bermudaonion (Kathy)
Sandy
Beth F
Lisa
S. Krishna
Funny in Farsi – Book Review
Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
Firoozeh’s family came to the US from Iran for her father’s job when she was in grade school. Shortly thereafter, they ended up moving permanently because of the revolution. Being Iranian in America has had many challenges, both before and after the hostage crisis. In addition, Firoozeh’s family offered some unique challenges of its own.
“Funny in Farsi” was a fun, diverting read. However, it wasn’t quite what I expected. I thought it would be more of a cohesive memoir, but it was more similar to a series of essays. I felt that we got more snapshots than the story of her life.
I thought that “Funny in Farsi” was enjoyable, but not earth-shattering, as I dind’t really feel that I got that much sense of Firoozeh, which is what I expect in a memoir. It was a great look at her family, though, and I did like her writing style. If you’re in the mood for a fun look at growing up an immigrant, this is definitely worth a shot.
Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.
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Interesting about it being less cohesive than what you were expecting!
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I’ve seen this book around a little bit but I’m not really interested thus far. I don’t know that the essay type style of writing would really appeal to me.
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I read it a year or two ago and thought it was light and enjoyable.
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I think I heard this author in NPR, and she was very funny on the radio. I’d be curious to see if it translated to the written page.
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At first I thought this book was funny, then I thought she overdid it on the mocking of her family. It was just too much. But I thought she was a good writer
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I adored this book, mostly because of all the similarities between my Middle Eastern family and hers. I felt like I was reading about some of my own childhood experiences. I’m a bigger fan of short-essay type of memoirs (like David Sedaris) than an actual autobiographical format.
Her second book, Laughing Without An Accent is a lot more serious than Funny in Farsi, and slightly more cohesive. Its also more mature, because it discusses her adulthood, rather than childhood.
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Sounds interesting. I like books about family.
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I also enjoyed this book in spite of it not being what I was expecting. I’d recommended it for my book club, and it wasn’t ideal for discussion– that cohesion you were missing would have helped.
I listened to the audio, and thought it was well done.
.-= Laura´s last blog ..Expectations for books for younger readers =-.
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Sounds like an interesting book. Did you think the essays had any sort of coherence or theme too them — I love essay collections, but only if it seems like the parts add up to something, you know?
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I really loved this book, but I knew it was essays going in. Her follow-up, Laughing Without an Accent, is also good but is written in the same style.
.-= S. Krishna´s last blog ..Ice Land – Betsy Tobin =-.
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