"Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America" by Firoozeh Dumas

I wish two things.  #1 That I had read this before reading "It Ain't So Awful, Falafel" and #2 That I had read the "extra chapter" at the end, added in this reprint, before reading the book.  It is obvious that the fictional middle school tome "It Ain't So Awful, Falafel" was an attempt to synthesize this story in a palatable form for younger readers, but this book is so much better.  Essentially, this is a collection of short essays.  Some are about the author's time here as a child, others are about her Berkeley years, her Iranian homeland, her travels, her husband, etc.  But mostly, this book is about family.  The reason I wish I had read the extra chapter first is that Firoozeh is a bit caustic in her humor, making frank (very frank) comments about her family, particularly about her parents.  I kind of laughed and winced at the same time.  The extra chapter lets the reader know that all parties were mostly okay with the content.  That being said the stories are hugely relatable.  I can't imagine a person with a large family ~not~ finding something familiar here.  It was "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and my personal "Big Fat Irish Catholic Family" all rolled into one.  Hence the laughs, and the understanding.  Ms. Dumas' writing style is accessible and engaging but I'm not sure I saw the "flow" she mentions in her notes at the end.  The short essays sometimes seemed to have a connectedness, sometimes they felt like stand-alones.  They are not arranged in any kind of time-line and often feel like the free-form ramblings you might experience in a story told at a dinner party.  You may not get the point at first but then you do (mostly).  Even when you don't get the point, the tales are engaging.  Some pull at your heartstrings as we experience yet another questioning of immigrants here in this great nation.  It is for that reason that this 2003 book has such power -- it should be a must-read for every member of the U.S. Congress.  Worthy of its status as a bestseller and hugely applicable to our current world.