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Summary: A lesson to be learned here, and lots of tension!
Review: I got pulled into this book by Dubus' amazing ability to create tension. Tom Wolfe did the same in A Man In Full. These people are walking on the very edge of life, and I just had to see how it ended. I kept thinking to myself, "This is what happens when people rely on THINGS for salvation." It made me wonder what I would do in this situation. The tension was palpable, and it was a very enjoyable read. Great for vacations or long trips by plane, car, or boat.
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Summary: Not the ending you'd expect...
Review: This was a book I couldn't put down. I enjoyed every page of it. The ending was so unexpected!! You'll love it!!!
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Summary: House of Sand and Fog from a college student prospective
Review: I found this book by Andre Dubus the 3rd very exciting. Each character had a very interesting personality and I felt emotionally close to them. The writing style presented by the author shows a unique and compelling story that would inrigue all readers in some aspect. I read the book wanting to never put it down for the outcome I could not anticipate. I liked this book because it was a real life story that shows readers throughout the world that people aren't perfect and that we all have to communicate with eachother in some form or another.
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Summary: my honest opinion...
Review: I did not like this book, and I'll tell you why. First, let me say that I went into the book with high hopes based on others' comments. I thought I'd love it, but it was a struggle to finish. I just could not care about the characters. It wasn't because they are flawed--I'm flawed, and prefer characters who are, too. It wasn't just because they made really stupid decisions and choices--been there, done that myself and can therefore identify with them. It's just that they were really uninteresting.For me, the characters were uninteresting and predictable; the writing was pedestrian and predictable; the plot was, well, predictable. Only once during the whole book did I experience any kind of emotion (besides boredom), when one of the characters dies. It was odd to feel so little for people I spent so many pages with. I really tried hard to like it. I looked carefully for beautiful passages I just missed (never found them). I read carefully looking for something unique about the characters (never found it). I tried, really I did. My experience with this book makes me hesitant to try another book by the author, but I'm sure some day I will. I'll try again. I just wanted to tell you my experience with the book so you will hear another perspective. I never recommend it, and if someone asks me about it I try to direct them to another book.
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Summary: House of Weak Ending
Review: I loved the book until the last few chapters. The book ended like the author was in a hurry to close it and wrote a very weak ending. I was angry that the ending was such a let down and so stupid because the rest of the book was so enthralling. I will never trust reading anything by this author again.
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Summary: A gripping page-turner but not a literary triumph
Review: I confess that once I started *House of Sand and Fog* it was hard to put it down. Author Dubus is a skilled and promising novelist, and he does a fine job of conveying the neediness, desperation, and self-destructiveness of all three of his main characters. In weaving this tale of desire, greed, lust, anger, and overarching self-absorption, he succeeds in conveying some of the more wretched aspects of the human condition. People who are looking for books with cheerful, uplifting themes had best look elsewhere. The key to both the book's merits and its weaknesses lies in the literary device Dubus uses to tell his story. He narrates the story through first-person accounts by the Iranian ex-colonel Massoud Amir Behrani and the troubled young alcoholic Kathy Nicolo, who emerge as rivals for the ownership of a bungalow home in "Corona," a town which for all appearances is a pseudonym for the city of Pacifica, located along Highway One south of San Francisco. Curiously, Dubos accounts for the perspective of his third main character, deputy sheriff Lester Burdon, through third-person narration. By fleshing out his story through the respective perceptions and motivations of each main character (sometimes going through the same events from each different perspectives, in "Rashomon" fashion), Dubos succeeds in drawing in the reader and in building suspense as the story approaches a climax which is predictably dramatic (although the particulars of how things end up is certainly not predictable). Where this storytelling approach fails is in Dubos' apparent inability to create a believable "voice" for his troubled female protagonist, Kathy Nicolo. Whereas we are given every impression that Nicolo is a pathetic, relatively uneducated woman with an addictive personality who perceives life through a hazy veil of bad memories, poor decisions, and low self-esteem, as a narrator she speaks with astonishing articulateness, employing a self-aware discursive style more characteristic of someone who is college-educated or better. In other words, what we are being led to believe about the content of Nicolo's perceptions and experiences does not correlate well with the writing style in which this narration is presented. Had Dubos presented Kathy in a voice more appropriate to her actual character, it would have made for a more compelling and powerful story. Meanwhile, Dubos' presentation of Colonel Behrani is more successful, right down to the slightly formal, "in translation" nature of his use of verb phrases (e.g.,"She gave to me the book.") Overall, this book is hardly pulp fiction, but neither is it great literature. It's an engrossing and mostly fascinating, entertaining read that conveys some real insights into the foibles of the human personality. *House of Sand and Fog* shows how great and terrible tragedy can ensue despite people's misguided perceptions that they have proceeded on the basis of righteousness and good intentions.
