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Summary: All I Can Say About This Book is "WOW!"
Review: What a great book this was! I am not going to get technical about the characters and storyline, but I truly loved this book, what a great ending!
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Summary: Who do you see in the mirror?
Review: While it took close to 200 pages for me to become truly engaged in this novel, the story was well worth that initial effort. In addition to finally becoming an intriguing tangle of hapless and desperate characters, this novel has an enduring effect. "House of Sand and Fog" requires its characters to take a peek behind their own masks they wear and confront who they find. I think it also reminds its readers that we all come with a story that may or may not comport with the image portrayed-or the mask worn.
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Summary: A Tragedy of Almost Unbearable Proportions
Review: Andre DuBus has created one of the most engrossing and riveting stories of the year. To say that the last 100 pages, in particular, will have you glued to this book is an understatement.The chapters alternate between the voice of Colonel Behrani, an Iranian ousted with the Shah's regime, and Kathy Nicolo, a drug addict who has been desserted by her husband. The reader is torn between the two who each have compelling reasons to claim ownership of the bungalow which the story centers around. In Col. Behrani, we see the hardship of building a new life in a strange country. He has fallen from the highest ranks in his native Iran to picking up garbage on the side of the road in California. Kathy Nicolo, on the other hand, has left her sheltering family and seems to be at a loss to take control of her life. If she'd only opened her mail from the County, this whole bizarre episode could have been avoided. She is sympathetic in the first part of the book, but makes very poor choices which lead to the ultimate tragedy. There is also Lester, the epitome of the bad cop hungry for power. When he leaves his wife and children for Kathy, we can say that this is truly a match made in hell. They are co-dependents clinging to each other and bringing down the world with them. The failure to work out the ownership of the house leads to senseless tragedy after tragedy. The ending, however, had no uplifting message. There was no ephiphany whereby our hero or heroine could rise from the ashes like a phoenix. We as readers are left with only a compounding of the tragedy which left me feeling the characters devastation and hopelessness. If I could change one thing about this book, I would have some good come from this horrible chain of events. As far as I could see, there was none.
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Summary: If you're going to use actual place names...
Review: then get the lingo right! Even Kathy and Lester--a police officer who drives these very streets daily--get it wrong. Any Northern Californian (and there are millions of us!) knows it's called the "El Camino", and not the "Camino Real" or the "King's Highway". Don't even think of calling San Francisco "Frisco" anywhere in the Golden State. These were not a case of the Colonel getting it wrong because he's new in town, but clearly a result of comandeering a location without any knowledge or affection for it. I found these errors, and others, very distracting.
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Summary: A Seat Gripper!
Review: I Just finished reading this Novel and have to say that it was incredulous. I never imagined such that I read could evolve in a person's life. Having read the book, and thinking about how people behave, that this book really isn't too far off the mark. People get so out of touch with reality, and get caught up in things because, they aren't busy enough in their own lives. Also, reflecting on drugs and alcohol really reeking havoc in a person's life, this book should convince anyone to abstain and I mean from alcohol and sex.
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Summary: Unrealistic Reactions
Review: The House of Sand and Fog starts off routine enough and had me waiting for the story to develop into something great. But it never did. It seemed to be a long, drawn out story of a psychotic woman (and her newly insane boyfriend) going to ridiculous and illegal lengths to get a house back. What ended up in an unrealistic disaster could have been solved in a much simpler way - the law. The original owner of the house initially brings all the trouble on herself by irresponsibly throwing away all the letters the county sends her about the tax that gets her home taken away. That was the first time she could have avoided trouble. Many more follow. I'm not sure if the point of the book was to end up feeling sorry for her. If it was, Andre Dubus III failed in that way. I found myself identifying more with the new owner of the house. I couldn't understand why his wife and son blamed him for all the misfortune. As far as he knew he bought the house at a discounted price to help his family financially. When he finds out the county made a mistake in taking and selling the house he believes it as that. The county's mistake. Just because it is the nice thing to do, I wouldn't sell the house back either! He had his family to think about and being nice was not the right thing for them. I can never in my wildest dreams imagine doing some of the irrational things the original owner and her boyfriend did throughout the book. And to think - they did it all because of a material posession. I guess crazy things can happen when you put two unstable people together. A good read overall, but seemed to be missing an interesting story and realistic characters.
