Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
Read for: This review by raych on books i done read
Well, this book is exactly what the title says it is…a memoir of growing up Iranian in America. It was a nice short little read and it was enjoyable. The chapters were a little disjointed but it didn’t really bother me. It’s almost like a collection of short stories or essays rather than one long story.
While I enjoyed reading this, there were a few times when I felt like saying, “that’s not growing up Iranian, that’s just growing up.” I have never experienced the racism she has but there were a lot of situations that I could totally relate to. (I happen to have a first name that nobody can ever pronounce properly, I feel your pain Firoozeh!! I’ve been called the craziest things and people have a habit of throwing extra letters in there on a regular basis. Fritzy Dumbass though? That’s a good one. I had a good laugh over that one!!)
Now, granted, I have no idea what Dumas had to go through in her growing up, but there were a couple of times I found her to be just a teensy bit whiny about things. I can’t really come up with any examples because it wasn’t really over specific incidents, it just seemed to be an attitude that shone through sometimes.
Overall though I did enjoy reading the book and it was definitely entertaining.
