Customer Reviews

My Uncle Napoleon: a Comic Novel

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Americans have become so accustomed to seeing televised images of dour Ayatollahs and grim-faced Iranian demonstrators shouting "Death to the Great Satan" that we have forgotten that Iran is also the land of Omar Khayyam. Pezeshkzad and his characters have more in common with the 12th century poet than the religious revolutionaries who overthrew the Shah would like, and the readers will give thanks with laughter. Early in World War II, the unnamed 15-year-old narrator becomes infatuated with his first cousin Layli, the daughter of the narrator's uncle, derisively nicknamed Napoleon for constantly voicing admiration for the French general. At a family gathering, the narrator's father vents annoyance with Uncle Napoleon's unending inflation of his military record (Uncle Napoleon's four-man gendarmerie squad over the years had been transformed into dozens of army battalions thwarting the plans of British imperialism). For his father's offense, the narrator is banned from seeing his beloved Layli, who Uncle Napoleon betrothes to the narrator's horse-faced cousin Puri. The narrator turns to his cousin Asadollah, a bon vivant and womanizer extraordinaire, for advice in stopping the wedding and winning Layli. The action builds to a climax when the British occupy Tehran. The results . . . well, I won't give it away. But if you like laugh-out-loud farce mixed with sharp-eyed satire, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It belongs on a very short list of comic masterpieces of world literature

My Uncle Napoleon (aka: Daei Jon Napelon) is one of the great Iranian masterpieces. Although the story is sure to inform the non-Iranian reader about WWII era Iran, its true topic is one that anyone can relate to - true love. This book will remind you what it was like to have a crush on someone that was unavailable. Much like Charles Shulz's Charlie Brown and the "Little Red Haired Girl," our novel's protagonist has fallen madly in love with someone that is inaccessible to him. Meanwhile, interfamily politics keep rocking the young man's already unstable boat. What I like most about this book is how heart wrenching emotions and laugh out loud comedy go hand in hand, much like in real life. It is this book's realism that is its greatest asset, everything from the characters to the emotions within this book are a true reflection of real life. Dick Davis has done a magnificent job translating this novel, all of the characters' original dialogue and various ethnic colloquialisms remain intact. As a result this book is a fantastic insight into Iran for the non-Iranian reader. Not to mention that you are sure to win many Brownie points with your Iranian friends/colleagues if they find out that you have read this book. This is because My Uncle Napoleon is a part of Iranian culture that is very personal to most Iranians. It was made into a famous television miniseries in the seventies (alas it is still left untranslated) that to this day is one of the most popular shows in Iranian history. Most Iranians have a worn out set of VHS tapes somewhere in their house that attest to this. So please hesitate no more, and order this wonderful book. I'm sure that you will treasure it.

My Uncle Napoleon is a hilarious examination of a part of Iranian society in the 1940's. The character development is the strongest aspect of the book and the situational comedy is also very good. I recently read A Confederacy of Dunces; these two novels share many qualities.

My Uncle Napoleon gives a portrayal of Iran that is very different from what is provided by the mainstream press. While the aristocratic characters belong to a place and time that is long gone, the mannerisms and character types satirized in the book are still present to some degree in many Iranians.

Read this book if you want a good laugh or a glimpse of Iranian culture you could not otherwise get.

I watched the TV series based on this book on Iranian TV when i was 3 or 4 years old. As another reviewer mentioned, this book and the TV show are part of Iranian culture now. Iranians usually take themselves very serious, but this book dares to make fun of the Iranian life. After the revolution, it was banned by the Islamic Republic. I even heard that one of the actors who played in the movie went to jail after the revolution because of a scene when his character makes fun of Islam! Ayatollah Khomeini and his entourage, who unfortunately are still ruling in Iran, had a very limited set of mind and they didn't understand what comedy means! But people still had the show on Video tape and and watched it. It was still great. It's a true Iranian classic!

Iraj Pezeshkzad has, with a great deal of humor, depicted a way of life in Iran that has since disappeared. The narrator of the story relates his love for his cousin Layli with such emotion that you can't help but want him to succeed in his quest. This disfunctional family is portrayed so well that at the end, you feel a part of it and fall in love with each and everyone of the characters. Mr Pezeshkzad has created such real characters with such distinct and different personalities that each of them will touch the reader in its own way, and he can find a little of himself and his family in them.

