House of Sand and Fog [Unabridged]

Rating:
Summary: avert your eyes
Review: There's an old saying : even a blind pig finds an acorn once in awhile. Based on what I've seen on the rest of the list, this is Oprah's acorn.

Before coming to America, Genob Sarhang Massoud Amir Behrani was a colonel in the Iranian Air Force. Forced to flee when the Shah fell, he escaped with his wife and two children and a couple hundred thousand dollars. Now resettled in the San Francisco area, but thus far unable to find work in the aerospace industry, Behrani works two full time jobs, on a road crew and as a convenience store clerk. This labor is necessary because the family's money is dwindling quickly, thanks to his wife's insistence on maintaining their old standard of living and the need to put on a sufficiently opulent facade to get his daughter safely married off--for instance, their apartment costs $3000 per month. Then one day, noticing an announcement of a tax auction in the newspaper, he decides to use their remaining savings to buy the house and then try to turn it around quickly for a profit.

Meanwhile, the house had previously belonged to Kathy Niccolo, a recovering alcoholic whose addict husband has run out on her. She works as an independent house cleaner, barely making ends meet and ignored the county tax bill because it should not have been assessed against her house. But now she has been evicted and, though Legal Aid lawyers help her to win a judgment from the county, they can not make Behrani give up the house, only compensate her. She also receives help from Sheriff Lester Burdon, whose marriage has lost it's passion, and the two become lovers. Together, and separately, they begin to take steps to force the Behranis out of their new home. Things get ugly.

This book is a page turner anyway, but it enveloped me in such a cloud of dread that I just kept reading faster and faster because I couldn't stand the thought of what was to come. I know some of the reviewers have said that Dubus evokes sympathy for all the characters; I strongly disagree. Colonel Behrani is a perfect example of why anti-immigration policies are insane. He works his tail off to provide a better life for his family and wants nothing from anyone except to be left alone to pursue the American Dream. He resembles a tragic hero, whose stubborn pride and unshakable faith in his dreams collude to help destroy him.

Kathy, on the other hand, even setting aside her addiction problems, has irresponsibly allowed legal events to get out of hand and now burns with a sense of false entitlement. Her lackadaisical approach to her job stands in stark contrast to Behrani's willingness to humble himself to take virtually any job. Her relationship with Lester results in his leaving a wife and two young children, a wife whose only failure is that Lester feels for her as he would towards a sister--hardly reason to destroy a family. And this step is merely Lester's first in a chain which becomes increasingly dubious, until his behavior can only be defined as pathological. By the end of the story I was begging Behrani to go and get a gun and put these two out of his misery.

Andre Dubus III is the son of one of America's greatest short story writers. His Dad having passed on, it's heartening to see him pick up the reigns. But please, have mercy on the reader; I could barely stand the last hundred pages of this book, I was so distraught. If you can withstand a story that is like watching a car accident in which one of your friends is driving, I heartily recommend this novel, but it's not for the faint of heart.

GRADE : A-

Rating:
Summary: Literary Beauty Turns B Movie
Review: I found myself immersed head-first, fingers flying, can't put this one down, in the first half of the book, liking the two main characters, despite their many flaws, their desperation,and wishing against all odds that they could unleash themselves from obvious trajectories of doom. My sympathies bounced back and forth through the colonel's clothes-changing masquerade, through Kathy's house-clinging tirades, and I marvelled at how skillfully Dubus established the immigrant back story of denial, guilt, and shame resulting from right-wing complicity with a savage Shah. Unfortunately, my interest waned when Lester, Kathy's sheriff boyfriend, went off the deep end, doing evil deeds which stretched the limits of believablity, given his relatively benign nature. Not only did I despise Lester, but in the end I found myself wishing both he and Kathy would rot in a prison cell at San Quentin. What happened to Nick, Kathy's ex-husband? I kept hoping he would show up and affirm his love for a character who clearly never felt loved at all. Tis a shame Mr.Dubus plundered this literary beauty with gratuitous violence that cheapened it to B movie status and left the reader wondering why she hung in there.

Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: This powerful book sucks the reader in, although what lies within its pages is usually less than delightful. As someone who reads to escape I didn't particularly enjoy this book, and yet I could not put it down. I found myself thinking about groups of people that don't generally occupy my thoughts, and wondering how closely this novel depicts reality. The moral strength of the Colonel made me question my own character, and to lament the demise of honor in the world that surrounds me.

