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. Both are highly supportive, and Dumas claims that only minor objections arose. She refrains from providing the family’s name, Jazayeri, until the afterword.

Dumas begins with recollections of her first day in America. The Jazayeri family first arrives in America in 1972, then returns to Iran for a brief time, and finally moves back to America permanently right before the Iranian Revolution. The experiences of Dumas’s family’s first residence in America are fraught with linguistic challenges and cultural displacement. The treatment she and her family receive from their new American neighbors is primarily kind. While there are moments that reveal the Americans as somewhat obtuse and unaware, Dumas does not ascribe blame. Instead, she presents herself as understanding the source of the curiosity and the questions that she always seems forced to answer.

Things change after the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis that follows it. Open hostility toward Iranians develops rapidly, and her previous experience in America, where she saw kindness as the defining characteristic of its people, is not the experience of those Iranians who emigrate after the hostage crisis. Despite the difficulties, Dumas remains grateful for the opportunity provided to her by living in America and still sees kindness as a defining characteristic of Americans.

Many of the chapters are also linked by cultural comparative analysis. Dumas examines some American Thanksgiving and Christmas customs and reflects on the differences from her Iranian heritage and practices. She also compares the countries’ societal norms, especially as these relate to the rights of women.

Dumas describes her Aunt Sedigeh, the sister of her father, Kazem. He holds his sister in the highest esteem and claims that among all his siblings, she is the brightest and the most capable; however, she was denied the opportunity to pursue her education and any career prospects because customs demanded that she be married at the age of 14. As a source of motivation, Kazem brought his family to America so that his daughter would not be subjected to the same kind of norms and expectations.

Dumas reveals in the afterword that her father is the main character of the book, re-framing the memoir as the narrative of a father-daughter relationship. Dumas’s recollections of Kazem provide the most humorous scenes, as he is portrayed as a quirky, stubbornly optimistic man with a soft spot for Denny’s restaurants and eating free samples at the local Price Club. A few of his exploits, notably his ill-fated appearance on the old TV show Bowling for Dollars and his forays into home repairs, showcase a man always willing to learn but sometimes allowing his can-do spirit to run amok. As Dumas describes her father in these moments, she teases him but in a way that remains gentle, not mean.

When the narrative moves out of the past and into the present, it makes clear that her childhood experiences shape the person Dumas becomes, especially her father’s influence. Dumas’s tone is serious when she discusses social issues and the discrimination she experiences as an immigrant, yet like her father, she does not allow these moments to influence her view on the world and on the US. Like her father, she remains grateful for the opportunities afforded her by living in America and is not embittered by her experiences. Instead, her narrative serves as an expression of gratitude mixed with good-natured humor.