Rating: 
Summary: Poorly researched and disappointing characters
Review: The discription of the Bay Area is very disconcerting to a one who has lived here all there life. I thought I would be able to get past that if the book was well written and interesting characters.This book has neither and I was disappointed that it was on Oprah's list. A few changes in actual locations are a writers perogative but when he called San Francisco "Frisco" and had the deputy leave his weapon in the room and go shopping dressed in his uniform I was pushed over the edge with the sloppiness in reseach.
Rating:
Summary: Horribly Disappointing
Review: I realize that I am mortal, and therefore will never get to read every book that is of quality. That concept is one with which I can live. However, I find it atrociously irritating to have wasted what precious time I do have reading crap. House of Sand and Fog is nothing less than a shocking disappointment. So much so, that if I could rank it with 0 stars, I would. Engaged by the characters and their stories at the beginning, I found their depraved actions at the end to be so far-fetched and terribly gratuitously violent and sexual, that I felt like I was watching a cheap Hollywood film. I would find it hard to believe that anyone would buy the actions of these characters as possible. I understand that desperate people often resort to desperate actions, but Mr. Dubus sells these people out at the end. Please save your precious time and money and spend both reading something else.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste of time!
Review: I cannot say enough bad things about this book. Why ... felt it was so wonderful is beyond me! This book is poorly written with too many unneccessary characters/details when it wasn't important, and not enough good details where it was. The plot in and of itself is a bore -- all that over a house?! Women, especially married women, do not want to read a book where a married man is so 'gentle and warm' to his immoral, trashy, alley-cat girlfriend. The sex scenes are graphic and disgusting. GROWN WOMEN HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO WITH THEIR TIME THAN READ THIS PURE GARBAGE. There was nothing uplifting or positive about the whole book ----> I quit reading it about 1/4 way thru and thumbed through the rest, looking for one good reason to finish. Found it never picked up; just got worse. The best place for this book is not on the bookshelf; it's in the garbage with the other trash. Got my money back from the bookstore.
Rating: 
Summary: the house of undeveloped characters
Review: to say that this book took a weird turn would definately be an understatement.I genuinley liked the characters up until about page 200,when i thought to myself,shouldn't this woman know better?It's as if Andre Dubus turned two of his main characters(Kathy and Lester)in to pshychopaths in the second half of this book,from people who were seemingly normal(at least by california standards)in the first half.Everyone likes an exciting twist in a book,an unexpected turn,but this ending was nonsense and left me very dissapointed.If anyone tells you that this book is a page turner it,s probably because they were trying to get through it faster.
Rating:
Summary: House of Sand and Fog
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. I felt it was shallow writing and frankly surprised it was on Oprahs list for good reading. Half way through I was bored and thumbed through the rest of the book and got the jist of the story. Reminded me of a soap opera. Swearing and sexual feelings/fantasies don't fall into my category of good reading/literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down!!
Review: I thought it was very misterious. I never thought anything could happen to a person in the United States!! Kind of Scary!
Rating:
Summary: Undeniably good!
Review: This book was one I won't forget! I enjoyed the book so much I just laughed when I was finished I didn't know what else to do.There was the good Colonel Bahrani, who had relocated he and his family to the US from Iran, is simply trying to make a living for his family. His very demanding family. When in Iran they were rich and had servants, here they were barely making ends meet, while the Colonel worked with the city sanitation service. But the Colonel had a plan to make money, make his ungrateful family happy and become a respected member of THIS society. He would by a house. He had read how you can by house that have been put up for sale because the owner neglected to pay the taxes. His plan was to buy one of the houses, live in it for a while, make a few improvements to it and sell it for top dollar. Ahhh... but little did the Colonel know the best laid plans of mice and men can become what is equal to an Atomic bombs leaving the same devastating results. Then there is Kathy, the owner whose house has went up for taxes due to the fact that Kathy is living in a world of her own since her husband just up and left her. She was not opening her mail, therefore not realizing her house was due to go up for tax sale. Kathy is physically forced out of her home by the sheriff's department on the spur of the moment one morning. Kathy with no one to turn to and no where to go and looking totally distitute catches the attention of Sheriff Lester who decides to get involved and give Kathy a hand in moving her stuff into storage....but the involvement keeps growing deeper and deeper. The Colonel buys the house, moves in, makes improvement and Kathy turns into Kathy Bates, stalker. Nice Sheriff Lester, goes from being nice, helpful, gentle Andy Taylor to John Dillinger, a gun wheeling, adulterous, lying kidnapper. The twists and turns in this book are so great they just keep you on the edge of your seat. The one thing I found lacking in this book was the ending. It was if Dubus had given it all he had and said this is danged good and I am tired. The end.
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to like it, but it didn't fulfill its promise
Review: In the beginning, the book was almost gripping--shifting from one perspective... one culture... one gender... one worldview to another, setting up what held the promise of a fine, albeit dark, story. The reason this book dropped from five stars to four to three was the characters: All except one flattened out and lost their dimensionality as the story continued, becoming papier mache versions of characterizations that could have produced real substance. Only Behrani holds uncompromisingly true to his tragic depths, but he couldn't redeem the story from its one unredeemable flaw: It fails utterly in its agonizing struggle for plausibility. The story hinges entirely on this struggle, and falls increasingly short as the characters fade. The one, central component of the plot simply could never happen the way it did--never. It would have been quickly and easily resolved, thus rendering the entire story moot. And then, to top it all off, the ending was entirely and inevitably predictable. THAT failure, and not the story itself, is why the book is so sad.
Rating: 
Summary: Quit reading after twenty pages...but
Review: The House of Sand and Fog can be a bit of a chore to read (small print, dense writing), but after twenty pages, when Kathy is introduced, the story takes off. It zips along to an ineveitable conclusion, but there is plenty to see along the way; a lot tension and hard packed confrontation keep it alive. Andre Dubus III deserves the critical acclaim he has recieved. Even if you didn't like his book, it is still a plausible and scary account.
Rating:
Summary: Great read bad ending
Review: I was sitting in a friends office waiting to speak to them an picked this book up. I read the first four pages and was hooked. I immediately went out and bought my own copy. I could not put the book down until I was done. The writing was fantaastic and the characters just pulled you into their lives. Unfortuneately I thought the ending was terrible. I hated the end. It almost ruined the whole book but I decided the rest of the book makes up for the disappointing ending. Great Book!!!!
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