Firoozeh
Dumas is an Iranian-American
writer.
She is the author of Funny
in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America,
it is her first novel and the novel we want to talk about. She has
also written Laughing
without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen.
As
a result of Funny
in Farsi's
success,
Firoozeh Dumas has been nominated for many awards and she has
published in an important press, like: the New York Times, L.A.
Times, Wall Street Journal… Finally, we have to add that "Funny
in Farsi" was turned into a sitcom by ABC channel.
Dumas
family is from Iran but at the age of seven, Firoozeh and the rest of
her family moved to Whittier,
California.
Firoozeh began to write and submit essays to obtain money to go
toward college. The book of Funny in Farsi is the story of her own
life. As an Iranians inmigrants settle down in America, they have to
face some inconveniences related to the cultural gap between the two
countries. It is also included a historical fact like Iranian
Revolution. At the middle of the story Firoozeh describes the situations she had to suffer as Iranian in America due to the revolution. However, throughout hardships, she emphasizes the
significance of family strength and love in her life.
Firoozeh
is the narrator of her and her family experiences. She relates her
beginnins at school, the comunication difficulties of her mother who
doesn´t know a word of english… The other important character in
that novel is Kazem who is the name of Firoozeh´s real father. The
autobiographic work takes pride in their Iranian heritage, but at the
same time, mocks her dad's fascination with "freebies" at
Costco
and
television shows like Bowling
for Dollars.
We
recommend this book because it isn´t really difficult to understand
if you have an intermediate level of english. There aren´t
complicate grammar structures and she uses a common vocabulary too.
The only inconvenient is that the novel is written in American
english, so you could find some unfamiliar words. The topic,
nevertheless, is a very enjoyable one. There are a lot of stereotypes
of Iranian and American people and sometimes when you are reading it
will remind you of the famous film “8 apellidos vascos”, the
nacionalities are different but the plot and the type of humor is
basically the same.
