Reviews of Laughing Without an Accent
Memoir Review: Laughing Without an Accent
Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad
By Lee Thomas
San Francisco Chronicle
Firoozeh Dumas exudes undeniable charm in “Laughing Without an Accent,” the autobiographical follow-up to her 2003 collection of personal essays, “Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America.” Dumas, whose family immigrated from Iran to Southern California when she was 7, reprises the themes of her first book: cultural faux pas, misadventures and her extended family’s endeavors to bridge gaps in understanding through food, humor and love.
Many of the chapters in her new book are only a few pages long. In them, Dumas recounts her sometimes farcical, sometimes difficult, acclimation to a new society. From her introduction to the public library as a girl, her husband’s valiant attempt to introduce her parents to a French Christmas dinner and her uncles’ mysterious love for “The Price Is Right,” Dumas reveals a zeal for culture - both new and old - and the enduring bonds of a family filled with outsize personalities.
“Laughing Without an Accent” is written in a folksy, conversational style, as if Dumas were sharing a cup of coffee with her reader as she relates her comic tales. In writing about her distaste for the American penchant for saccharine foods, she targets yams with marshmallow topping: “I don’t know who thought of this Thanksgiving tradition, but I’m guessing a hyperactive, toothless three-year-old. I just don’t understand this random pairing. It’s like Einstein marrying Charo. Yams are perfect plain. Dressing them up is like putting makeup on a ten-year-old girl or on Albert Einstein. It’s just wrong and unnecessary.” Some of Dumas’ metaphors, too, seem unnecessary, even distracting at times. Yet the personal warmth of the stories usually overcomes the occasional linguistic misstep.
Some of Dumas’ most powerful passages involve universal, rather than purely immigrant experiences. For example, the family gift that one can neither gracefully refuse, because of accompanying expectations, nor comfortably display. In Dumas’ case, the gift arrives in the form of a garish red comforter, a gift from her well-meaning but aesthetically misguided mother. In another story, Dumas describes the family happily eating a birthday cake at a party, only to discover that the restaurant had delivered it to their table by mistake.
For those who loved “Funny in Farsi,” this new book will be a welcome continuation of Dumas’ humorous take on her extended family. But the stories can seem a bit rambling at times, a bit unevenly paced, as if the reader were tagging along to a friend’s family reunion. Some passages contain details both poignant and restrained. Her description of why her parents will take no more trips back to Iran is particularly striking: “It is simply too exhausting for them, both physically and emotionally. It pains them to see Iran in its present condition, with its skyrocketing inflation and a younger generation with no future. My parents have not taken a single picture during any of their trips back. They prefer looking at photos of the past. It is the Iran they want to remember, the Iran that held so much promise.”
One of the best vignettes recounts a speech Dumas delivered at a college graduation ceremony. Her sane, down-to-earth advice proves a refreshing antidote to much of the overblown pomp and circumstance frequently accompanying such ceremonies. Like the rest of her book, the insights are practical and lighthearted and reveal a woman who has managed to embrace both her rich past and the sometimes bizarre, sometimes wonderful, American ethos.
Lee Thomas is a San Francisco writer. E-mail her at books@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page E - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Reviews of Funny in Farsi
“What’s charming beyond the humor of this memoir is that it remains affectionate even in the weakest, most tenuous moments for the culture. It’s the brilliance of true sophistication at work.”
- Los Angeles Times
“A humorous and introspective chronicle of a life filled with love, of family, country, and heritage.”
- Jimmy Carter
“Today, as Middle Easterners in the United States are subject to racial profiling, stereotyping, and sometimes violence, this book provides a valuable glimpse into the immigrant experiences of one very entertaining family.”
- Library Journal
“…a hilarious collection of essays that dish up many sides of the immigrant experience…”
- San Jose Mercury News
“…remarkable tales of family resilience told with wry humor shorn of sentimentality…”
- San Francisco Chronicle
“Dumas is very funny, and demonstrates a gift for wry understatement and spot-on similes.”
( Complete Article )
- Christian Science Monitor
“…a collection of lighthearted yet poignant short essays…”
- Chicago Tribune
“…opening a window onto the Iranian people…”
- Los Angeles Times
“…Often hilarious, always interesting, with short chapters, this will make a good book for the beach…”
- Providence Journal
“…delightfully refreshing, then, in its prodigious use of humor…”
( Complete Article )
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“…When I picked up “Funny in Farsi… A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America,” I didn’t think I’d stay up all night to read it in one sitting–never mind laugh out loud at every page! …”
( Complete Article )
- Salam Worldwide
“…Funny in Farsi, is an enjoyably and believably simplistic reminder of how good — despite bigger and wealthier men’s attempts to muck it up — we have it here….”
( Complete Article )
- LA Weekly
“…gives American readers an inside view of the immigrant experience…”
- Voice of America
“…Firoozeh is helping our community set our image in our own words, and on our own terms….”
- National Iranian American Council
“…a gentle life story by an author who clearly loves her fellow man, and who is dedicated to pointing out the deliciously absurd aspects of both American and Iranian culture; as such, it is a joyful success…”
- Newsday
“Warm and engaging”
- Kirkus Review