House of Sand and Fog [Unabridged]

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Summary: House of Sand and Fog becomes House of Doom
Review: This is the first book I've read by this author and his talent isobvious from the first page. I found the writing of the two maincharacters in the first person made it easier to truly understand not only their thoughts but the motivation of these people. Enter a third person, Lester, and you know the saying....two's company, three's a crowd. Could there be a more despicable person than this third character whose life is obviously ruled by his lack of a lust-filled marriage? The author writes that it was like living with his sister. Well, too bad Lester. While I felt the Iranian was wrong, I could never side with Kathy because the author would not allow you to. Her depiction as an ex-alcoholic, ex-drug addict who finds the act of opening mail from the County Tax Collector to be mundane ruined any chance of me siding with her. This is someone who felt sorry for herself at every turn but never did anything to make it better. Even though this was a minor scene, it was a major one for me when she used the key to a house she cleaned in order to take a shower and rummage through the girl's drawers for a change of clothing. Laws did not matter to these people -- they broke them if it made life more plausible for them. END

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel
Review: Couldn't put it down....kept saying to myself: "One more chapter!" But since each "chapter" switched points of view...it was never enough to read "just one more." The characters were brilliantly and thoroughly drawn and the action moved steadily and ominiously like a train toward a brick wall...I will follow this author's career - what talent!

Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking.
Review: Literally, breaktaking. I gasped outloud as these characters slipped deeper and deeper into trouble. And, as the other reviewers note,it is hard to decide, right to the end, who are the victims and who are the heros, if any.

Someone else mentioned the interesting title and it's meaning. I'd like to mention MY favorite inside jab of the author's: One of the main characters, Lester Burdon, is known as Les, but by the end of the story, he is far from Less Burdensome...in fact, he complicates matters tremendously for poor pathetic Kathy, beginning from the moment she starts drinking again.

I couldn't stop til i finished the last line... and gasped again!

Rating:
Summary: OK read, disappointing on accuracy
Review: Although the author does a good job in creating empathetic characters, his depiction of his Iranian characters are wanting. They are two-dimensional stereotypes. In addition, the tranliteration mistakes when dealing with Iran make for a very frustrating read. The author and the publisher would have done well to have someone who knows Persian to have read the book to avoid embarassing and sophmoric mistakes

Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: It's been a while since I've read a book that ruined my social life. I kept finding myself choosing between going out or staying home to read more and choosing the book. I bought the book originally because the Author is from my home town and I thought it would remind me of home. Much to my surprise it's actually set very close to my new adopted home. It captures the essence of both places and their differences well. I cared very much for the colonial and conversly, disliked Kathy and Lester with equal passion. Other reviewers said that this bothered them, but these characters didn't like themselves either and this is a major reason that events unfold the way they do. What seperates tragedy from the merely sad is the knowledge that characters hold the key to changing the outcome; and their own shortcomings prevent it from happening. This book is classic tragedy. I kept finding myself yelling at everyone to pay attention. I hoped that they would wake up and make everything work out, but I really didn't know if that was possible.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning.
Review: A novel that had me so hooked I kept it in a drawer at work and snuck paragraphs all day... the tension in this novel builds until it actually made my stomach queasy. A downward spiral, masterfully crafted... he gets you under the skin of his characters; a former Iranian colonel under the Shah who has been reduced to working on a highway trash crew, a house cleaner whose husband has just left her, and a sheriff trapped in a loveless marriage. There's not a wasted word - the prose has been honed to perfection. It ain't Disney, but it is the way we live now... I can't wait for the next thing this author writes.

Rating:
Summary: beautifully crafted
Review: The further you read into the book, the more you realize how good it is. From the description of the ever present fog, which intensifies as the action reaches its climax, to the attention to small details, like comsmetics, the drinking of tea or coffee, uniforms, etc. the book is beautifully crafted. While the alternating first person narrators could not be more different in terms of culture, family, backgound, they are both living on the edge, both homeless and friendless not quite in mainstream "reality" believing the house will redeem them into respectability. We see how the disastorous choices the characters make at each turn, spiral their lives toward tragedy. The characters are viewed both with compassion and revulsion, as their complete inablitly to communicate with eachother and inability to overcome their inherent human flaws, obscures and engulfs their lives like the fog which is always around them. Unlike other books with moral themes and struggles, there is no redemption at the end, only a hopless human alienation which leaves the reader feeling lost and low. Altogether it's one dark, G-dless vision of the 20th century that defenitely gives us much to think about.

