Firoozeh Dumas. Funny in Farsi. Random House, New York: 2003.

Book Review By: Jaquelyn McEwen

Funny in Farsi (Random House, New York:2003) is the humorous memoir of Firoozeh Dumas, an immigrant. In her book she tells the many stories that impacted her life growing up Iranian in America. Dumas’s story telling skills are entertaining and captivating for the reader. She has an innate ability to get a point across in a theatrical way and is also able to keep the seriousness of the situation. In the memoir she tells of the little things that she had to get used to being an immigrant and the misconceptions that came with not knowing the American language. Dumas also touches on happenings in her home country that made being an immigrant hard (Iran Hostage Crisis 1979). Dumas starts her memoir when her and her family first arrived in the United States at the age of seven.

The book shows that Dumas is a skilled writer and can be read by anyone. The language used in this book was very descriptive and set the scene well. For example, in one chapter she touched on the multitude of loose weight quick schemes offered in America. While reading of the numerous methods her uncle used I was able to visualize what was going on. This also made the things happening in the book quite funny and I constantly found myself laughing out loud.

Dumas’s writing style also showed how eccentric her family was in comparison to the Americans they encountered daily. She dedicated many of the pages of this book just describing how different her culture views the importance of family compared to the majority of America. Dumas was also able to explain in several occurrences in the book, how her loud family both embarrassed her and made her who she is today. She states in the later chapters of the book that her husband married her not in spite of her family but because of them.

Dumas clearly states (in the afterward) that she did not write this book because she had accomplished any great achievement, but she wrote it because she felt that everyone has a story to tell. Even though she many not feel she accomplished anything great I feel differently after reading this book. She became successful and overcame the many odds that were against her being an Iranian immigrant. Throughout the pages one can read time and again several occurrences that would have held most people back. Dumas on the other hand never gave up and always worked towards achieving a greater goal. One chapter, in particular, stands out to me in demonstrating this point “Girls Just Wanna Have Funds.” While I found this chapter humorous (like many of the other chapters in the book) she made a clear point that one must work hard for there goals, literally. In this chapter she tells of the many jobs that she acquired after worrying she would not be able to afford college at the age of fourteen. This chapter not only kept one laughing, but showed how difficult it was for her as an immigrant to find a good job.

Dumas also was able to portray several different aspects of American culture that she was able to experience. I felt that she was able to illustrate the problems her and her family faced like the multiple schemes (e.g. get rich quick games and loose weight quick) and other recreational activities (e.g. theme parks [particularly Disneyland], summer camp, and vacations) that they encountered in America without being offensive.

I really appreciated that Dumas took a more humorous approach writing about the several culture shocks she experienced moving to another country. It was refreshing and made reading the book easier. Unlike other immigration stories that I have read that make their point by focusing on all the horrible things that were happening Dumas was able to bring light to a sensitive subject. Instead of in a sense dreading what I was going to read next I looked forward to what she had to say. Her ability to use humor definitely worked to her advantage. It made the book fun and a page turner.

My one complaint about this book comes from its lack of chronological order. She jumped around a lot in the book making it hard for me to have a good reference to the time it was occurring. I don’t know if she did this because she felt that the specific date of certain stories was irrelevant and her point was really just what was happening. She did, however, put the dates for important happenings (e.g. first coming to America-1972, going to she the Shah-1977, and the Iran Hostage Crisis-1979).

I choose to read this book after I looked up some additional information on it. After reading several reviews about the book and Dumas’s uncanny ability to incorporate humor I thought it would be an enjoyable read. I was not let down. While the book is small it is packed with funny, serious, and “You’re mother-in-law said what?!” stories.

Overall, I feel that Dumas’s book was very well written and made several impacting points. She was able to show the treatment she received from her Iranian descent before complications with Iran and then after and she made, once again, a funny but powerful point in describing the injustice her family (and fellow Iranians in America) faced: “One kid throws a spitball and the whole class gets detention” (118). While it was here the book took a more serious turn she quickly turned it back to her funny light hearted style and kept optimism.

I personally have never read any books about Iran or Iranians. I found this book to be a nice intro to the culture and not so “in your face” about it. Dumas, allowed the reader to be comfortable and did not put blame on anyone to cause feelings of guilt. The reader was able to formulate their own opinions about the topic. The book was to the point and Dumas does not try to confuse the reader with extreme language. I feel that this is a good book to read that will not take you forever to get through.

Roberts, Brian. The American Alchemy: The California Gold Rush and Middle Class Culture. North Carolina Press: North Carolina, 2000

Book Review by Joseph Osorio

The American Alchemy involves a set of a variety of events that occurred in the 19th Century, also known as the era of the Old West. Brian Roberts, the author of the American Alchemy, wrote this book to show the real motives of the forty-niners for migrating to the West in North America. The University of the North Carolina Press published the American Alchemy, on May 2000. The American Alchemy puts both viewpoints of the women and men, with their involvement in the era of the Gold Rush. He focuses on two wrongly speculated myths of the lone male forty-niner, and the restrained hopeless middle class. As Roberts writes the book, he never forgets to include the roles of women, and stories in which they were involved with their husband, fathers, sons or loved ones. The American Alchemy is written to those who seek to learn a little more of the reality of the American Gold Rush, and discover the truth about the about how women could also be classified as forty-niners.

