Оглавление
Majid Amini. Bibi's Rainbow: Hilarious Ordeals of Assimilation
Chapter One. A Man for all Seasons
Chapter Two. Meet the Yazdy Family
Chapter Three. The Perpetual Nightmare
Chapter Four. Premed Ana at The Home Depot
Chapter Five. An Unforgettable Past
Chapter Six. Enthralling Wife
Chapter Seven. Undesignated Matriarch
Chapter Eight. Clash of Civilizations
Chapter Nine. The Magic of Baseball
Chapter Ten. Hardships of Adapting to the Holidays
Chapter Eleven. Self-Betrayal and Breakdown
Chapter Twelve. Hidden Racial Prejudices
Chapter Thirteen. Love is Color-Blind
Chapter Fourteen “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
Chapter Fifteen. Murphy’s Law
Chapter Sixteen. Graduation
Chapter Seventeen. Wide Gulf of Differences
Chapter Eighteen. Mike’s Dream and Reality
Chapter Nineteen. Great Enemies
Chapter Twenty. Homophobia
Chapter Twenty-One. The Matriarch’s Departure
Chapter Twenty-Two. Uncommon Friendship
Chapter Twenty-Three. Violating an Angel
Chapter Twenty-Four. Impenetrable Silence
Chapter Twenty-Five. Return of the Matriarch
Chapter Twenty-Six. The Burden of Secrets
Chapter Twenty-Seven. Father Georgiani’s Sanctuary
Chapter Twenty-Eight. Settling of Irreconcilable Differences
Chapter Twenty-Nine. Bibi’s Vibrant Quilt; Hr Rainbow
Отрывок из книги
Mehran “Mike” Yazdy is sleeping soundly in the velvet moonlit master bedroom next to his wife, Noshin. They both belong to a whole host of ill-fated Iranian self-exiles, uprooted by the 1979 revolution that had left them with only two options: to stay behind and perish in the lawlessness of Iran’s post-revolution, or migrate to other countries, lose their identities and become dislocated persons in more ways than one―a big lump of the sum total of nothing.
The nerve-racking noise of a child crying, sounding as if someone sadistically is torturing him, coming from two doors down the hall, abruptly wakes up Mike. With wide opened eyes, staring at the ceiling, his anxiety growing, he knows it is his five-year-old grandson, Che, who, for many convincing reasons, admittedly has a special place in his heart. Not having the presence of mind in that ungodly hour, he patiently listens for the familiar sound of the shuffling footsteps of good-old Bibi, their lifelong nanny, routinely on her way to tend the troubled child. It is only after he can retrieve some slight seepage of memories from the dark passageways of his sluggish mind that he realizes Bibi had returned to Iran several years ago, and they have not heard words from her since. The realization uncharacteristically saddens him right away. You didn’t appreciate that woman’s contribution to your family when she was here. Mike ridicules himself. We all took her for granted. He misses Bibi, the strong-willed and outspoken old woman. As an interventionist by nature (in a positive sense) she intuitively knew what correct course of action to take whenever any member of Yazdy’s family was struck by unpredictable and often irresolvable predicaments. He wonders what happened to make the dedicated and dependable Bibi suddenly leave the family. He has troubled himself many times with the same line of question without ever being able to come up with a convincing answer. Considering the very unwavering seemingly unbreakable bonds between her and his wife, and later with every one of his children and grandchildren, it is still hard for him to accept the reality of their nanny’s abrupt departure. Without any advance notice, she packed her few belongings and returned to Iran, seemingly vanishing forever. The way she left, she must have gotten fed up with all of us, didn’t she? Maybe she lost her senses as most folks do when they get old. He keeps thinking about her. But all of a sudden, as if she has joined the rest of trivialities in a dark corner of his mind, he blanks Bibi’s memories, at least, temporarily out of his consciousness.
.....
“Well, he bombed Iraq for oil, and Iran has even more oil than Iraq.”
“I hope Bush bombs Iran and kills all those mullahs,” Naghmeh gives her unsolicited opinion.
.....
