House of Sand and Fog

Rating:
Summary: A TALE FROM THE BROKEN PROMISED LAND
Review: As a novelist with my debut novel which addresses contemporary immigration themes in its initial release, I was particularly taken by Andre Dubus III's HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG. The book opens with a disturbing scene from our contemporary promised land--talented people of diverse nationalities who have immigrated to America holding immigrants' dreams close to their hearts have been reduced to picking up trash along a California roadway. HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG centers on Massound Amir Behrani. He is a former high-ranking Iranian officer who left his homeland for political reasons. He arrives in the United States, full of hopes. He is willing to work hard to achieve his dreams yet he finds his expensively printed resumes and job interviews in well-trimmed French suits, produce no suitable opportunities. He sinks most of his money into a high-priced apartment with elaborate furnishings in the hope that his daughter will find an acceptable match in marriage. Once she marries, he buys a house at auction. The house's previous owner, Kathy Nicolo, wants to desperately keep her home. Problems arise. Kathy and Behrani repeatedly conflict over this house. You can imagine what happens. This book is amazing. It presents contemporary America in an honest, straight-forward, and heartfelt manner. Great work.

Rating:
Summary: Gritty Like Sand and Unmoving as Fog
Review: This book, which is about 3 people--an Iranian American, Colonel Behrani; a divorced woman and former drug-addict, Kathy Nicolo; and an adulterous police officer, Lester Burns--rivaling against each other for a Californian bungalow, would have been much better had it been a hundred pages shorter. Dubus' writing is slippery with soppy pity for Kathy Nicolo and her cliche love affair with Lester. But she lost her house because she would not open mail from the county regarding a mistake about a business tax, even though it was a glitch on the county's part. I don't understand why she was suddenly so sentimentally attached to the house, nor do I see the major dislike she had for her family. I had little empathy for Lester either, who was too cowardly to face his own kids after walking out on his wife to have an affair with Nicolo, who still harped over past woes of walking out in fights and having his father abandon the family when he was twelve. There just seemed to be too much harping and agonizing over past sorrows and mishaps which really could have been avoided; there reaches a point where you just have to move on with life and reconcile to it. If the author was attempting to depict how sometimes people do the wrong thing and choose it without really doing so, he just made the characters too self-indulgent to make this come across successfully.

There were some interesting parts in this book. Most of them revolved around the customs of Behrani and his immigrant family. Once a great colonel in the shah's army, Behrani is now reduced to the dust as a poor immigrant. Winning the bungalow cheaply in the county's auction, he is determined to sell it and make a profit to elevate the status of his family in the Persian community. I found it interesting how, as a modernist, he treated his wife as an equal and felt terrible after rare instances of physical violence. However, I thought he was depicted as impassive and unsympathetic and pompous, which prevented him from being likeable.

Overall, I found this book to be rather flat and seemed to figure out how a writer can seem kind of one-dimensional. I also could not understand the ending of this book, it just did not make sense how the characters would make the very last choices they did, or how Kathy Nicolo could be better off in her final circumstances. This book is okay in parts, but badly needed some spicing up earlier on, as well as some selective editing.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible Truths, or Terrible People?
Review: I would agree with everyone who appreciates the honesty of this story and its characters; I would agree that it has the elements of a classical tragedy; and I would agree with one reviewer that the author "bestows dignity on even the most confused of his people." But I would agree to all these things only up through the first 250 pages of the novel. After that, the story begins to lose credibility; the characters, especially Deputy Burdon, begin to lose my respect and compassion; and what could be a good American novel spirals down, seemingly out of control, into a pile of senseless and violent stupidity.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but hard to identify with characters
Review:

Dubus is a skilled writer, and the story is interesting. My problem is that I had difficulty in liking (identifying with) any of his protagonists.

The female protagonist, Kathy, is a former coke addict who smokes her brains out, lighting one cigarette after another, is cast as a homewrecker and a drunk, and seems an all around loser. Almost incidentally, San Mateo County (not the IRS as another reviewer stated) has wrongfully auctioned off her house for non-payment of taxes due to an address mistake on their part. An event that she could have avoided had she simply read her mail. It is hard to feel sympathy for her....

For some hard to define reason, given the rest of her "personality," she is troubled by the loss of her house, which was given to her as was her new car, by relatives.

Then there's Colonel Behrani--another really hard guy to like. He is depicted as part of Shah Pahlavi's itinerary, who, according to the author, drove over the bodies of living children in Iran before he was deposed--not intentionally, mind you. He was simply indifferent. Behrani beats his wife and is unwilling to right the wrong he has inflicted on Kathy when he discovers that he has innocently purchased her wrongfully auctioned house. He is the most likeable character, to me, but falls far short of evoking sympathy.

