People who have lived in a country other than their own know what it means to be labeled a "lousy foreigner". This book will make you squirm and swear and laugh and cry. Most Americans were at one time lousy foreigners. This is the story of a man with the unusual name of Husgang Payan, an man who came to the United States from Iran in the 1950s to study medicine. His story is unique, with many wonderful details about Iranian culture and a hundred stories about his study and practice of medicine. But it is in many ways the story of every man or woman who finds himself a stranger in a strange land. To the locals, he is different: he dresses differently; he speaks with an accent; his tastes and habits don't conform. So all his life, no matter how hard he works or what he achieves, he encounters mistrust, rejection, obstacles and discrimination. He will always be viewed as a foreigner, or even worse, in a phrase which still stings his ears, "a lousy foreigner." This is a story about America and what it means to become an American.