My Uncle Napoleon: A Novel (Modern Library (Paperback))

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."

This is a hysterically funny book about hysterical people, set in an unnamed city in the Iran of the early 1940's. Uncle Napoleon suffers delusions of past military grandeur, is supported by his man servant, and none in the extended family dare disabuse him of this notion. Comedy ensues. Sort of a cross between an opera buffa and the Marx Brothers.At the same time, and in plangent minor key, a one-sided love story is told. Which, we learn in the postscript, was modeled after the romantic arrow that afflicted the author.One could write more, by why? Get the book, read it!

"My uncle Napoleon" is a very funny book that opens the inner world of the traditional Iranian culture to the reader.The book is full of scandals and follies and grotesque situation. Along with the family saga it reveals a beautiful love story between the narrator boy and his cousin girl.The book flows without a dull moment. It is an easy and fun book to read.

My wife and daughter lived in Iran for five years in the 1970s; our son was born in Iran. I worked exclusively and socialized with highly educated and accomplished Iranians in academe. It was from them I first heard the saying: "a marriage between 1st cousins is a marriage made in heaven."I loved My Uncle Napoleon. My Uncle Napoleon captures the essence of the tensions, strengths and challenges of the extended Iranian family and in all its beauty. The book is fun to read, entertaining and informative. I highly recommend it.

This novel started slowly and the start seemed trivial. Others may plough through, finish, and like it.

A story which entices you in and you can't help reading through to the conclusion. Some real unexpected surprises. It's as if you are viewing real events through a window in the privacy of your own home. I can imagine there are families like this in Iranian. It has romance, comedy, and arguments in a pot boiler of a story.The narrator, a 13-year-old boy falls in love with his first cousin. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles in his path, especially his father's prickly relationship with his wife's brother, Uncle Napoleon. Uncle suffers from his own importance and imagines himself like Napoleon.It's the funnest story I've read in a long time.

I enjoyed it immensely... good story certainly but better than that it was really funny. It really did have similarities to a Confederacy of Dunces... offbeat and hilarious humor. Maybe the best book I've read in the last year.

I saw the original TV series in Iran and subsequently read the book in original Persian. Needless to say, I enjoyed them both very much. I came across this book while browsing Amazon, immediately ordered it and finished reading it within days of its arrival. The translator has done a great job in translating this book and conveying the little Persian jokes and situations which make this book a masterpiece in Persian. I felt that for the most part (90%) the original LAUGH FACTOR had successfully been translated. Enjoy it.