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Summary: Rave Reviews Unwarranted
Review: Although the swapping narrative was mildly interesting, it wasn't enough to save the story from the seriously flawed plot. Every plot twist, which eventually led to the dismal conclusion, was tortuously removed from the realm of reasonable possiblity. Although the moral of the story may have a definite base in the reality of today's society, this particular attempt to derive a realistic parable from that base was unconvincing. The characters just didn't seem vacuous enough to have done what they were forced to do. "Dumb, Dumber And Dumbest" would have been a much more appropriate title...
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Summary: Fascinating Change of Pace
Review: What a wonderful style this writer uses to slowly but steadily build the pace of suspense. I was quickly absorbed by the entanglement of cultural differences, long-standing prejudices and extraordinary ignorances that ultimately culminate in a modern day tragedy of Greek proportions. I look forward to reading more by this writer.
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Summary: Stunning Fiction That Won't be Denied
Review: I have to admit, I was temped to pass up HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG because the subject matter didn't intrigue me. The story of an Iranian immigrant and a troubled woman competing for the same California bungalow just didn't sound like the sort of tale that would keep me up late turning pages. It's a good thing I've read some of brilliant short fiction crafted by this book's author, Andre Dubus III. Otherwise, I might have left this book on the shelf, and that would've been a shame. Despite a storyline that sounds less-than-inspiring, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG captured my attention within the first few pages. The book begins in the stunningly realistic first-person voice of Massoud Behrani, once a Colonel in the Shah's army, now hunkered down in the United States because he and his family are marked for death in their mother country of Iran. Unable to find a job, Behrani is reduced to working for the county, picking garbage from the side of a California highway. Desperate to make a respectable life for his family, Behrani spends his family's dwindling savings to purchase a small house at auction, hoping to resell it at a large profit. Enter Kathy Nicolo, a former drug addict, now barely keeping her head above water after her husband left her. The bungalow she inherited from her father is swept out from under her because of a delinquent tax bill she doesn't actually owe. Deputy Sheriff Lester Burdon takes a personal interest in Kathy's case, and becomes enmeshed in her struggle to win back her home. Despite a wife and two small children, he finds himself in love with Kathy. Dubus skillfully weaves the story of Kathy and Lester--a doomed, hopelessly codependent dance--against the backdrop of their fight for justice and the return of Kathy's house. What truly makes this story come alive in the reader's mind is the amazing voice of each character. Dubus flawlessly takes us inside the heads of a proud and willful Iranian colonel, a troubled young woman, and an equally troubled law officer. The conflict continues to escalate, despite the fact that there truly are no "bad guys"--as readers, Dubus makes certain we understand BOTH sides. If anything, the antagonist of this story is exactly what the book jacket says, the character's "tragic inability to understand each other." This is by far one of the most skillfully crafted novels I've ever read. And please don't equate literary merit with "boring." HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG kept me riveted. The book explodes when these forces--the desperate woman and her lover, and the equally desperate Behrani family--collide. I was forced to read the last 250 pages in one sitting (until 2 a.m., actually) because this book would simply not be denied. I expect great things from Andre Dubus III, and as a writer I could only read the last page, close the book in stunned admiration, and whisper, "Wow."
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Summary: Harmful Reading
Review: Exposure to this Orwellian diatribe of connotations and counter-accusations with leave the reader shocked by the sheer ignorant malevolance displayed by Mr. Dubus. By creating a fantasy/horror-riddled dreamscape, Dubus intentionally vies for the audience's approval of the sinister hero, which in this case, is the heart of the Yellow Moon-owl, first described in chapter 3. The coerced symbolism Dubus spews forth is no more tolerable than a dip into Lake Michigan on a cold winter day. Dubus' portrayal of the inept farmer smacks of New York liberalism and processed laughter. Save your money. Mr. Dubus obviously has more than enough.
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