House of Sand and Fog [Unabridged]

Rating:
Summary: A mesmerizing journey, into the heart and soul of life.
Review: From start to finish and incredibly fantastic journey into the hopes dreams and despairs of life. Never have I become so lost into the written word that my mind could so convincingly make me feel as if I was a part of the story. The author (Andre Dubus III) takes you right smack into the heart of the characters and gives you the incredible feeling that your standing in the shadows, peering into the heart and souls of people who you may find are not unlike so many you may have met in your own life's journey. The ending still pulls at my heart when I think of the tragedy that can come from not being able to see another's side and we forget that we all long for the same basic things out of life.

Rating:
Summary: A truly remarkable book - impossible to put down!
Review: This book seizes you from the beginning, and does not let go until the dramatic (and surprising) ending. Explorations of cultures, social justice, and narrative experimentation are woven together masterfully by Dubus; the result is a work that is very difficult to abandon for bathroom breaks, dinner or sleep.

Rating:
Summary: Wham!
Review: Outstanding. Well-written, well-structured, lucid prose, and something to say unlike a lot of eensy-teensy graduate school workshop stuff that passes for fiction these days. Buy this one; you'll like it. Can't wait for his next book.

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Summary: A great story - filled with hope, sadness, and despair.
Review: One of the best books I've ever read. The story touches every emotion - the hope of a new beginning for the former Iranian Colonel trying to find peace and happiness for his family in America, a country so different than his own; sadness and pity for Kathy Lazaro who finds it more and more difficult to face each new day and the reality it brings; disgust for Lester Burdon, a Deputy Sheriff who has learned how to hide behind his badge and uniform and finally despair and tragedy as the Colonel's hopes and dreams for a new life for his family come to tumbling finality. An excellent book - the writing makes it easy for you to become a part of each character and hope, suffer, and even cry with each new obstacle they face.

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Summary: This house will stand
Review: Tragic and fragile are the two words that come to mind when speaking about "House of Sand and Fog." The characters in this book will break your heart, and not always for the right reasons. What the main character goes through before the novel even really takes off, is just amazing and heartbreaking. And this person has one kind of luck--BAD. But what really made this book stand out for me was the style of writing. I'm usually one to stick with a bestseller like "Da Vinci Code" or "Bark of the Dogwood" but decided to give this one a shot, and all I can say is that the level of writing is beyond anything I could have imagined. Dubus has given us a very unusual book about some very tragic and fragile people. At times you want to reach into the pages and strangle a few of them, but, not being able to do that, you move on. I do agree with one other reviewer in that while I was reading this I loved it. Afterwards, I developed a dislike for it. And now, a month later, I'm finding that I want to pick it up again. Someone once said that the purpose of art is to get us to think. "House" certainly does that . . . and more. Also recommended: Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD--A Tour of Southern Homes and Gardens

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Summary: Compelling Dysfunction
Review: Yes, there were flaws in the book, like who smokes in California restaurants anymore? But I thought Dubus had such a gift for portraying flawed personalities. For example, it was interesting to watch Kathy get bounced around by life. Dubus did a good job of showing how she constantly let herself be propelled by external forces (went with Nick to RR meetings against her will; let the county take her house; didn't ask about Lester's being married but let him start dictating her life just as Nick had; watched as Lester set their disaster in motion without protesting, etc.) When she thinks Lester is leaving her she nearly kills herself, vaguely understanding that she can survive only as a parasite. Even at the end of the book, in jail, she only starts to come back to life again as she attaches herself to the powerful Jolene. To watch such a loser in action, how she made her decisions, was fascinating, and I thought Dubus did a good job with it.

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Summary: I should have read the reviews.
Review: 675 people have reviewed The House of Sand and Fog for Amazon.com as I write this review and I was foolish enough to read this book before discovering what many of them had to say. I had seen the film and wanted to determine if the director had ruined Andre Dubus's novel. In a word, the answer is No. By and large, the film is faithful to the story.

Kathy Nicolo has had her California seacoast bungalow unfairly put at auction by the county and a former Colonel in the Iranian Air Force has purchased the house to resell as soon as possible for a profit. The Colonel and his family will soon be out of money and the purchase and sale of the house are vitally important to keep them from poverty. Kathy tries to get her house back with help from Deputy Sheriff Lester Burdon, who has become her lover. A bad situation soon becomes tragic for all concerned.

Now that you know the story here's why you don't want to read the book, or see the movie, for that matter.

