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(More customer reviews)A few years ago, my wife and I were coming back home from a motorcycle tour in Ontario. Arriving at a motel for the night, another bike turned my attention. It was a black Honda Pacific Coast, a quite unique and seldom seen model. I chatted with the owner, who was riding East just like us. We decided to eat together. The man was affable, curious, courteous, well read. Dinner went by rapidly and we invited him to ride with us the day after. The ride was great. The only problem was... his name. He had to repeat it two or three times and I only got it right upon our arrival.
Our companion of the day was the author, Fero Sadeghian. Therefore, his book's opening, relating the problems he had over the years with his name, and his decision to use a nickname instead, is no surprise.
His story is unique. Fero "Fraydoon" Sadeghian was born in Iran, between the two Wars, in the capital Tehran. There, he studied to become a doctor, and went abroad to specialize, first to England then USA. A vascular surgeon, he finally settled in Buffalo, New York.
The author tells us of his youth, his family, his education, the religion of his ancestors, the political turmoil of his mother country in the Seventies, his studies in medicine and his medical career in the Buffalo area.
The author is a great storyteller. We follow him in the streets of Tehran, we are with him in school, we see him in the reassuring presence of his grandmother, we sweat with him when he endures long hours without sleep in hospitals. Above all, he shows an immense love for his origins, his people, and his work. Parts of this book would easily qualify for a National Geographic story.
His story is also very motivating; challenges are always welcomed, be they the difficulties of living in a new country or the numerous obstacles to a physician's education. Even when retiring, he returns to mountain climbing and tennis. There are surely some lessons of discipline and organization to be learned from his experience.
Immigration is not new, and I suspect such cultural and sociological spans in one's life are not rare either. What is rare however, is someone taking the time to tell us his story, to write it well, and thus becoming a witness of history. We must thank Dr. Sadeghian for having done it and I recommend his book heartily.
In the early Sixties, when Honda brought its scooters and motorcycles to the American market, its publicity said "You meet the nicest people on a Honda". Indeed, it is true.
The reviewer lives in Canada, in the French province of Québec. He does not ride a Honda but keeps believing he still is a nice person.
Click Here to see more reviews about: They Call Me Fero: Reflections,Recollections of an Iranian-American Doctor
This memoir represents the recollections of a man who lived the first twenty-five years of his life in pre-revolutionary Iran.We follow the author's dynamic personal life from the dusty alleys of the southern Tehran to the golden wheat fields and strawberry-scented village of Niavaran north of the city. With vivid nostalgia, he recollects a life mixed with the charm of the old world and the glitter of the new.As a boy, he weaves in and out of the alleys, gets into mischievous adventures, and tries to navigate the complex social, political, and religious world of pre-revolution Iran. Looking down on the city of Tehran from high atop the Alborz mountains, he feels like an outsider looking in on his own home. It is this fascinating dual perspective that inspires the author and drives his story.As a surgeon he writes about grueling years of residency. He takes us into operating rooms, to the bedsides of patients, and into the board rooms where corporate decisions are made.Through a historical analysis of the pivotal role of Iran in the Middle East, we witness the author's own evolving spiritual journey. We see him grow from a young boy influenced by the religiously ascetic ways of his grandmother to a giddy playboy intoxicated with the pleasures of life, and finally to a successful surgeon, husband, mountain-climber, world traveler, and unapologetic lover of life.
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