike a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, avoiding a trial that had been planned for September. She agreed in a signed statement filed in court to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including providing the ketamine that led to Perry's death. In a brief statement, Sangha's lawyer Mark Geragos said only, 'She's taking responsibility for her actions.' Prosecutors had cast Sangha, a 42-year-old citizen of the U.S. and the U.K., as a prolific drug dealer who was known to her customers as the 'Ketamine Queen,' using the term often in press releases and court documents. She agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. The final plea deal came a year after federal prosecutors announced that five people had been charged in Perry's Oct. 28, 2023 death after a sweeping investigation. Sangha admitted in the agreement to selling four vials of ketamine to another man, Cody McLaury, hours before he died from an overdose in 2019. McLaury had no relationship to Perry. Prosecutors will drop three other counts related to the distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of methamphetamine that was unrelated to the Perry case. Sangha will officially change her plea to guilty at an upcoming hearing, where sentencing will be scheduled, prosecutors said. She could get up to 45 years in prison. The judge is not bound to follow any terms of the plea agreement, but prosecutors said in the document that they will ask for less than the maximum. She and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded guilty last month, had been the primary targets of the investigation. Three other defendants — Dr. Mark Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa and Erik Fleming — pleaded guilty in exchange for their cooperation, which included statements implicating Sangha and Plasencia. Perry was found dead in his Los Angeles home by Iwamasa, his assistant. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death. Sangha presented a posh lifestyle on Instagram, with photos of herself with the rich and famous in cities around the globe. Prosecutors said she privately presented herself as a dealer who sold to the same kind of high-class customers. Perry had been using ketamine through his regular doctor as a legal, but off-label, treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, sought more ketamine than his doctor would give him. He began getting it from Plasencia about a month before his death, then started getting still more from Sangha about two weeks before his death, prosecutors said. Perry and Iwamasa found Sangha through Perry's friend Fleming. In their plea agreements, both men described the subsequent deals in detail. Fleming messaged Iwamasa saying Sangha's ketamine was 'unmarked but it's amazing,' according to court documents. Fleming texted Iwamasa that she only deals 'with high end and celebs. If it were not great stuff she'd lose her business.' With the two men acting as middlemen, Perry bought large amounts of ketamine from Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 in cash four days before his death. That purchase included the doses that killed Perry, prosecutors said. On the day of Perry's death, Sangha told Fleming they should delete all the messages they had sent each other, according to her indictment. Her home in North Hollywood, California, was raided in March 2024 by Drug Enforcement Administration agents who found large amounts of methamphetamines and ketamine, according to an affidavit from an agent. She has been held in federal custody for about a year. None of the defendants has yet been sentenced. Sangha also agreed in her plea deal not to contest the seizure of her property that went with the investigation, including more than $5,000 in cash. Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on 'Friends,' when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC's megahit series.
11 hours ago
'Skibidi,' 'delulu' and 'tradwife' among new words added to Cambridge Dictionary
The terms have surged in use across social media, mainstream media and beyond. By 0:35 Adobe Stock The English language just got a little more skibidi. Skibidi, delulu, tradwife and lewk are among the 6,212 new words, phrases and meanings added to the Cambridge Dictionary over the past year. The terms have gained traction across social and mainstream media, often tied to celebrities and influencers. According to the dictionary, "skibidi," a slang term that can mean "cool," "bad," or sometimes nothing at all, was coined by the creator of the viral YouTube series "Skibidi Toilet" and is especially popular among Gen Alpha -- another newly added term -- or those born between 2010 and 2024. "Delulu," a play on the word "delusional," describes someone "believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to." "Tradwife," which is short for "traditional wife" and was popularized by Hannah Neeleman of @ballerinafarm fame, refers to a married woman, often on social media, who embraces homemaking and child care while reflecting a controversial return to traditional gender roles on Instagram and TikTok. Meanwhile, "lewk" is a playful twist on the word "look," meaning a distinctive style or outfit, especially one that is bold or eye-catching. In a statement, Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager at Cambridge Dictionary, said the rise of words like skibidi and delulu shows how internet culture is reshaping the English language in lasting ways. "It's not every day you get to see words like skibidi and delulu make their way into the Cambridge Dictionary," McIntosh said. "We only add words where we think they'll have staying power. Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the Dictionary."
