My Uncle Napoleon is a hilariously funny book which captures the idiosyncrasies of Iranian culture to a "T". When the TV series came out in Iran Over 30 years ago, people were glued to their TV sets like Americans were (watching Dallas) back in the 70's.
Iraj Pezeshkzad's has a rare gift where he forces people look at themselves and their culture, point out things that are wrong, and make them laugh at themselves without getting offended. Bravo. An absolute classic of Modern Iranian literature. I will not repeat the storyline as other reviewers have done so already, but it suffices to say that this book (more than any other) will give a rare glimpse into the complex psyche (including all of their rational and irrational paranoias) of the modern Iranian. And by the way have a great laugh as well. :)

My name is Brian H. Appleton and I am an anglo American who lived in Iran from 1974-1979 and spent most of my time with one old Persian aristocratic family and their clan. This book was like reliving those times; the idiosyncracies of the patriarch and of each of the family members and the extended family. The relationships with the servants who became like relatives, the jealousies, the pride, the sacrifices for friendship, the secret liasons and sexual trysts, the humor, the jokes people play on eachother, the importance of everything for appearance sake. Iraj Pezekhzad has it completely nailed. I have often said that you pay a high price and heavy maintenance for Persian friendship but it is well worth it. Every other kind pales by comparison and life is never boring with Persian friends.

I found myself laughing so hard with recognition and I loved the surprise ending which I should have anticipated but it caught me completely off guard. Even for someone who knows nothing about Iran it is a highly entertaining read and an education. The anglophobia to the point of being pro-Nazi and suspecting British subterfuge to be at the root of every ill, all of that was right on.

This is the kind of novel which I will read more than once. Bravo Iraj Khan. I would like to add that I acted the part of Sir Robert Shirley in a documentary film in Iran with the late Gholam Hossein Nakhshineh, who later went on to act as Uncle Napoleon, in the popular TV series in the 1970's in Iran which was based on this book and he was the perfect actor for the part. In our film he played a bombastic Spanish Ambassador. For photos of him in that film see my website www.zirzameen.com or click on customer images to the left for pictures of Nakhshineh.

I remember how after the TV series "Daijan Napoleon" started airing, the expression "Berim San Francisco" or in English:"Let's Go to San Francisco," which the young married couple would tell each other when ever they got bored at a family function, which was a euphamism for "Let's go get it on" became a household expression in Iran in those days. How funny that the West is under the impression that Iran is a prudish,sexless society...the hardliners might like to impose that but the harder they try, the more people think about it...and that is the beauty of human nature.

all the best,

Brian H. Appleton aka Rasool Aryadust

I am trying to read this book but it is not making any sense to me. I will never get through it.

I accept the previous reviewers comments re the perfect translation,and Pezeshkhad's opinion that Davis has done a first rate job,but at times I felt that something was lost in translation. Maybe the 'catch phrases' alliterated more comically in Persian,or maybe it is a particular of arabian fiction that placement details/discriptions are not vital to the work. The book read very much as a live stage production where scenery and setting were basic,or like a fast moving comedy show.
However,I really did enjoy this book.After 'settling' into the style,I found the satire first rate and the characters unforgettable.It also has touches of 'David Brent' 'Office' style humiliation comedy;Uncle Napoleons 'aristocratic' family marrying off the pregnant Qamar to the first idiot they can find,and whilst trying to fabricate the grooms superb upbringing for the sake of the family honour in front of the village gossip,the grooms bearded mother reveals that he husband used to boil sheeps heads on a stall in the market! With the wonderful Asadollah Mirza keeping things stirring nicely,and the hilarious Mash 'why should I lie' Qasem backing up the masters fictions,you get a great insight into Iranian humour and thinking,which is a world away from the drivel we're spoon fed everyday!Take away poiticians and religious zealots from each side;swop humour art and literature,and Iran and the west will get on fine! Thats what made this book-all in all-uplifting.

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.

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.

An introduction tells us that this book is a satire on Iranian society and that it shows us a picture of it less dour than the image conveyed by its rulers and by our media. It is supposed to give us an insight into another culture - perhaps what is meant here is the importance of an extended family living close together in adjoining or nearby properties, and about the disgrace felt by members of a higher class if members of a lower class marry into it. We are also told that the book has been turned into a hugely successful television series, and it may well work in that medium: a farce, with caricature characters regularly repeating catch-phrases identified with them. In book-form this does not work, at least not for me: the humour is crude, occasionally bawdy, slapstick stuff; the catch-phrases become tedious; the characters, most of whom spend their time shouting or shrieking at each other, are one-dimensional; the farcical story does not merit a treatment extending over 499 pages. Essentially the story centres around a ridiculous family vendetta during 1941/42. On the one side is a choleric and bullying patriarch of an extended family who identifies himself with Napoleon, who tells tall stories about his military achievements in the past against allies of the English, but is genuinely and pathologically terrified that the English are now after him in revenge. On the other side is the narrator's father. They plot against each other ceaselessly, and no sooner has one side scored a success than the other counters it with another stratagem. There are a couple of affecting pages ten pages from the end, but it is beyond me how anyone can describe such a piece of buffoonery, as a blurb on the cover from the Baltimore Sun has done, as `a masterpiece of contemporary world fiction'.

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.

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 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.

I've read that book countless of times when I was a teenager, it still remains one of my absolute favorites up to the point that I can recite the plot to minute detail. It is one of these beautiful yet not sappy stories that transcends any cultural or national limits, grips your heart and does not let go. Odd as it is, I initially read a translation from Russian in Lithuania. Now, however, that I know quite a few Iranians quite well, I have to say that the book gives an unparalleled insight into Persian mentality.

I've read that book countless of times when I was a teenager, it still remains one of my absolute favorites up to the point that I can recite the plot to minute detail. It is one of these beautiful yet not sappy stories that transcends any cultural or national limits, grips your heart and does not let go. Odd as it is, I initially read a translation from Russian in Lithuania. Now, however, that I know quite a few Iranians quite well, I have to say that the book gives an unparalleled insight into Persian mentality.