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Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad by Firoozeh Dumas
marsem's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
aimeebrand's review against another edition
4.0
Very funny, easy read. Entertaining but also teaching lessons we all could learn about humanity. Just as good as its predecessor, Funny in Farsi.
laila4343's review against another edition
3.0
Amusing and sweet. I read *Funny in Farsi* so long ago that I can't remember it, so I can't compare this one to her first. But I enjoyed this. Her dad reminded me of my own Iranian immigrant father.
omvigeg3's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
papidoc's review against another edition
5.0
What a delightful book! Full of gentle humor, keen insights into the human condition (at a ground-level), and occasional segues into commentary on current (or past) events and how they affected her or might affect the reader. She has a warm and funny way of turning a phrase, whether talking about her experiences as a young girl, her family, or the community and world around her.
I find that the books I tend to re-read are either dense with information or have dialogue that I enjoy. With the best of the latter, its almost like wrapping a favorite blanket around me on a cold winter's night. It's not just the warmth, but the texture, fragrance, and memories associated with it. Laughing Without An Accent is one of those kinds of books.
This is her second book (the first was Funny in Farsi, and although I read it as part of the common reading for incoming freshmen at the University where I work, I plan to read her first book soon.
I find that the books I tend to re-read are either dense with information or have dialogue that I enjoy. With the best of the latter, its almost like wrapping a favorite blanket around me on a cold winter's night. It's not just the warmth, but the texture, fragrance, and memories associated with it. Laughing Without An Accent is one of those kinds of books.
This is her second book (the first was Funny in Farsi, and although I read it as part of the common reading for incoming freshmen at the University where I work, I plan to read her first book soon.
jenniferdenslow's review against another edition
4.0
Dumas' stories of her family and the cultural clashes she experiences as a native of Iran transplanted to America as a child are endearing and amusing. She is immensely quotable and I loved her stories.
marie_gg's review against another edition
3.0
http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/2011/09/laughing-without-accent-funny-in-farsi.html
Firoozeh Dumas is an Iranian-American married to a Frenchman, and now a writer, speaker, and mom of three. A few years ago, I enjoyed reading her first book, Funny in Farsi, a collection of stories about moving to the U.S. as a child and viewing life through an immigrant family's eyes. Laughing Without an Accent is more focused on Dumas' recent years in the U.S.
Dumas shares stories about the difficulties of getting her first book translated into Persian (in Iran, the author has no quality control over translations of their work; her courtship with her husband, who she met in college; a Tina Fey moment, when she berated a woman for allowing her dog to poop in her front yard, only to find out later that she was her children's new school principal; the stories of mother guilt (not confined to Jewish mothers) and the difficulty of turning down a parental present, even if it's awful; her decision to get rid of her family's TV (and her son's ignorance about Toys 'R Us--not a bad thing!); a funny Christmas when her husband tried valiantly to please her parents with a gourmet Christmas meal; and her view of farmers markets as near-religious experiences.
I enjoyed reading about attending an office clearance sale with her resourceful-to-a-fault, thrifty dad, who insisted on buying a few enormous desks without regard to how they were going to get the desks home, much less into the house.
As an avid library lover, I adored the story about how Dumas grew up in a family without books and only got to visit the library when a teacher advised it (her parents always obeyed teachers!). She could not believe that she would be able to take out books for free, so she took her purse with her, ready to pay for the book. “Ever since we had arrived in the United States, my classmates kept asking me about magic carpets. They don't exist, I always said. I was wrong. Magic carpets do exist. But they are called library cards.”
Some reviewers have criticized Dumas for lumping all Americans together. I say hogwash and they need to lighten up. She writes about the independent, outspoken Iranian women she knows who are hidden under hijab, contrasted with the over-the-top skimpy attire in American culture: "I wish to see the day when no woman is forced to wear a hijab, chador, or burqa, but let us not discount the women underneath those mandatory coverings. If empowerment were as simple as being able to show skin, Paris Hilton would be the most enlightened woman in the United States. Having freedom does not automatically mean we all make good choices. Freedom is a rope; some make a ladder out of it and climb out of the box they're put in; some make a noose; and others make a stripper's pole." Yes, she's opinionated about the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, but she's not saying all Americans are like them.
At times she does contradict herself a bit, such as when she talks about how great Iranian schools are (were), yet how the first time she ever had a nurturing teacher was in the U.S. I would have liked to have read more about her relationship with her husband: how do they merge their French and Iranian cultures, traditions, and religions?
