Funny in Farsi

I read this book for the book club that I like to attend with Mitzi.  I haven't been in so long that I will probably be introduced as a newcomer.  I would never have read the book without Mitzi's encouragement that it was short and an entertaining read.  I read it via audible.  And finished binding off my wonderful purple/blue/violet Drachenfels shawl.  All of this in September which is porch sitting time of the year.

Firoozeh Dumas, the author, was born in in 1965 in Abadan, Iran.  She did most of her growing up years in California.  Firoozeh read the book herself for audible.  Her American accent is excellent.  It is always embarrassing to me how little I know about the middle east.  So I did quite a lot of googling when I finished the book.  Firoozeh is quite attractive and the area in which she was born is very interesting so I will add the information below.

Because my next door neighbor's family was from Iran/Persia, I first googled the names Iran, Persia, Persian, and Farsi.  Iran was called Persia by the western world until 1935.  At that time Persia became Iran on the maps.  The people who lived in this country NEVER called it Persia.  This was an English word for the country that they called Iran.  In addition the people who lived in Iran never called their language Persian....it was always called Farsi.  Below are maps showing Iran and the town in which Firoozeh was born:





You will see Abadan at the very top of the Persian Gulf.  Abadan according to Wikipedia was a port.  Accumulation of silt over the centuries caused the town itself to be back from the coast as the years went by.  In the first half of the 20th century it was the largest oil area in the world.  The area has a great deal of oil and the Western World had worked with natives to develop quite large refineries.  After the nationalization of the oil industry in Iran, the oil was piped to Tehran for use within the country itself.

Firoozeh married a French man, Francois Dumas.  This accounts for her very un-Iranian last name.  The book is written with each chapter having one incident that Firoozeh explains.  Some chapters are about family life of food or relationships.  The book is very entertaining.

My favorite two chapters are close to the end of the book. One is the story of antique limoges china that is in her husband's family.  Again a quick google tells me that Limoges is an area of France.  So that there are many companies that have produced china in that area over the years including Haviland.  As I remember the story, Firoozeh's husband asked his mother for a set of Limoges china that was boxed up in their garage and had not been used by his family in his memory.  When an earthquake hit in the area in which Firoozeh and Francois were living, Firoozeh imagined that her mother-in-law would suddenly realize how much she cared about the young couple and make up with Firoozeh.  Instead, when Firoozeh called to let her mother-in-law know that they were safe, her mother-in-law was most interested in if the china was broken.  You honestly have to read the chapter for yourself.  There is much of interest in the story of how the china influenced the young couple and ended up donating the set of china to a charity because Firoozeh felt that the china now had bad Karma.

The other favorite chapter was about noses.  Again one needs to read it for oneself.  But the chapter dealt with a librarian who Firooza called the Toucan because of her nose.  And the crazy coincidence that the non-TV-Watching Firooza watched TV by chance one evening and found the story of the Toucan's self confidence in spite of her nose.  It is a great story.  And it was particularly fun to read in light of the fact that this year I was reminded of my reduced status in my deceased husband's family at his death.  Something came up and I was laughing with my daughter about it and she said:  "Mom, you just don't have the nose!".  Funny stuff.