37 pages • 1 hour read
Firoozeh DumasFunny In Farsi
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “You Can Call Me Al”
Kazem once again takes center stage at the outset of this chapter. Firoozeh explains that he loves to frequent Las Vegas, and she recalls a typical vacation to Vegas from her childhood. These invariably include a stop at Kazem’s favorite restaurant, Denny’s. She also describes the hotel registration ritual, which allows Kazem to pretend that he has inside connections in Vegas, perhaps with real mobsters. Kazem is never successful at the casinos and is superstitious about nearly everything. Eventually, the family pursues vacations in other places like Hawaii, which is too gimmicky, and Yosemite, which is too wild and has bears. While Kazem never entirely gives up his Vegas vacations, they are eventually the only vacation he is willing to go on, much to Firoozeh’s dismay.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Of Mosquitoes and Men”
Firoozeh describes the adventurous life of her husband, Francois. At one time, he lived in Africa in Congo. As the two were preparing their honeymoon, Francois suggested India, to which Firoozeh vehemently objected. Firoozeh explains why she objected, how her views of a vacation differ vastly from her husband’s, and why. Born in Paris, Francois seeks an escape from the luxuries Firoozeh embraces. All of the challenges that come with places that are often exoticized, like mosquitos and lack of toilets, are things Firoozeh grew up with. She has no desire to revisit this kind of experience; therefore, she manages to talk her new husband into a honeymoon in Paris.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The ‘F-Word’”
Dumas discusses the ways Americans mocked her first name when she was younger and mentions other examples of similar instances endured by her Iranian friends and her brothers. Because of the way Americans immediately identified her as foreign because of her name, and because Firoozeh did not want the associated negative attention that went along with that labeling, she changed her name to Julie. By the time she was in college, she did not speak with an accent, and most people assumed she was American. Although she liked blending in, it allowed her an ugly insight into how Americans spoke of Iranians, especially after the revolution. In spite of these experiences, Dumas still maintains that her encounters with Americans, for the most part, show them to be kind.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Waterloo”
Dumas recounts her father’s self-proclaimed expertise in teaching family members how to swim. However, she was not one of them. She recalls her first experiences with her father in the pool at age six. She refuses to let go of him to try swimming on her own. Her father, who gloated often about his coaching skills, blames Firoozeh, calls her a rock, and gives up on the endeavor. Aunt Parvine, who lives in Switzerland, later tries a different method: literally a sink-or-swim approach. Firoozeh nearly drowns. When she is 10, she finally decides to swim; she goes into the ocean and learns, just like that, much to her father’s amazement.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
In this section, Firoozeh’s father begins to become the central figure of the book. He is the focal point of the anecdotes, which allows Dumas to provide comic relief that comes not from derision or deprecation but from highlighting the quirks of his personality. As an example, Dumas mentions the family trips to Las Vegas, her father’s favorite vacation spot. He built a well-regimented routine structure. Dumas’s gently, yet slightly sarcastically, says, “We always drove one hour before stopping for breakfast at Denny’s. My father’s devotion to Denny’s restaurants approached religious fervor” (51). After the meal, they would continue driving before stopping at another Denny’s, where he would marvel at how clean every Denny’s was. Then, he’d use his love for Denny’s as a vehicle to express his love for America. This gentle-yet-humorous portrayal of her father provides the book with much of its spirit. She continues to analyze the ironies and contradictions of her father’s personality when she describes his visits to the casinos. He develops a series of superstitions and justifications. For example, when he loses money, he takes the family to an all-you-can-eat buffet, seeming to indicate that it balances out because “those shrimp alone are worth five dollars,” and the desserts are “worth the price of the buffet” (52).
More idiosyncrasies follow in the ensuing chapters, specifically “Waterloo.” In this chapter, Kazem sees himself as the family swim instructor and is very willing to credit himself when someone in the family learns how to swim. Firoozeh is the exception and takes slowly to learning how to swim. This fact perplexes Kazem. When faced with growing evidence that Firoozeh will not swim, he simply blames her inability to float. He tends to deflect responsibility, both in the casino scene and in Firoozeh’s swimming failures. However, Dumas’s tone is not critical, and she does not present her father’s behavior as mean nor his actions as ill-intended. Instead, Kazem is a unique individual. It seems that as Dumas narrates her own story, she realizes how much of it directly involves her father. There is something relatable in his quirkiness, and Dumas portrays Kazem in a loving way. This text is not a catharsis in which she is trying to exorcise the demons left by her father; instead, she celebrates him as a person and his influence in her life, even as she gently pokes fun at him.
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