I hope you read this book and I hope it touches you as deeply as it touched me.

Rating:
Summary: A particular stereotype of gloomy contemporary fiction
Review: While I thought this book was well-written in some ways, I found it very predictable and not suspenseful at all. You can often see the author behind the words, thinking "okay, this sentence is the one that'll suggest that what this character is doing is a mistake, and things will get even worse. It seemed very contrived and obvious. The violent scenes were predictably ugly, the white-trash female character had predictable sex scenes, the right wing military man was predictably conflicted, and the cop was the usual type of "good boyfriend" character--gruff (he's a cop) but of course sensitive-that always comes up in this sort of fiction written by soulful writers. This book could have used a sense of humor about itself. It has none. Plus, I heard the author on the radio and he's some kind of reformed, ex-macho bar fighter who sounds like he's keeping himself in check from referring to himself in the third-person royal.

Rating:
Summary: first part is great; second is formulaic and dissapointing
Review: I agree with the other readers who recommend that you read the first part and skip the second. In the first part, the author is able to put you inside the lives and minds of his characters. They are fascinating to read and think about because although on the outside, their circumstances appear to be very different, they share many fundamental problems such as living in the past, inability to face their own lives and inability to communicate with themselves and others. The author does a very good job of creating characters and situations that feel real, and I found myself completely absorbed which is why the second part of the book was such a dissapointment.

The second part evoked so many movie memories from every hostage movie I've ever seen and 'A Few Good Men' to the point where I wasn't sure I was reading the same book I had started. The end is dissapointing and unable to fulfill the themes that were laid out in the beginning of the book. I hate to say it, but I kept thinking the whole time I was finishing the book that it felt to me that author was priming his story for the big screen. The book also rushes to the end and pinnacle. I suspect that was deliberate on the author's part to suggest some sort of inevitable train wreck, but it doesn't work and instead feels hasty.

Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: There are many many books here at amazon.com that are worlds better than this. Since when is Oprah supposedley so deep and profound?

Rating:
Summary: A completely unnecessary downward spiral
Review: This seals the deal on my opinion of Oprah books. I finished it only because I feel compelled to finish books I start. It was like one of those movies where you want to scream at the characters to stop what they're doing because it's just plain stupid. The characters kept making dumb mistakes that sent them further and further into a downward spiral...a completely unnecessary downward spiral.

Rating:
Summary: The last Oprah book I will read
Review: Why are the Oprah book choices so consistently depressing? I don't think one must be continually dragged through the muck in order to see the light. I find it odd that the TV show focuses on more upbeat topics while the books she chooses are such downers.

Rating:
Summary: Thanks Oprah!
Review: Thank you for telling me what to read. As your loyal servant I, and 1 billion oversized women, will do whatever you say.

Rating:
Summary: HOUSE OF "DOOM & GLOOM"
Review: This was the first book I ever read by this author and it came highly recommended by so many people. For the first 25 pages, I wasn't at all sure that it was going to be for me but, as I kept reading, I became enmeshed in one of the best books I've read this year. It is totally unlike anything I have ever read before. Told in the first person through the eyes of the two main characters, it makes it so easy to truly understand not only their thoughts but their real motivations. I often wonder what makes some characters tick -- in this book you won't have to wonder as Dubus masterfully explains in great detail what's behind each of these character's inner thoughts and motions.

This is an incredible story revolving around a house and the house's rightful owner. Colonel Behrani was at the top of the Iranian army when the government was overthrown and his family was forced to leave Iran and seek refuge in America. You read, with tears in your eyes, as this once powerful man tries to achieve the American dream for his family. He takes on menial jobs in an effort to save enough money for a house.

Kathy Nicolo, a recovering alcoholic and addict, has a house. She also finds the act of opening mail from the County Tax Collector to be mundane. Because of her negligence in not opening her mail, her house is sold at public auction. Now the fight for the rightful owner of this property begins. A third person enters the scenario. His name is Lester and he is a married cop. You know the saying, "two's company, three's a crowd". Well, it couldn't be more true than in this book.

The circumstances of this house's ownership spiral out of control. At times I couldn't believe what I was reading. Your sympathies may run the gamut from one character to the next but one thing is for sure -- you will definitely walk away from this reading experience and NEVER, NEVER forget this book. It is truly a masterpiece.