Funny In Farsi (Part 2)

I have been continuing my book, Funny in Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas. It is just so funny and humorous that I find myself laughing out loud while reading. The narrator of the book is the author and so she is very believable and realistic, because she actually exists. She is so relatable and recounts her adolescent years perfectly. I completely understand her because of the beautiful way she has portrayed herself inside this book. She uses her previous interactions with others to help us understand more about her as a person. Many people say you can tell so much about a person by how they talk and act around different people. I completely agree with this statement, especially using this book as an example. Instead of telling us the characteristic of her in the book, she shows us through the way she handles different situations.

I love this book also because it is made of tons and tons of flashbacks of some of her most memorable moments. These flashbacks also tell a lot about Iranian and Middle Eastern culture which is what I hope to study next year. Below is an excerpt showing culture:

“For my American friends, “a visiting relative” meant a three-night stay. In my family, relatives’ stays were marked by seasons, not nights. No one bothered coming halfway around the world for just the month of December. Might as well stay to stay to experience spring in California, the children’s graduation ceremonies in June, and Halloween. It didn't matter that our house was barely big enough for us. My father’s motto has always been “Room in the heart, room in the house.”” (pg 24)

As you can see demonstrated in the excerpt, Ms. Dumas educates about Iranian culture while at the same time using humor. This is why I was so drawn to the book after just a few pages. This paragraph made me think of a time when I was studying abroad in the Middle East and my friends and I received an invitation to stay at a random family’s house whom we had just met that day. It was a bit strange for us to receive that invitation because that was not common in any of our cultures. However, this welcoming attitude is a large part of Middle Eastern culture and so I can relate to the book in that way.

I would highly recommend this book, even though I am not finished yet. I hope to finish by next week.