Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas

"After spending an entire day in America, surrounded by Americans, I realized that my father´s description of America had been correct. The bathrooms were clean and the people were very, very kind."

Firoozeh Dumas and her mother Nazireh Jazayeri who spoke no English when they first landed in America and had to rely on Dumas's father Kazem as their "own private Rosetta Stone." Kazem, on the other hand, had an English vocabulary from "pre-World War II British textbooks" that he spoke in a "thick Persian accent", meaning he was incomprehensible. And yet, through the kindness of neighbors and friends, they muddled along becoming proficient in the language and the societal and cultural mores of their adopted land.

Funny in Farsi is a humorous story of the immigration experience of a family from Iran. What makes this story different is that they arrived in America after the Iranian revolution, to an atmosphere of utter distrust towards anything Iranian.

Here's an example of a typical immigration mix-up.

Noticing some insects in our house one day, my mother asked me to call the exterminator. I looked up the number, then told my mother to call and say, "We have silverfish in our house."
My mother grumbled, dialed the number, and said, "Please come rrrright a-vay. Goldfeeesh all over dee house."
The exterminator told her he'd be over as soon as he found his fishing pole.

Money difficulties are another immigrant experience that most immigrants, who were well off in their home countries, go through when they arrive in the United States. "With the Iranian revolution and my family's financial upheaval in the background, I had entered adolescene. At an age when most of my classmates were discovering the Nordstrom shoe department, I watched my parents cut up their credit cards. Being unfashionable didn't bother me, but I was afraid I couldn't afford to go to college." Immigrants know that education is the ticket to a better life.

Dumas relates even the tougher experiences stemming from her being Iranian as opposed to merely foreign with wit and humor, not despair. Her quarter abroad in Paris, won in a contest because she spoke French so well, started with an experience that would've reduced a thirty-five-year-old to tears, leave alone someone half that age.

I had no idea that traveling with an Iranian passport would qualify me for special treatment. In a small, windowless room, I explained to the gendarmes in French, but with a perky Southern California demeanor, all about the contest.
"You don't know anybody in Paris?" they asked me. "Did anyone give you any materials to distribute? How is it that you speak French so well if you are only a student of French? Do you plan on returning to America afterward?"
These people clearly thought my life was a lot more exciting than it was.

Despite their conservative upbringing in Abadan, Dumas's parents were very progressive. They were willing to accept François, a French-American, as her husband, "because he was kind, and because I was in love with him." Nazireh, who had always hoped her daughter would marry an Iranian, wiped tears off her face and said, "He will be like a third son to me."

Her life with François is likewise filled with hilarious moments. On their vacation trip to the Bahamas, they were invited to judge a beauty pageant, merely because most of the town folks belonged to either one of two families and corruption was rife, so two outsiders would be impartial. They and the former beauty queen voted in the chubbiest girl, because the contest was also a talent search one, and she had the best answers. However, that did not sit well with the crowd at all.

By the time we got to the door [of our hotel], I could hear the distinct chanting of a large, angry crowd. "Judges paid off! Judges paid off!" The protest went on well into the night. I could not fall asleep, knowing that if the mobs stormed our dinky hotel room, my only weapon was a collection of conch shells. It was a long night, during which my husband slept like a log.

With an engaging writing style, a terrific memory, and an outlook that sees humor in every situation, whether truly funny, merely awkward, or heartbreaking, Funny in Farsi makes for a memorable read.