Funny in Farsi

Just to give you a clue on how entertaining Funny in Farsi is ... I had this book with me at a dermatologist appointment the other week and I ended up having to wait in the office for over an hour. When they finally called my name I felt slightly annoyed at being interrupted and had to repress the urge to say, “just give me a minute here while I finish this chapter.”

In a nutshell, this book is a string of hilarious anecdotes about Firoozeh and her family’s assimilation into American culture after they moved from Iran to America in 1971. 

Here is an excerpt from the second chapter, “Hot Dogs and Wild Geese.” 

       Moving to America was both exciting and frightening, but we found great comfort in knowing that my father spoke English. Having spent years regaling us with stories about his graduate years in America, he had left us with the distinct impression that America was his second home. My mother and I planned to stick close to him, letting him guide us through the exotic American landscape that he knew so well. We counted on him not only to translate the language but also to translate the culture, to be a link to this most foreign of lands. He was to be our own private Rosetta stone.

      Once we reached America, we wondered whether perhaps my father had confused his life in America with someone else’s. Judging from the bewildered looks of store cashiers, gas station attendants, and waiters, my father spoke a version of English not yet shared with the rest of America. His attempts to find a “vater closet” in a department store would usually lead us to the drinking fountain or the home furnishings section. Asking my father to ask the waitress the definition of “sloppy Joe” or “Tater Tots” was no problem. His translations, however, were highly suspect. 

This book is short and easy to read - perfect if you don’t want to be shackled to a beast of a Victorian novel for weeks on end.