Funny in Persian is i of those memoirs that is genuinely funny and sweet, and does not take u.s. readers through some harrowing journey full of trials and tribulations. This book volition not testify y'all how resilient and strong a homo existence tin be when moving and transitioning to a new life in a new country. Instead, this volume shows us the power of family love and how new challenges can be overcome with a huge sense of sense of humour.

Funny in Persian is an an autobiography by Firoozeh Dumas who, along with her family (her parents and her elderberry brother Farid), left Iran in 1972. She was but 7 years old at the fourth dimension then to make it in Southern California was like another world for her. She takes us through the changes she and her family unit has to make in order to arrange in California. They all move in with her uncle, who has married an American woman. Her father is an oil engineer who had worked with an American firm in Iran and always had that American Dream of attention an American college. Her mother, on the other hand, is someone who is very proud of her cultural heritage and so isn't all too keen to learn to speak English to adjust in the United states (she does eventually learn English!)

Firoozeh's takes on a journey through her school years (struggling to help others pronounce her proper name correctly), to her agreement of the American culture (hot dogs!) right through her years at Berkeley University and her eventual marriage to Francois, a Frenchman. Her marriage to Francois sets her up for another cultural adjustment every bit she settles in with a French human being in the U.s.. I constantly had a smile on my confront every bit I read through her mishaps, little imitation pas and ultimately changing her proper name to Julie to make her life easier.

Forth with her own journeying, we also follow the lives of her parents and her brother and all what they go through. The one thing that holds them together is the strong family bond. As many immigrants take experienced when put in a new country with alien cultural practices, the family unit connect to each other on a whole new level. Firoozeh is blessed to accept that sense of sense of humour inherent in her nature to be able to conform to a new life with that sense of sense of humour.

At that place are a lot of similarities between the Iranian culture and the Pakistani culture, and I could relate to a lot of her life's moments because I have seen that happening in my own civilisation. The family pressure level for matrimony, her ability to lie to her parents to keep things safe, her want to alive out the American life her white friends were living and many other things.

A lot of the cultural clashes felt very like to me as I recalled my ain experience of my academy years in Texas in 1996. With much marvel, I was likewise asked a lot of questions past other students and professors about my origins and my proper name.

Some of my closest friends in academy were Iranians and nosotros continued because of similar backgrounds and as we constitute later, some common words in our languages. I e'er remember my Iranian friends equally the lively and jubilant ones- they ever had a wicked sense of humor. This is as well hugely axiomatic in the book, and for a change it was actually wonderful to come across this side of Iran as compared to the rather grim pictures we meet in the media. As the author says in the book, nosotros are non ever almost politics and religion, at that place'southward more than to us.

Funny in Farsi is that rare autobiography that is charming and affectionate, and volition testify you how life can be handled with a sense of humour.

Welcome to my web log! I am so excited to have you here. I love reviewing the books I read, the places I travel to and the food that I eat. I am currently working every bit a licensed psychotherapist, also as a certified NLP Principal practictioner. View all posts by Mansour Ahsan