MEMOIRS OF A GAY SHAH

An openly gay Persian American reality series star reveals his journey from young immigrant to becoming a “Bravo-lebrity.”

For what was intended to be a two-month vacation in 1977, Farahan left Tehran, Iran, for Los Angeles with his family when he was 4, but never returned. When the Iranian Revolution in 1979 sparked fears of violence and oppression across their homeland, the family abandoned their former life and settled in Southern California. As unemployed refugees with seized assets, no home, and viewed by onlookers as “the enemy,” the struggle to survive was real, and Farahan depicts this situation with vivid honesty. He writes passionately about his heritage, his beloved mother, and his precarious relationship with his late father, a shrewd Persian rug manufacturer who eventually accepted his son’s homosexuality. Farahan’s best-known dramatic outspokenness is reflected best in chapters detailing his queer evolution from younger, club-hopping days in San Francisco juggling love affairs in the “chiseled, styled, and wild” gay community despite a full-blown AIDS epidemic, into a mature (and adorably depicted) 10-year marriage at age 52, to calming, compassionate husband, Adam, whom he calls “a walking quaalude.” Though excitable and chronically melodramatic, Farahan remains clear-eyed about his origin story and his fractured homeland and heritage, writing “being Persian means being from a time and place that no longer exists.” Those reality TV devotees familiar with Farahan’s uppity, on-screen drama, and positive pearls of wisdom (“Find the diamonds in the dog doodoo”) will discover his spirited persona—and closing chapters of dishy tell-all TV moments—on vibrant display here. Coinciding with a return to Bravo in a restyled series focusing more on suburban parenting than Beverly Hills glitz, Farahan and family continue to delight their legion of fans.

A candid self-portrait brimming with sass, personality, and the importance of family, identity, and culture.