What to Read After Funny in Farsi
If you enjoyed Funny in Farsi by this year’s Convocation speaker, Firoozeh Dumas, you might enjoy these books as well:
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
Marjane Satrapi
Call Number: PN 6747.S245 P4913 2004 (3rd floor)
This memoir, told in graphic novel form, picks up where Satrapi’s earlier work, Persepolis, left off. Sent by her parents to live in Vienna, this young Iranian woman struggles to find her place and eventually returns to live with her family in Tehran.
Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran
Azadeh Moaveni
Call Number: E 184.I5 M63 2005 (2nd floor)
In this memoir, Moaveni, an American born to Iranian parents and a reporter for Time, moves to Tehran. While ostensibly reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and the concomitant backlash, the most interesting story to emerge in the book is her own story of discovering the real country her parents had left behind.
The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Call Number: PS 3604.A75 I54 2007 (3rd floor)
A collection of fictional stories about four Palestinian-American women and their families.
Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America
Gelareh Asayesh
Call Number: E 184.I5 A8 1999 (2nd floor)
Asayesh, a joournalist for the Miami Herald, writes about her lifelong struggle to find balance between her Iranian and American selves. She deftly deals with the issues of race, immigration, and cultural assimilation as they relate to her own life and the larger context of American society.
Typical American
Gish Jen
Call Number: PS 3560.E474 T9 1991 (3rd floor)
This first novel by Chinese-American author, Jen, is a funny and poignant story of three Chinese immigrants who inadvertently find themselves stuck in the United States in 1948 and their attempts to live the American dream. The family’s story is continued in the equally wonderful, Mona in the Promised Land.
The Namesake
Jhumpa Lahiri
Call Number: PS 3562.A316 N36 2003 (3rd floor)
Lahiri won the Pulitzer for her first book, The Interpreter of Maladies, and this, her first novel, is a winding tale about a young American man born to Indian parents. Named Gogol, after the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, the endearing protagonist of this novel rejects not only his name but culture of his parents as a teenager. Later, when he becomes a successful architect in New York city he finds a way to reconcile the world he grew-up in and world he inhabits now.
If you enjoyed Funny in Farsi by this year’s Convocation speaker, Firoozeh Dumas, you might enjoy these books as well:
|
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
Marjane Satrapi Call Number: PN 6747.S245 P4913 2004 (3rd floor) This memoir, told in graphic novel form, picks up where Satrapi’s earlier work, Persepolis, left off. Sent by her parents to live in Vienna, this young Iranian woman struggles to find her place and eventually returns to live with her family in Tehran. |
|
Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran
Azadeh Moaveni Call Number: E 184.I5 M63 2005 (2nd floor) In this memoir, Moaveni, an American born to Iranian parents and a reporter for Time, moves to Tehran. While ostensibly reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and the concomitant backlash, the most interesting story to emerge in the book is her own story of discovering the real country her parents had left behind. |
|
The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly
Susan Muaddi Darraj Call Number: PS 3604.A75 I54 2007 (3rd floor) A collection of fictional stories about four Palestinian-American women and their families. |
|
Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America
Gelareh Asayesh Call Number: E 184.I5 A8 1999 (2nd floor) Asayesh, a joournalist for the Miami Herald, writes about her lifelong struggle to find balance between her Iranian and American selves. She deftly deals with the issues of race, immigration, and cultural assimilation as they relate to her own life and the larger context of American society. |
|
Typical American
Gish Jen Call Number: PS 3560.E474 T9 1991 (3rd floor) This first novel by Chinese-American author, Jen, is a funny and poignant story of three Chinese immigrants who inadvertently find themselves stuck in the United States in 1948 and their attempts to live the American dream. The family’s story is continued in the equally wonderful, Mona in the Promised Land. |
|
The Namesake
Jhumpa Lahiri Call Number: PS 3562.A316 N36 2003 (3rd floor) Lahiri won the Pulitzer for her first book, The Interpreter of Maladies, and this, her first novel, is a winding tale about a young American man born to Indian parents. Named Gogol, after the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, the endearing protagonist of this novel rejects not only his name but culture of his parents as a teenager. Later, when he becomes a successful architect in New York city he finds a way to reconcile the world he grew-up in and world he inhabits now. |
