Books › Funny in Farsi
Funny in Farsi
a memoir of growing up Iranian in America
224 pages
A warm, laugh-out-loud love letter to the absurdities of assimilation and the enduring eccentricities of family.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like sitting at a bustling dinner table with your funniest friend as they regale you with tales of their eccentric relatives. The pace is brisk and episodic, bouncing effortlessly from one hilarious cultural misunderstanding to the next. It is steeped in a mood of cozy nostalgia and profound affection, never letting the very real challenges of xenophobia or displacement overshadow the joy of familial bonds. The prose is conversational and sharp, delivering punchlines with a wry, self-deprecating ease that makes the immigrant experience feel universally relatable. It will absolutely delight anyone who appreciates gentle, observational humor but craves a softer, more heartwarming core centered on the beautiful absurdity of the American dream.
- Mood
- lighthearted
- nostalgic
- cozy
- welcoming
- Tone
- wry
- affectionate
- humorous
- warm
- self-deprecating
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- culture shock · the immigrant experience · family eccentricities · assimilation and identity · unconditional love
- The writing
- Conversational, witty, and highly accessible, relying on sharp observational humor and gentle irony rather than heavy exposition.
- The arc
- Moves from the bewildered innocence of childhood culture shock to a warm, grounded appreciation of family and dual identity.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love heartwarming, laugh-out-loud memoirs that explore the absurdities of family dynamics and cultural translation.
Content notes
- xenophobia
- casual racism
- references to the Iranian Revolution
About the book
In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of this country beyond her father's glowing memories of his graduate school years here. More family soon followed, and the clan has been here ever since. Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas's wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encountered a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot. In a series of deftly drawn scenes, we watch the family grapple with American English (hot dogs and hush puppies?--a complete mystery), American traditions (Thanksgiving turkey?--an even greater mystery, since it tastes like nothing), and American culture (Firoozeh's parents laugh uproariously at Bob Hope on television, although they don't get the jokes even when she translates them into Farsi).Above all, this is an unforgettable story of identity, discovery, and the power of family love. It is a book that will leave us all laughing--without an accent.From the Hardcover edition.
Description from Open Library.
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