Brian Roberts, at the introduction of his book and throughout the first few chapters, tries to establish the truth about the male forty-niner that migrated to the West. He explains the myths, and opinions of many historians who have wrongly interpreted the male forty-niner. Many of the typical views of male the forty-niner, is alone, independent, no moral conscious, and with no connections to society. When in fact Roberts clears up these false myths, and wrong assimilations of the male forty-niners. He uses the category of class to differentiate between the different society statuses during the era. He goes into depth with the middle class, where the male-forty-niners came from. Roberts shows that these men, who left their family, friends, and comfort of their homes, were in fact well-established men. These men had a business, were economically stable, and had bonds between their communities, and institutions in the East. Roberts also gives many accounts of men, and women with their struggle to succeed, and to maintain a stable life. He gives short accounts of women and how they viewed their loved-ones leaving to the West in order to fulfill their own selfish and wealthy needs. Roberts is able to balance both the views of women, and men in the sense of the perspectives toward each other. The men leave to look for adventure, and fun, while the women stay to take care of the business and support their husbands in their long-term vacation. Roberts shows that even throughout all of this there were some women who supported their husbands, there were those who did not agree with the decision to leave to the West. In all, Roberts gives the audience a perspective between the sexes.

Throughout the American Alchemy Roberts uses a more social history emphasis, and less on a political emphasis. Roberts includes the government of the U.S. and how they viewed the gold rush, but he focuses less on this side and more on the side of the social or community opinions and actions. For example, he explains the opinions and lives of those who were involved in the gold rush, and how many of them were bonded with their community. He shows less the political side of the Old West era and more of the accounts of men and women who were connected with the Gold Rush. Roberts also uses dates throughout the book, to show the timeline and events that are occurring during this time. He uses dates so that one, as a reader, is able to establish the certain events and occurrences that are happening at this time. For example, during this era Roberts does no forget to leave out the beginning of the American Renaissance in history. The reason for the eruption of the American Renaissance was because many readers back at home, in the east, wanted to hear more stories of those in the west, and this became a good way to express their experiences while living the life of adventure, romance, and sentiment. The book gives poems written to their loved ones, stories of their adventurous experiences, and letters of how they felt being away from home. Even through all the writings of these well-educated men, the author does not forget the women’s view on their new situation and how now they saw themselves as the head of the household, because of the men being gone.

As Brian Roberts concludes his book, he restates his argument, about the false myths of the lonely forty-niner. Roberts’s narration and arguments of the era of the Gold Rush was very well written, but he could have done better to make some of his points a little more clear.

Overall the book was very fascinating and interesting to me, because it cleared my perspective on the forty-niner, and showed me the real motives of these men in migrating to the West. The conclusion of the book becomes very convincing in clarifying that the forty-niners were well-established middle class men who had a degree or a certain business in which they thrived from. Brian Roberts says:

there is a lot of doubt, that the gold rush became liberating in the sense of riches and wealth,

In fact the forty-niners were validated in their desire for rebellion and adventure. Rebellion from middle-class culture, and liberation in the form of a new quest.

I would highly recommend this book to someone who is interested in learning more about middle class culture in the 19th century and learning in detail of the incidents and events that occurred during the Gold Rush in both the East coast and the West.

Inceidents In The Life of a Slave Girl by Harriett Jacobs

Book Review by Stephanie Lamp

Harriet Jacobs is a young slave girl explaining her story as a slave. She didn’t set out writing this book for money like most writers. She wrote it to help better our understanding on slave life during that time period. Two women who helped her hide out towards the end of her escape from her plantation convinced her to write this book. She was anxious at first but finally ended up writing this story for us to read.

In this wonderful story, the Author, Harriet Jacobs is explaining her life as a slave girl. She definitely didn’t live an easy life; it was full of hardship, death, and pain. Her story also portrays the great relationship she had with God. Through all the hardship she went through she never turned her back on God. Jacobs is trying to explain to us how she had a horrible life but doesn’t want us to pity her at all. Throughout the whole story she says numerous times how she’s not writing this book for pity she just wants to explain her story so others will know about it. It saddens me that she even has to defend herself about the things she went through just because she is so used to people assuming she is lying so others will feel sorry for her.

She organizes her book very well, for a woman who had no formal education. She starts off her story explaining how she didn’t even know she was a slave until she was six years old, just because of the simple fact that her mother shielded her from it. For the most part she had a good slave life, or as good as a slave’s life could be. Her master kept her inside doing the household duties like; cooking, cleaning, and sewing. She was grateful for not having to work out in the fields, but her master was a horrible man. From there she goes to explain the great adventures she lives through on her journey to freedom.

I chose to read this book not really sure what I was getting myself into. While I was reading it I really enjoyed the story she was telling. I loved getting the opportunity to hear about her life and see how she explained the trials she experienced. I would absolutely recommend this book for anyone interested in this time period to read.