The three main characters are cartoons, not real people. The worst is Deputy Burdon. We watch with incredulity as he invades the Colonel's home, locks the Colonel and his family in the bathroom for the night, and then plans to take the Colonel and his son to city hall to effect the transfer of the Colonel's property to Kathy, a person he knows is not the rightful owner of the house. Even the folks who enjoyed this book must have been shaking their heads at this unbelievable turn of events. We try to understand Lester's motivation and thought process, but this is not possible given the limited information Dubus has given us.

Next is Kathy, a former drug addict and alcoholic who has now become a drunk again. Dubus tries to help us understand her. She is given the most development in the story, but Dubus does not have the skill to make her actions appear credible. Additionally, Dubus must have been watching Fatal Attraction and other Hollywood films where dead people come mysteriously to life to allow for some additional thrills at the end of the story. For those that want to read the book, I won't reveal what happens in the end except to say think Fatal Attraction.

Lastly, we have Colonel Behrani, the former Iranian Air Force Officer. I don't know anything about Iranian officers, but I believe they are likely to be sensible people. Not Colonel Behrani. Perhaps he has been watching infomercials about buying property and selling it for a profit as a way of getting rich. Dubus doesn't tell us this, but it the only way to understand how a reasonable person would think that he could support his family and send his son to college by buying a house, even at a bargain, and then reselling it immediately as a way to live and prosper. In the end he is driven to despair and takes the action of a truly desperate man. Believing infomercials and acting on their advice might do this to some people.

Those who buy this book after reading this and other negative reviews on Amazon might want to practice their speed reading skills. That would be the only benefit I can think of for purchasing The House of Sand and Fog.

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Summary: The struggle to find a home...
Review: What happens when two very different people are displaced from their homes due to unfair circumstances? Naturally, they seek to replace what they have lost.

"House of Sand and Fog" tells this particular story with such audacity that I could hardly put it down for a second until I had read the very last page. Dubus is such a surprisingly rich storyteller. He alternates between the thoughts of two main characters and is unfailing in this convincing prose as he describes their dangerous paths always converging towards one another with increasing speed and intensity.

One house, two different owners. Col. Behrani was a wealthy, well-respected man in his homeland of Iran before he was forced to flee in the middle of the night due an uprising of the government in his country. He comes to America to find a new a new home, both literally and figuratively. He buys a house at auction because someone did not pay their taxes, not surprising this new immigrant. He looks around and sees that most Americans are ridiculous people. They have so much opportunity, yet all they do is complain. They take their freedoms for granted.

Kathy Nicolo is one of these Americans. She has kicked out of her home due to a government paperwork error... they say she didn't pay her taxes. She finds herself in a fog, searching for the way home. Chain-smoking her way through life's events, oblivious to what is happening around her, she moves from one confrontation to the next in a downward sprial that she feels will only be remedied by returning to her home. Yet, for all of her faults, she is still endearing. Kathy lacks maliciousness. She even has a strange remorse for the wife of the married police officer she is cheating with.

Where does a story like this go? Back and forth for pages and pages. One minute I was on his side and the next I hated him and wanted her to succeed.

How does it all end? Well, I'm not going to ruin it for you. Get a copy and find out for yourself. You will be surprised. The ending is nothing even CLOSE to predictable!

Rating:
Summary: Good solid read.
Review: I read several books per month, but can't recall the last time I was so deeply drawn into a story and its characters as this. It brought out such strong emotional preferences and dislikes for the characters.. I could not help but sympathize with Colonel Behrani and, what surprised me even more was my intense dislike for Cathy.. in spite of my having been in a situation similar to hers myself. These characters really grabbed me by the gut and from start to finish, the Behrani's were victims of an arrogant, mindless society (ours) whose disrespect for other cultures SHOULD teach us a lesson we are perhaps too blind to recognize. One would have to have real experience with crooked cops (I have) and bureaucratic injustice (I have) to appreciate the REALITY of such a situation. And the ending says 'this is life.. this is real.' This story will haunt me for a long time to come.

Also recommended: CHILDREN'S CORNER by Jackson McCrae

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful but...
Review: A very engrossing book and a true page-turner. The writing style of alternating first person narration is very effective and book is well paced. Character development is excellent - The Behrani's are sympathetic characters who's lives are torn apart by two of the most birdbrained, pathetic creatures ever to show up on a printed page.

This is the flaw in the book. I cannot believe that Lester and Kathy could possibly be so dim-witted. If an underlying objective of this engaging novel is to mock California, Mr. Dubus was fairly effective. So as not to give the story away, I will only say that the convergence of ineptness between a county, lawyer and protagonist with a deputy who's despicability is rivalled only by his lack of judgement is hard to believe.

At the end of the book, the implausibility of the Californian characters stupidity kept screaming not just "fiction", but "parody".