Funny In Farsi

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up in America is a 2003 book by Firoozeh Dumas in which she describes her experiences as an Iranian immigrant to the US. The narrative follows a non-linear time structure, and Dumas often moves between different eras of her life, including the time of writing, when she is an adult. Much of her work centers on what life was like for her as a child who came to America from Iran and the ways she and her family adapted to their new home in America. The book is also a celebration of her father, the one responsible for bringing his family to the US in pursuit of the American Dream.

Funny in Farsi is the first in a two-part series of memoirs, the other being Laughing without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen. This guide references the 2007 Kindle edition of the book published by Random House.

Summary

The memoir is a non-chronological collection of anecdotes, memories, and vignettes tied together by theme. The book is broken into 26 titled chapters and concludes with an afterword in which Dumas reflects on the experience of writing the narrative, including her parents’ reactions to the contents.