Our Napoleon in Rags

By Kirby Gann

From a writer called "an important new voice in fiction" by Bret Lott and a "novelist of daring creativity and passion" by Edmund White, comes Our Napoleon in Rags . It's the story of the regulars at the Don Quixote, a bar in a decaying Midwestern city, whose lives are torn apart when their self-appointed "Napoleon," Haycraft Keebler, bipolar son of a famous local politician, falls in love with a 15-year-old male hustler. Weaving the hot-button issues of mental illness, pedophilia, racism and police brutality through a novel that is Victorian in its graceful storytelling, Kirby Gann has created not only an extraordinary read, but a biting commentary on contemporary America. Kirby Gann is the managing editor of Sarabande Books and teaches in the MFA program at Spalding University.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0975251732
• ISBN13: 9780975251737
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Ig Publishing
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Tilting at windmills

Author Kirby Gann appreciates life's ambiguities, especially couched in human form. With a keen eye and finely tuned wit, he assembles an eclectic group of misfits, who gather nightly to commiserate with each other at the neighborhood watering hole, the Don Quixote. At the center of all is Haycraft Keebler, "political philosopher and populist idealist, manic-depressive man-about-town", quietly subversive character. The proprietors of the Don Q are especially protective of Keebler, self-appointed guardians of "Our Napoleon in Rags". Haycraft is ever brewing one scheme or another, small anarchies to challenge neighborhood complacency. Haycraft has a soft spot for the down-and-out, kindred souls who need a helping hand or a floor to sleep on, but everyone is concerned when Haycraft shows up with Lambret Dillinger, a fifteen-year old or so street hustler and graffiti artist with a penchant for sniffing aerosol cans. But Haycraft sees a spark there and nurtures the boy's burgeoning intellect. The cast of characters could be out of a Dicken's novel, as colorful and eccentric as any 19th century denizens of the wrong side of the tracks: Beau and Glenda Stiles, owners of the Don Quixote; Romeo Diaz, who believes that "sex is liberation", hopelessly in love with Anantha Bliss, ex-ballet dancer turner stripper and internet diva; Chesley Sutherland, a local policeman temporarily off duty for use of excessive force, who watches over the patrons of the bar; and the inimitable Mather Williams, sometimes helper at the Don Q, who lives in Romeo's basement and creates his own unique works of art, a combination of drawings, kitsch and colored markers. In a complicated web of self-delusion, misplaced affections and the afflictions of poverty, these odd characters act out their small dramas, stumbling over one another in their eagerness to accomplish something meaningful in their disappointing lives. Real problems are handled with a Victorian flare by an author with compassion for the human condition. A master of the soliloquy, Gann does his characters proud, each caught in the vacuum of fate, with only each other for comfort. Luan Gaines/2005.

Don't be swayed by PW

With all due respect to Publishers Weekly, I think the review above betrays a reviewer stressing under a deadline and hoping for a quick read. Gann's novel is a small wonder, one that rewards attentive reading and even rereading. His language is elegant and musical, and his incisive portrayal of some of the most unusual, yet believable characters is a rarity in contemporary fiction. This is not a novel that can be read and fully appreciated within a few hours, and, if one gives it the proper attention, will linger in the reader for a long time.