Rating:
Summary: Read Part I, skip the rest
Review: This is my second review of this book; my first one seems to have become lost. So, my apologies if both reviews wind up here eventually.

This book is written in two parts. The first part establishes the conflict between the two main characters (a former Colonel in the Iranian air force, who fled Iran with his family to the US after the fall of the Shah; and a young American woman who is a recovering drug addict), both of whom wind up having legal rights to the same home, a modest bungalo in the San Francisco bay area. The home has strong symbolism for both characters, and neither will compromise in any way to resolve the growing crisis. This part of the book is gripping, absorbing, and moves forward relentlessly. The story is told from the first person and alternates between the colonel and the woman. Part one concludes after about 220 pages (in the paperback version, anyway) with the two characters established and on a collision course; yet you can see the hints at the end of this section of ways in which the situation might be resolved.

My advice is to read to this point, and then put the book away. The second part (last third or so of the book) degenerates into a story of kidnapping, hostage taking, and gun-toting that is so formulaic that is is frankly silly. A third charcter becomes pivotal, but his story is always told from the third person (for some reason; who knows why) wheras the stories of the othe two main characters continue to be told from the first person. The ending is probably supposed to be "tragic" but it is in fact so predictable, once you see where Part II is going, that I actually threw the book accross the room in disgust. The story morphs from an interesting contemporary novel to the worst made-for-TV movie you've ever seen. The main characters seem to realize how ridiculous the story is becoming; unfortunately, the author never does.

Read the first part, which really is an interesting story, and could stand on its own as a short novel, and skip the rest.

Rating:
Summary: Read Part I, skip the rest
Review: This book is written in two parts. The first part alternates between first-person narratives of Colonel Behrani, who fled Iran after the fall of the Shah, and Kathy Niccolo, a down-and-out recovered drug addict who has nothing left but the house of her dead father. In the first part of the book, her house is seized for back taxes (only partly due to her own negligence) and sold to the Colonel. She tries to get it back, but discovers that there is no legal way for her to do so. The Colonel is desparate not to lose the house, because he has used the last of his family's money to buy it. Clearly, these people are on some sort of collision course. This section of the book is interesting, tense, and advances forcefully but with some grace. The Colonel's Iranian-tinged English, and his use of foreign words mixed into his narrative, frequently becomes overbearing. This could have been very effective if it had been toned down a little, but it usually comes off as being an overly self-consious gimmick. But in general, I found the first part of the book to be very gripping and well written.

Part one ends after about 220 pages, and although the story does not really come to a complete conclusion, I recommend that you stop reading there. Don't even start Part II, in which the original, interesting, and believable story that you've been reading suddenly falls apart into a story of kidnapping, guns, suicide attempts, and all sorts of really over-blown and ridiculous goings-on. It just gets more and more silly; at one point, the deputy sherif who has taken the Iranian family hostage seems to know that he is in over his head and the situation is getting out of control; unfortunately, the same realization never dawns on the author.

I would recommend that you buy this book and read Part I, and completely forget about the rest of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting portrayal of Persian family but that's about it!
Review: Although the story was compelling and I wanted to like it, I found several things quite disagreeable. I thought the characters of Kathy and Lester were despicable. I could neither empathize with either of them nor could I feel sorry for their involvement in the unfortunate predicaments of their own making. The author's use of first person for relating the story of Kathy and Colonel Behrani, while reverting to third person for Lester's story, was unnecessary and confusing. I also didn't particularly like the author's portrayal of a woman's psyche. He didn't get it right. Nevertheless, I did consider the portrayal of the Farsi Colonel Behrani and his family, complete with Persian customs, fascinating and very real. I also found myself identifying closely with Esmail, Colonel Behrani's son, who had the misfortune of becoming involved in a terrifying situation.