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Summary: a very good read
Review: Overall, I felt that this book was very interesting. It took a lot of surprising twists and turns along the way. I could have done without all of the sexual descriptions. I am not sure why those bothered me, since they normally don't. I think that it was the way in which they were written. Too much information.
Anyhow, the book was well written and the ending blew me away. I never expected things to end up the way they did.
Towards the end I found myself wondering when the book would end already. This is the reason I do not give it 5 stars.
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Summary: A serious yet gripping thriller you wouldn't want to miss
Review: Imagine a game of tug of war, two on one side, one on the other. They tug and pull and for a long time, the game looks like it could go either way, but after much heaving and jostling, the rope gives way and both sides fall to the ground. That pretty much sums up the plot of Andre Dubus III's "House of Sand and Fog " (HSF). At one end, we have ex-Iranian Colonel Behrani asserting his rights to contract on the purchase of an auctioned property. At the other, Kathy Nicolo is contesting the sale of the same property - once hers - by the state county. Kathy is abetted by troubled cop Lester who has fallen for her. The tragic outcome of this explosive contest of wills is predictable, leaving a trail of broken and lost lives. But what makes HSF such an intriguing novel is Dubus III's true-to-life characterisation and his skillful use of the human condition to expose gaps in the East-West cultural divide and force us to reflect upon the equity of certain values which Americans hold dear. The irony of Colonel Behrani's impasse with Kathy is made all the more bitter by the fact that the very society that purports to uphold the principle of the sanctity of contract is about to cheat him of his last hope of restoring his pride and position within his family. Despite his occasional wrongheadedness, I found him a more sympathetic character than the out-of-control Kathy. Lester I disliked and despised until I understood how Kathy offered an escape from an unhappy marriage and a release from his own pent up neediness. I was ready to dismiss HSF as melodrama but was won over by Dubus III's directness, integrity and style. HSG is a gripping thriller that's simply unputdownable. Shortlisted for the National Book Award, it's one you wouldn't want to miss !
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Summary: House of Sand and Fog
Review: This gripping tale kept my heart divided between two different worlds. I tened to stay in the world that was the most familiar to me...but soon sharing the feelings of desperation and hope lead me to the other side. Roots and a place of our own are so the center of our human needs. I loved the struggle and the triumph of this book. I shall read more Andre Dubus!
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Summary: Depressing commentary on the worst of American culture
Review: Early in the book, I found myself writing off Kathy and Lester. Kathy clung to that house as if it represented the only good thing about her. She had no spine or accountability whatsoever. On the other hand, Lester just used Kathy to FEEL something. Again, he took no responsibility to even try to gracefully leave his unfulfilling marriage. The Colonel, a foreigner, and his family were left to represent the moral and ethical potential in this story. When he failed, the book was left without redemption. I grew up in the Bay Area so I know Redwood City, Corona, and the rest of San Mateo County well. I believe that Dubus adequately described that region. The town of Corona is indeed foggy and an appropriately dismal setting. However, I agree with another reviewer that the whining and general descriptions went on ad nauseam. For this reason, a short story would have sufficed. Unless you like hopeless books, I suggest that you do not bother with this one.
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