Nesmith Library

Funny in Farsi, a memoir of growing up Iranian in America, Firoozeh Dumas

eng

autobiography

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Funny in Farsi

Firoozeh Dumas

a memoir of growing up Iranian in America

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

Leffingwell Elementary School -- Hot Dogs and Wild Geese -- In the Gutter -- Save Me, Mickey -- Swoosh-Swoosh -- With a Little Help from My Friends -- Bernice -- A Dozen Key Chains -- You Can Call Me Al -- Of Mosquitoes and Men -- The "F Word" -- Waterloo -- America, Land of the Free -- The Ham Amendment -- Treasure Island -- It's All Relatives -- Me and Bob Hope -- I Ran and I Ran and I Ran -- I-raynians Need Not Apply -- Girls Just Wanna Have Funds -- Joyeuse Noelle -- The Wedding -- I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet -- A Nose by Any Other Name -- Judges Paid Off -- If I Were a Rich Man