Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad (Hardcover)

by Firoozeh Dumas (Author)
Key Phrases: Laughing Without, Firoozeh Dumas, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Dumas’ builds on her first memoir, Funny in Farsi (2003), offering more amusing tales from her life in this follow-up. Like her first outing, her latest is a collection of anecdotes from different points in her life: stories from her youth in Iran mix with memories of her experiences as a wife, mother, and author. Dumas’ parents remain a big influence in her life, whether she’s dealing with her mother’s frequent and sometimes, in the case of one bright red comforter, unsightly gifts, or trying to understand her father and his brothers’ fixation on The Price Is Right. In one of the funniest chapters, Dumas recalls the time she and her kids decided to try to sell a potato shaped like a cross on eBay, hoping to make a whopping sixty grand. There’s such warmth to Dumas’ writing that it invites the reader to pull up a seat at her table and smile right along with her at the quirks of her family and Iranians and Americans in general. --Kristine Huntley

Review
Advance praise for Laughing Without an Accent

"Dumas builds on her first memoir, Funny in Farsi (2003), offering more amusing tales from her life in this follow-up. Like her first outing, her latest is a collection of anecdotes from different points in her life: stories from her youth in Iran mix with memories of her experiences as a wife, mother, and author. Dumas’ parents remain a big influence in her life, whether she’s dealing with her mother’s frequent and sometimes, in the case of one bright red comforter, unsightly gifts, or trying to understand her father and his brothers’ fixation on The Price Is Right. In one of the funniest chapters, Dumas recalls the time she and her kids decided to try to sell a potato shaped like a cross on eBay, hoping to make a whopping sixty grand. There’s such warmth to Dumas’ writing that it invites the reader to pull up a seat at her table and smile right along with her at the quirks of her family and Iranians and Americans in general." - Booklist

“These stories, like everything Firoozeh Dumas writes, are charming, highly amusing vignettes of family life. Dumas is one of those rare people–a naturally gifted storyteller.”
–Alexander McCall Smith

Praise for 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 Book Review

“Remarkable tales of family resilience told with wry humor shorn of sentimentality.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“The book brings us closer to discovering what it means to be an American.”
–San Jose Mercury News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 226 pages
• Publisher: Villard (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345499565
• ISBN-13: 978-0345499561
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,887 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I love a good surprise, May 9, 2008

By	Garry Somers - Editor (Chapel Hill, NC United States) - See all my reviews

Got this for my wife, peeked at it, and was hooked. Dumas' family is MY family, only from somewhere else. I have uncles and aunts that are loopy (but whom I love), and sisters that I turn to when my parents do something crazy. No, there's no rocket science here - that we all tend to drive each other to distraction occasionally, and often in ways that are funny in retrospect, but a book doesn't have to be rocket science to have value and be something good and worthwhile. I was surprised by how much this book moved me, and that is rare. I liked it so much I contacted the author for an interview in The Blotter Magazine (www.blotterrag.com).

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book by Firoozeh Dumas, May 5, 2008

By	Seattleman "seattleman" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

If you liked Funny in Farsi, then you will love this book.

Another collection of short stories with insightful and funny observations.

My favorite is the last chapter, where she tells the story of where she met one of the people that was taken hostage in the US embassy in Tehran years ago.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and touching, May 30, 2008

By	SwissMary "Mary" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

As an expatriate like Firoozeh Dumas, but not Iranian and in my case living in Europe, I was thrilled to hear that Firoozeh had written another memoir.
Laughing Without An Accent continues to delight and amuse, much like her earlier book Funny In Farsi. Each of the stories seem to somehow touch the heart and can connect with people of any culture. She tells her stories about her family with wit and affection.
Many of my friends live outside of the country they were born in. All found Funny In Farsi to be right on the mark and they could really relate to the situations and family issues in the book.
If you're reading Laughing Without An Accent as you relax on vacation, you should know that people will constantly be asking what you're reading that's so funny.