Jacobs does an amazing job of keeping the readers interest though out the book. The way she gives every detail almost makes you feel as if you were experiencing these things right along with her. She lived a very difficult life but also had various pleasant times along with the difficulties. Her children were away from her for the majority of their lives but she still kept in contact with them, and never gave up hope that they would all be together again. Their grandmother also kept their love for her strong, so when they finally saw her again they were not bitter, but instantly loved her. I think by her writing this story, it expands the people’s minds reading it. I know I didn’t know half the things she explained. She tells the absolute truth rather than sugar coating things here and there; she wants the reader to know everything! God guided her through everything she had to go through; sometimes it’s hard to understand why he lets all these things happen to good people but eventually one day we will find out. I think the reason she went through her life as a slave may have been so that she could tell her story to others so we can have a better understanding of how these people lived.

The Ties that Buy by Ellen Hartigan-O'Conner

Book Review by Mary Kneefel

After reading The Ties that Buy: Women and Commerce in Revolutionary America, by Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor, one cannot question her passion and interest in American history. She obviously spent a large deal of time, compiling all her sources. Throughout every chapter, there were countless examples of real women who had lived throughout the eighteenth century. She tracked single, married, widowed, and enslaved, women who surpassed great adversity. Despite the title and introduction, I cannot help but question her motives for allegedly writing this book. I feel The Ties that Buy is a fine read, just was not solely based on expanding knowledge of women’s participation in society in an economic sense.

The introduction retells a story of a widow, who must take her deceased husband’s promissory note (written on a nine of clubs) to court. This real account appears so full of emotion of symbolism of women’s status during this era. I believe O’Connor picked an excellent example to begin her novel: as nothing could appear more trivial in the eyes of a judge than a run-of-the-mill playing card. I begin with the assumption her book would be filled with examples to try and spread awareness of women’s struggles, their role in the economy, the process of getting there, and why women failed to receive recognition for so long. It seems she was only able to answer a couple of those. In the midst of examples on how networking, bonds, trusts issues, kin relationships, she added sub-themes. The sudden onset of multiple dimensions in the book, offered greater interest, however, they tended to get lost in translation. This trend continued throughout the course of the text. For example, in Chapter 1, Urban Housefuls, O’Connor she writes about the various components that women used to extend their professional networks beyond the home, such as: managing rent, and hiring slave labor. She continues to expand on the idea providing other tasks like managing account books, and possible advertisements. It seemed she wanted to establish the fact that women were progressing in “allowed” skills, that males initially apposed or never recognized in society. And yet, the next paragraph informs the reader of the eighteenth century law, which prohibits a free man, controlled his wife’s time, and slave’s time. They in turn were able to spend the profit from deals with borders and employers (37) if they had those connections. Another instance can be seen towards the end of the book. In chapter 6, The Republic of Goods, describes the shopping networks women had been able form, and how they had been able to combine domesticity, individual touches, and marketable staples to transform the market as we know it today. After an example on a pair of pockets, the idea that an emotional tie was also being purchased with material value came up. A couple of pages later, she describes how women began personalizing uniforms for slaves. These passages, creates some confusion, because it presents such a negative side of women.

The themes are placed around the idea of class. It describes the socioeconomic status of the era, where men are on top, women in the middle, and enslaved men and women on the bottom. There is no doubt, these issues need to be addressed, but not in such a jumbled manner. In one paragraph women are making improvements, and males are trying to hold them back. Laws continue to tie women down, but they somehow manage to make networks to form economic trade. However, still do not receive recognition, although their presence in the economy is consistent. Slaves at this time were also gaining opportunities, but on a much smaller scale. Laws also held them down. But under all of that, white free urban men and women still had managed to suppress their freedom, as they think that will assert their dominance.

The conclusion of the book carries a distinctly different tone, then both the introduction and the body. In the end there is no heartfelt story of the poor widow Abigail Stoneman, or any woman like her. There is no woman at all. It begins with a quote from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington about the development and position of commerce in the world, not a single reference to anyone of the female gender. Her position seemed to change as well. No longer were women responsible for forming the present-day economy by subconsciously adding domestic details men would not think of. Now men and women efforts complemented each other, as represented in a reference of Enos Hitchcock. O’Connor wrote about how society benefited from unity and equality very eloquently, then makes the reader take a second look after reading the quote, “These forms of knowledge and patterns of work did not just help men navigate the urban economy; they were the economy” (193). No wonder women could not receive recognition for their work a few centuries ago we do not even understand their position now.

The final paragraph of the conclusion is the most puzzling of all: “Such questions, always ambiguous in a society where human beings were brought and sold on city streets, only became more troubling as the nineteenth century progressed” (196). This does not shine positive light on anyone, and does not seem to correlate with the Introduction at all.

I applaud O’Connor for choosing to write a book, on such a complicated topic, with several components, which capture the human race at its worst. But it seems, her primary goal in mind while writing was not trying to describe women and commerce, rather show the facets of societal flaws. Progression of both race and gender was, is, or for that matter will probably never be stable. This too is demonstrated throughout the inconsistent topics in all six of the chapters. The Ties that Buy offers a great deal of information of the economy and class of America throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century, but do not let cover or Ms. Stoneman’s story mislead you.