What a difference 36 years makes. This world-class masterpiece of comic genius was completed in 1970 by the Iranian writer Iraj Pezeshkzad. Its whole existence owes itself to sweet, innocent, pure love, which is mercilessly stymied by the obsessive concepts of family honor, and an unrelenting paranoia that blames everything on the "enemy." The enemy can be one's socially unequal brother in law, or the squinty-eyed British, or just about anyone who sullies one's narcissism and self-importance. The narrator of this wonderful epic is a 13-year-old boy who knows the exact day and minute he falls in love with his first cousin. But much to his horror, his love is thwarted by the ever-vengeful relationship of his own father to his Uncle Napoleon. Uncle Napoleon is all things vain and inflated in the male ego. He imagines himself an incarnation of Napoleon himself, and despises the low origins of his brother in law. Love was never more difficult. And comic satire was never more lively, except perhaps in a Marx Brothers movie. In fact, I kept thinking about Harpo as some of the brilliantly realized domestic squabbles unraveled before me.
This compassionate and sensual work, of course, was banned in 1979 by the Mullahs, who resemble the hard-nosed paranoid Uncle Napoleon, blaming all the world's evils on one source (in their case, America). What a shame to outlaw this marvelously open and universal work. But what a gift the English translator, Dick Davis, has given the English-speaking world by making this work accessible to us.

This is a halarious book. While it's so engaging and fun that you can sometimes laugh outloud, it touches upon many serious aspects of the Iranian society. Dick Davis has done a fantastic job of translating it and the foreign reader benefits from reading the introductory chapter at the beginning of the book and the glossary of terms at the end. It's so well done that the unfamiliar reader with the Iranian culture may only enjoy the story and the sense of humour that exists throughout all of hte book, while the more adept reader in Iranian culture will be able to relate to the cultural references. If you are looking for a good novel, regardless of your particular style and knowledge of Iran, give this book a try. You will NOT be disappointed, guaranteed.

This is a wonderful book -- totally unexpected for those of us raised in the States since the Iranian Revolution. Broad humor -- think of "Good Soldier Schweick" set in the Middle East and you'll get the idea.

What a wonderful book this is! Funny and heart-warming, indeed. On page one a 13-year-old boy falls in love with the beautiful black eyes of his cousin, and he tells the rest of the story.

The characters are not "realistic." Heaven forfend! They are loving and comic exaggerations of real Persians, who could never be mistaken for (say) Japanese or Americans. For one obvious thing, there is the huge importance of the Very Extended Family, a simple fact of Persian life. In fact, some thinker once commented that Persians are still living a "tribal" life behind the walls of their homes. Is that true? Well, when I was in Iran, I had a best friend who, over a period of two years, introduced me to about 200 members of his family, and to precisely one unrelated friend! If I had to try to reciprocate as an American, I'd be stuck after the first four or five members of my immediate family...

The stuff about "England being responsible for everything" really hits home, and is probably the reason the book became a runaway hit in Persia itself. I hope everyone noticed that during the recent anti-government riots in Persia, the crazed mullahs immediately arrested eight staff at the British Embassy! The loony but lovable old character, "Uncle Napoleon" goes so far as to believe that all of his failures in life happened because of a British Plot. And one reason he is the universe's biggest fan of Napoleon Bonaparte is (guess why!)....because Napoleon was a great enemy of England!

England! Perfidious Albion! That sceptred isle of mad plotters, that counterfeit jewel set in a sea of treachery.... Well, you get the idea.

For me, the most important extra-literary point of this book is that it shows us The Real Iran, a very human place where people fall in love, get married, write poems, and fall into insane rivalries. Neither the Iran of the Shah, nor the Iran of Khomeini: it has existed for thousands of years, and right now (perhaps) waits to be reborn.

By the way, the title for this review, "But what if the murder victim refuses to come along?" points out the Monty Python in this book. A man runs away --- vanishes --- and some family member decides to accuse another family member of killing him. The police are called, and the numskull detective (following his "international method of surprise attack") immediately refers to the missing man as "the murder victim." He does it so insistently that others pick up his habit --- and then the missing man turns up alive. They call the detective, who instructs them to show up the next morning with "the murder victim." They answer, "But what if the murder victim refuses to come along?" Said totally dead-pan, of course! :-) :-)

I would read this book along with Taheri's "The Persian Night" to try to get a grasp on the immensity of the tragedy. That is, try to imagine ANY of the characters in "My Uncle Napoleon" falling for the crazy party line of the mullahs in any real way. You can imagine them PRETENDING to do so, if it will help them steal a march on a family rival, but REALLY?

As they used to sing on the mountain, "Man zan-e mullah ne misham! Chera ne mishid?" ("I will never consent to be the wife of a mullah," sings the soloist. "Why not?" sings the raucous chorus. The rest can be supplied for you by a Persian friend.... :-) )

By the way, I believe the complete Persian TV series has shown up on YouTube. No subtitles that I've seen yet, alas. Search for "Daie Jan Napelon."

I had already read the book in original language (Persian) and had seen the TV series. The translation is almost perfect and I'm sure the reader enjoys reading it. It's kind of those books that stays in your mind for a long time.