Most touching were stories about how tough it was to be an Iranian-American in 1979 during the hostage crisis, constantly hearing the "Bomb Iran" parody on the radio, and how recently she got to know Kathryn Koob, one of the female hostages. She ends with a story about how Koob took her all over her Iowa hometown, embracing her as a friend. And she ends with these thoughts, on the subject of reconcilation (one of my favorite topics):
"The bible is foreign to me, but its concepts are not. My father always said that hatred is a waste and never an option. He learned this growing up in Ahwaz, Iran, in a Muslim household. I have tried my best to pass the same message to my children, born and raised in the United States. Ultimately, it doesn't matter where we learn that lesson. It's just important that we do." Amen.
Firoozeh Dumas is an Iranian-American married to a Frenchman, and now a writer, speaker, and mom of three. A few years ago, I enjoyed reading her first book, Funny in Farsi, a collection of stories about moving to the U.S. as a child and viewing life through an immigrant family's eyes. Laughing Without an Accent is more focused on Dumas' recent years in the U.S.
Dumas shares stories about the difficulties of getting her first book translated into Persian (in Iran, the author has no quality control over translations of their work; her courtship with her husband, who she met in college; a Tina Fey moment, when she berated a woman for allowing her dog to poop in her front yard, only to find out later that she was her children's new school principal; the stories of mother guilt (not confined to Jewish mothers) and the difficulty of turning down a parental present, even if it's awful; her decision to get rid of her family's TV (and her son's ignorance about Toys 'R Us--not a bad thing!); a funny Christmas when her husband tried valiantly to please her parents with a gourmet Christmas meal; and her view of farmers markets as near-religious experiences.
I enjoyed reading about attending an office clearance sale with her resourceful-to-a-fault, thrifty dad, who insisted on buying a few enormous desks without regard to how they were going to get the desks home, much less into the house.
As an avid library lover, I adored the story about how Dumas grew up in a family without books and only got to visit the library when a teacher advised it (her parents always obeyed teachers!). She could not believe that she would be able to take out books for free, so she took her purse with her, ready to pay for the book. “Ever since we had arrived in the United States, my classmates kept asking me about magic carpets. They don't exist, I always said. I was wrong. Magic carpets do exist. But they are called library cards.”
Some reviewers have criticized Dumas for lumping all Americans together. I say hogwash and they need to lighten up. She writes about the independent, outspoken Iranian women she knows who are hidden under hijab, contrasted with the over-the-top skimpy attire in American culture: "I wish to see the day when no woman is forced to wear a hijab, chador, or burqa, but let us not discount the women underneath those mandatory coverings. If empowerment were as simple as being able to show skin, Paris Hilton would be the most enlightened woman in the United States. Having freedom does not automatically mean we all make good choices. Freedom is a rope; some make a ladder out of it and climb out of the box they're put in; some make a noose; and others make a stripper's pole." Yes, she's opinionated about the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, but she's not saying all Americans are like them.
At times she does contradict herself a bit, such as when she talks about how great Iranian schools are (were), yet how the first time she ever had a nurturing teacher was in the U.S. I would have liked to have read more about her relationship with her husband: how do they merge their French and Iranian cultures, traditions, and religions?
Most touching were stories about how tough it was to be an Iranian-American in 1979 during the hostage crisis, constantly hearing the "Bomb Iran" parody on the radio, and how recently she got to know Kathryn Koob, one of the female hostages. She ends with a story about how Koob took her all over her Iowa hometown, embracing her as a friend. And she ends with these thoughts, on the subject of reconcilation (one of my favorite topics):
"The bible is foreign to me, but its concepts are not. My father always said that hatred is a waste and never an option. He learned this growing up in Ahwaz, Iran, in a Muslim household. I have tried my best to pass the same message to my children, born and raised in the United States. Ultimately, it doesn't matter where we learn that lesson. It's just important that we do." Amen.
mom2tcks's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best memoirs I have read this year. If you have been in a different culture or are interested in what it would be like, you will enjoy this book even more. Funny, witty, thoughtful! Loved it!
carmenhartjensen's review against another edition
4.0
I really like Firoozeh sense of story telling and take on things. This book had more profound moments than the first but still plenty of laugh out loud moments. She really is queen of the quirky comparisons.
hoperu's review against another edition
4.0
I have become slightly obsessed with books about Iran lately, and this only served to fuel my obsession. It is an enjoyable look at Iran and the U.S. from an immigrant's point of view. Dumas writes with humor and sensitivity about her relatives and her adopted country. Some of the essays are a bit uneven, but otherwise, I would highly recommend this. I also need to read her first book, Funny in Farsi...