Rating: 
Summary: Despair in motion.
Review: This book was extremely well written. It shows how people can get tangled up in situations where they can feel no way to escape. These characters were desperate and reached into their instinctive ways to settle issues that were hopeless to them. This author deserves praise for the portrayal of individuals so different and how tangled a web life can lead. Not up lifting, but definitely well written. I want to read more of Mr. Dubus' books. Palmeda Day
Rating: 
Summary: I've got to stop listening to Oprah
Review: I bought this book because I caught a show where Oprah claimed it was one of the most phenomenal books she had read to date. Well, I've just got to stop listening to her. I've enjoyed very few of her recommendations. The characters are depressing and the storyline is frustrating. You just don't care what happens to them, you read along in awe that none of them consider going through the proper channels to rectify their problem...
Rating: 
Summary: A short story gone bad
Review: Plodding, dull, self-absorbed, depressing, a waste of talent. These are just a few of the things I could say about this god-awful book, but why waste your time? You get the message. There is not one likeable character in the book, including Esmail. You learn to hate each character very quickly for their selfishness, their supreme vanity, and their wasted lives. In fact, you're almost glad they all end up dead at the end (even Kathy is "dead," as she has been most of her miserable life). This sad excuse for a novel should be avoided. Shame on Oprah for recommending such tripe.
Rating:
Summary: Read the first fifty pages and the last fifty, skip the rest
Review: I really enjoyed Colonel Behrani's voice and perspective as a character. If the entire book had been told from his point of view, I might not have skimmed through to the end. I lost interest as soon as the author took us into the voice/mind of Kathy and her relationship with Lester. I don't enjoy 'victim-fiction' which is why I haven't read many of Oprah's latest picks. Kathy seemed to fall into that stereotype and Lester's fall into her stretched my imagination too far. I hope Mr. Dubus will write another novel using the strength of the voices he captured in the Behrani family...I'd look forward to reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: I loved this book . . except for the ending
Review: A story that tells us one man's fortune is another mans lost. This story shows us the true meaning of this statement. One day while working at a construction site Col. Behrani comes across an ad in the newspaper "Seized House - For Auction". Needing to downscale his current lifestyle he goes to check this house out. When Col. Behrani comes to America from Iran, his family is on the death list and can not return for fear that they will be killed. When he comes to this country he has about $250,000. Now he only has $48,000 left. His family is used to living a very luxurious lifestyle and that is costing him. So needless to say the Colonel buys this house for a meesly $40,000. A bargian. He buys this house with the hopes of that he could sell it and earn triple the amount that he paid for it so he can make a good life for his family. Enter Kathy who one morning wakes up to find that police at her front door step seizing her home due to non payment of taxes. Kethy is left with $800 to her name and living out of a hotel. Kathy soons finds out that the county made a mistake in seizing her house and they want return her property but guess what . . . the new owner won't sell it back to the county for under 4 times what he paid for it. This is where the real battle begins because Kathy wants her house back but the Colonel is not budging. The end suspense will keep you reading until you get to the end. I wanted everyone to win in this book, but somehow it is just not possible
Rating:
Summary: House of Fog
Review: I read the other reviews, but I thought it was a good story. It could have had some morally up lifting ending and it would have been better. Apparently the natives felt that the author's failure to get the lingo exactly correct was a big probblem, but being from the "Big Easy," I think it was just fine. Curtiss De Vedrine - author "The Second Coming Of Age"
Rating: 
Summary: Great Set-up, Dull Characters
Review: I picked this book up with a lot of expectations: my grandmother gave it to me with rave reviews after seeing the author at a reading (my copy is even signed!), the author lives in the town I grew up in, and I recently heard a great interview with him on the radio about his life and relationahip with his father. So I dove into the book expecting something that I never got. The plot was very unique, and Dubus set up a wonderful situation, but I felt that he filled it with entirely unbelievable and unlikable characters who were initially sketched as interesting and complex but ended up flat. Almost everything that came out of the characters' mouths was a stereotype, especially the woman main character, and the more I read the more irritated I got. This said, I think Dubus is a wonderful writer. His style, his setting up of the place, or the situations is remarkable. I just think the characters and dialog got in the way of fleshing out the story.
Rating:
Summary: Unconscious Living
Review: This book was a great example of people living their lives backward in a state of unconsiouness. Esmail, son of the Behranis was the only innocent victim in the entire story. I guess I can only recommend this book if you want an blueprint of how not to live your life.
Rating:
Summary: House of Sand and Fog
Review: Kathy was a bore, the kind of woman I'm really tired of reading about. I would like to see this in a short story form. There was way too much driving and drinking and feeling sorry for oneself. I would add this to the very long list of bad women books. Not a page turner but a page closer.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding, compelling story
Review: Despite the fact that I did not like either of the main characters, their stories were fascinating. Dubus is a wonderful storyteller. His character development was weak, however; I felt that I "knew" Behrani somewhat, a prideful, snobbish man who was a product of his culture. Kathy, on the other hand, remains a mystery. This may be because, as a male, Dubus cannot put himself into the soul of a woman. Despite these shortcomings, House of Sand and Fog presents an electrifying account of the clash of both cultures and individuals. The book is also a commentary on, and perhaps a condemnation of, the values and morals of contemporary America.
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