Funny In Farsi

Food has a central role in the memoir, and it usually provides Dumas with a means to compare and contrast Iranian and American cultures. The chapter “America, Land of the Free” is replete with discussions of food, specifically how Dumas’s family incorporates traditional Iranian dishes into the celebration of American Thanksgiving. Dumas also discusses her father’s penchant for trips to Denny’s and how the restaurant chain, for him, symbolizes cleanliness. When Dumas reflects on Christmas and her tradition as an adult of baking cookies for her children, she draws associations between Christmas and the Iranian holiday of Nowruz, even though these are vastly different celebrations. The act of baking and preparing the food for holiday celebrations elicits a wistful recollection of her youth.

There are two episodes in which this motif is most prevalent. The first is the scene in which Kazem becomes a contestant of Bowling for Dollars. The second is the chapter in which Dumas describes her father’s favorite vacation destination, Las Vegas. In each case, Kazem has visions of striking it rich, essentially by luck. His visions do not involve nefarious scheming; instead, they are akin to playing the lottery and dreaming of what to do with the winnings.