House of Sand and Fog

Rating:
Summary: House of Sand and Fog quickly draws you in ..
Review: In my experience, this book has aroused many thought-provoking conversations between friends and families. The characters are vividly drawn and they arouse strong emotions ~~ either of hate or sympathy. And as you are reading this book, you begin to become drawn into the characters' lives. It is like walking into a fog because you don't know what to expect in the next page or even the next paragraph. And when I think of sand, I think of quicksand because of the troubles that surrounded the characters ~~ and how they chose to resolve their problems.

This book is graphically descriptive ~~ you can almost feel the breeze blowing through the windows, smelling the tangy sea air and feeling the thirst for a coke after a hangover. The author has done a real good job of drawing the reader into his private world and leaving them hanging page after page.

This is not my favorite Oprah's pick, but I am glad I read it. It is full of beauty and grace as well as sadness. You learn more about the human nature than you thought you would. And it is a great ice-opener at parties. People of all walks in life have different opinions about each of the characters, and it makes for a lively conversation.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was also disappointed in this book and my comments are similar to the other negative ones. I did hear Oprah talk about the suspense and how it kept her on the edge of her seat. I did not feel this way at all! In fact, I bought it since I knew it would take months to get it at the library and I think I finished it because I bought it! I love to read and like nothing better than that feeling of not wanting to put a book down. This did not happen with this book. I did not like any of the characters very much and thought it was not at all suspenseful until the end. I also thought the very end was just flat and didn't leave me with any feeling of finality.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Bottom line I thought the book was great up until things started becoming completely unrealistic. I won't get specific for those of you that want to waste your time reading the book. I'll just say that I was loving it until half way through when I didn't even want to read it anymore. What a complete disappointment! It just went off on a wild track that there was no way that would've happened in real life. It was just stupid. Don't waste your time with this one. I threw it in the trash.

Rating:
Summary: House of Bad Decisions and Despair
Review: If you want to read a book about people who constantly make bad decisions and others who are trying desperately to make things good but get tharted, then this is the book for you. As for me, I wish that I hadn't spent the time in this very unsatisfying book.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't even get into it. Keep thinking it will get better.
Review: I usually love the books Operah suggests but I can't get past 30-40 pages.

Rating:
Summary: no
Review: l have not received this book yet. lt was shipped by you 2-2702001

Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly different from the usual perfect story
Review: This book presented a reading challenge but kept me reading until the very end, where I was pleasantly surprised that there was no textbook happy ending! Some characters I loved, some I detested and some I really never did make up my mind about. Each faced their own demons and had to make decisions - some good, some bad - on how to live their lives and get what they thought they deserved. Kathy was fighting to keep the house her family had left her, when it was wrongfully taken from her. The Behrani family was fighting to make a new life in a strange new country and to maintain the upper status they were used to. Lester was trying to find happiness in a new relationship while maintaining the stability of a family at home. All were strong characters determined to survive, which is the theme of this book that energized me. Survival. Each of these characters did what they could to survive the situation they were in. Each of them was a fighter. They didn't always do the "right" thing, they didn't always do the legal thing. But they were fighters to the end.

True, this book isn't a happy one. But I wouldn't call it depressing. It's the story of how real people fight to survive in a world that isn't perfect. It's very realistic and honest.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly compelling..
Review: I planned to save this book for a March vacation, but picked it up yesterday afternoon and could not put it down until half an hour ago, when I finished it. I was mesmerized by the first two parts--the story was gripping, masterfully told, and the characters were whole, real, and sympathetic. It kind of fell apart for me with Part 3, though. The switch to Lester's point of view, which I initially welcomed, soon became tedious. I wondered why the author was stuffing us so full of background information about Lester, and feared it would be because Lester was going to do something we might otherwise not believe. Unfortunately, that turned out to be true, and it didn't work for me. I just could not buy Lester's behavior...But even though my admiration for the plotting dimmed, I still really applaud what Dubus has done with this incredibly compelling novel. The writing was a joy to read...the characterization of the Iranian family is insightful and complex; Kathy is a believable and tragic mess. I am a longtime fan of the author's father's short stories (Andre Dubus); I was both surprised and happy to see that his son inherited the gift.

Rating:
Summary: Like Watching a Bad Accident
Review: This book was overwhelmingly bad. The only reason I'm giving it two stars is because it managed to keep me interested enough to finish the book. While reading it, I kept asking myself "How stupid can these people be?"

I kept reading the book in hopes that any one of these characters would have some redeeming quality, but that never happened. They were bad characters from Page 1. Whenever I thought this book couldn't get any worse, it did.

I had no sympathy for the main characters. They were pitifully self centered and constantly acted to their own demise. The character I came closest to feeling sympathy for was Behrani, but then the writer would invariably add a trait that would make me lose sympathy.

Also, Dubus' style of writing in changing from first to third person was highly frustrating and unsettling. I wish he had just picked a style and stayed with it.

I was very unsatisfied with this story and wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating view of Greek tragedy
Review: Although I did not really like any of the characters except the son, I sympathized with them all at some level. I don't think you have to like the characters to be intrigued by this story. I kept hoping it would turn positive, and then at the end, I didn't want to read the words but was compelled to keep going. Life doesn't always have a happy ending, and this book captures what really could happen when people cannot compromise. The only criticism I have is that it has been illegal to smoke in California restaurants and bars for 3-4 years now, since before the book was published, and Kathy lit up in each one she was in without anyone intervening. Otherwise, Dubus did an extraordinary job of writing from two points of view, and I was fascinated.