Finally, our hero, the sheriff's deputy who picks up Kathy, a street woman with the morals of a tabby cat, and dumps his loving, innocent wife and kids because he is "unhappy!" Poor guy! *sob* He admits to planting evidence, and throws his weight around under false pretences trying to scare Behrani into vacating the premises that he has legally purchased. Talk about corrupt cops!

So, the story is well-written, but frankly I don't care how it turns out, or who wins or loses.

I prefer a story with characters that you can care about, and get involved with. This one just doesn't have it for me. Some will say that it is saved by its "realism," but we face reality every day. In fiction, it's nice to escape into a world where motives and right and wrong are more clearly drawn than in everyday life, and the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are more easily recognizable. We are surfeited with reality every day. It's nice to take a vacation from it in books. At least that is my reaction...

Rating:
Summary: Indepth review of empathy for all characters
Review: I have been thinking about the characters in this book even days after finishing it.

Each major character has a flaw, but the way that Andre Dubus writes about them and the situation of the house, makes you FEEL for every character, regardless of their moral behavior.

I was impressed that I could feel for even Kathy Nicolo! I UNDERSTOOD her behavior even though I didn't AGREE with it. The same holds true for Lester and the Colonel. Because the characters were described so fluently, I could be any one of them and feel their rationale for their behavior.

Great book! I was sorry for the ending, but again, I could understand each character's behavior, because of Dubus's indepth profile. He pulls you into each character with amazing brilliance!

Rating:
Summary: Voices worth a listen
Review: For any who have read Dubus' before, this novel's characters are no less real and flawed. In fact, the voices in this novel are its strength, as far as I was concerned. The narrators are distinct and complex, each one speaking from his/her own place in a way that makes the weaving of those voices an intriguing conversation. The story begins when Kathy Nicolo is informed by the IRS that her house is up for auction. This notice is an error, however, and Kathy works frantically to right the situation. When the house is bought by Colonel Behrani, an Iranian immigrant, the wheels of the book are set in motion. The novel explores the edges--what we need in order to define ourselves and what happens when that definition is challenged.

A wonderfully crafted novel, you won't be disappointed by this one. I hope this is the beginning of a string of novels by Dubus. His voice is one I would love to hear for many years to come. Try his short stories as well. They're fantastic.

Rating:
Summary: Which character should I feel sorriest for?
Review: I was amazed at how complex the events surrounding one house could become. Dubus' character development was terrific - I truly hoped that some how they would work out a plan in the end where everyone would win. I encountered this inner turmoil about who deserved the house more, but each person had faults that would make them undeserving, and each had what seemed to be a legal right to this possession.

The ending was not at all what I expected and blew me away! I would definitely recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A few flaws?
Review: I agree with those who found the book to move at a quick pace. Once you start reading, you really want to find out what is going to happen. The former general reduced to highway "garbage soldier" is a character we don't often read about -- the immigrant and his/her point of view. As for the dysfunctional Kathy and her lover, as my friend said, "it's a train wreck."

This was a great summer read, a little better than some other Oprah books I have read in terms of literary style. There was some lovely imagery (similes, metaphors, etc.

I do have a few points, however, which I found distressing from a structural point of view. First, as far as I recall/noticed, there is never a plausible explanation about why a linen service operator from Massachusetts (Kathy's father) owned a house on the California coast. That discrepancy haunted me throughout; maybe I just missed the explanation. Also, the Iranian general's character's narration is written so that we hear the voice of an English as a second language speaker... It worked in the sense that it kept that 1st person narrator's voice distinct from Kathy's, but to my way of thinking, people's inner voices never sounds like ESL...they think in their native language and therefore there would be no stitled forms of expression as we have here.

I am a teacher, so this may be more picky than most readers care about. Did either of these things bother anyone else?

Rating:
Summary: Not a Keeper
Review: This book has the distinction of being the only book I ever threw away. What a tedious journey to endure, only to come to such a ghastly, morose ending. I honestly can't recommend this book to anyone. I had to laugh when I heard it was on "Oprah's Book Club" list.

Rating:
Summary: Easy read, bad ending
Review: Ever flip channels on the TV on Saturday afternoon and get sucked into a somewhat intriguing movie only to have a terrible ending that leaves you irritated that you just wasted two hours of your life? Well, that would be this book.

I'm from San Mateo County so that sort of made this book more interesting to me personally. It is a good, easy read if you aren't looking for depth or true literature. I fairly enjoyed it up until the ending. It's like Dubus got going on a roll and then just died at the end.

Is it worth the read? ... END