 "Witty, insightful, crosscultural memoir" | 2009-10-15 |
| - Reviewed By polly-ed |
When seven-year-old Firoozeh immigrated with her family from Abadan, Iran, to Whittier, California, she knew seven words of English: white, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green.
Funny in Farsi is her witty, insightful, and affectionate memoir of growing up Iranian in America. Learning English meant mastering not only vocabulary and grammar but also strange twists of language. After hearing their translations, young Firoozeh declined to taste hot dogs, catfish, or hush puppies.
Life in the New World contained amazing experiences for an Iranian child, from all-you-can-eat buffets to being lost at Disneyland. Especially boggling was the concept of free samples. "In our homeland, people who taste something before they buy it are called shoplifters. Here, a person can taste something, not buy it, and still have the clerk wish him a nice day."
Attending sleep-away camp at age eleven was her first time away from her large and loving family. At fourteen, she embarked on an effort to earn funds for college, including a house-sitting bout with the neurotic cats Ketchup, Mustard, Relish, and Mayo. At the University of California, Berkeley, she began dating a fellow-student from Paris, France. Anecdotes from their courtship and eventual marriage add a tricultural flavor to this memoir.
When Firoozeh's family first arrived in the U.S. in 1972, very few Americans had heard of Iran--and even fewer could pinpoint it on a map. The Iranian revolution and two Gulf wars have added Iran to the American awareness in negative ways. Dumas provides a welcome counterpoint in this heartwarming look at the intersection of the two cultures. Here is an immigrant experience told with humor, joy, unbridled enthusiasm, and keen observation.
Funny in Farsi confirms that beyond our differences, we are all members of the same human family. This is a book to be enjoyed and appreciated by junior high, high school, and adult readers.
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| "Follow Dumas' family's hilariously awkward encounters with American culture" | 2009-10-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A11R8TJ9D3GZ4O |
| The author of this memoir immigrated with her family in 1972 from Iran, when the US appeared a promised land of "smiling emplyees, clean bathrooms and clear signage." The Iranian Revolution of 1979 changed many things for Firoozeh's family. Nonetheless, Dumas' memoir touches only in passing -- and with a humorous flair -- on the new discrimination and hard economic realities her family confronted in the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis. Dumas' emphasis is rather on her colorful family and its hilariously awkward encounters with American culture. The main character of this memoir is Dumas' father: an unflappable patriot of his country of choice, who feasts on free samples at the Price Club, trains for an ill-fated appearance on Bowling for Dollars, and ends up meeting Albert Einstein. This book is highly readable for young adults and showcases the role of humor in the process of accommodation between immigrants and their country of destination. |
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 "Insights into Iranian culture" | 2009-07-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZKXRGJ2Z2AMS |
| Father's memories of America and the realities of bringing his family often made for comic times. Fun to read. |
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 "Endearing, funny and warm..." | 2009-05-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: AG2YXYIQ8TLTA |
I read a lot of memoirs (something that makes my friends a little crazy sometimes I think). Most of them are pretty screwed up and I like that, but there are a few out there that are funny and/or heartwarming. This book was both. It had short stories that centered around her father, whom you can tell she has nothing but love for. Oh, it's not always all that flattering, but real life seldom is, is it? I thought it was funny, real, and endearing.
I was surprised at looking at others thoughts that they felt the author was being down on her parents. I didn't read that at all. I felt like she was laughing with them, not at them. Because you know, even the serious stories in here, the author and her family always found a way to laugh. I think too many people take things too seriously and laughter sometimes really is the best medicine.
Give this one a read before judging. |
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| "Laughter and self-reflection for all foreigners and Americans alike" | 2009-04-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3EQEWTT1BA6ED |
I first heard of Funny in Farsi in a Chinese language website (of all places!) in America. My boyfriend is Iranian and I asked him whether he knows the book and he has not heard about it at that time. Got the book anyway, read it in about 4 weeks before going to bed every night. It's a very easy read (great for bedtime reading), made me laugh out loud constantly and brought back so many memories of my own childhood and early 20s, some sad, some funny, some heartbreaking, some exhilarating, but all cherished moments of life.
All foreigners, who an increasing percentage of us are nowadays in this global age, could identify with Firoozeh Dumas and her stories. Her stories, personal (it is a memoir!), intimate, touching at once, reach for the deepest part of our heart and soul, where we constantly ask ourselves: Who are we? Are we the same with others? Are we different from others? How have we come here? Where are we going? Those deepest tunnels are where our self-identities were formed and are forming. Our world, which is increasingly global, flat and may I add, immediate and sometimes compulsive, increasingly asks us to be aware and also live side by side with other people who are different from us(see note 1 below).
Here we face a choice. We could choose to be cosmopolitan, accepting and welcoming the differences, or choose to return to be fundamentalist, fearing and isolating ourselves from the others. Ms. Dumas choose the former, showing the readers that our similarities far outweigh our differences. She showed that our similarities are what bind us together and our differences are what makes us say "oh, that's what is", smile and sometimes laugh out loud. Diversities make this world, our world beautiful, amazing, and exciting, not what makes it scary. Mr. Dumas took us down the memory lane, showed us how she came to a foreign countries, got to know another culture and embraced the differences, with smile, laugh, despite a few drops of tears here and there. Bravo!
I am not an American and thus can only speculate what Americans would think of the book. I suspect that all Americans, who traveled to another country, another coast, another city, or even another house in a different culture could also identify with some of her stories. It is at those times that you leave what's familiar behind and walk/leap/dive into what's foreign in front. There will be things that you expect but are not there, things that you never suspect but are there. Experiencing those incongruities expands your horizon.
I was lucky to meet Ms. Dumas in person in Carlsbad City Library last night April 23. She gave a talk in front of a large, receptive and diverse audience (50% Iranians and 50% not). She is as fun, as exciting, as warm in person as she is through the pages. The audience just could not stop laughing at her stories. She reminds me of my chatty aunties back home in Northern China who are warm, loud, and hilarious...
Stylistically, the book is more of a collection of oral stories than a long stories such as Khaled Housseini's Kite Runner. The stories could have followed a clearer time line at times, but this defect does not distract the reader that much.
So my call is: read the book. Take yourself to a different country, to a different America at a different age, to a different family, to a different host and meet a culture that's more the same to your own, a great family that's more the same, a child that's more the same to yourself. It's a great feeling.
Note 1: Read the Runaway World by renowned sociologist Anthony Giddens to examine who globalization has affect the world. |
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| "Funny, perceptive, perfect touch" | 2008-08-06 |
| - Reviewed By ellenwesel |
I truly enjoyed this collection of stories, all written with a keen, perceptive eye, a humorous take on life, and a facility with words. I look forward to reading Laughing without an Accent.
Kazem, I hope that you read this review and are even prouder of your daughter! |
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