Rating: 
Summary: could have done without this book
Review: Far be it from me to go counter to Oprah, but I found this book overblown and way too depressing. Just when you think it can't get worse, it does. This isn't one of those good, sad books in which you eventually see what it all means and why all the mess was necessary. Instead, you find yourself wishing the characters would show a little common sense, wishing the author had more heart, wishing you had never picked up this book. I love dark novels, but this one left me gasping at the utter lack of respect the author showed his characters and his audience.
Rating: 
Summary: Like watching a train wreck.
Review: Dubus has created such completely drawn characters that I feel as if I could recognize them in a crowd. This is very well written and interestingly put together. It's not just like watching a train wreck -- it's like being in one and watching it slowly unfold around you. By the time you get to the climax it's so intense and so inevitable you just can't get off that train for anything. But for a while I wasn't sure where he was taking us. We could clearly see how each person thought he was doing the right thing until the first stepped over the line. This very visual story will probably end up being a movie -- and a good one, at that.
Rating:
Summary: Compulsively readable and very realistic
Review: Once you get inside the heads of the characters in this novel (inside their voices, as it were) it is hard to climb out. This is a terribly realistic tale, one so realistic it is almost depressing because it expresses so well the smallness of our dreams in the larger context of a world that stands in the way of our realizing them.
Rating:
Summary: Not a winner
Review: I've read several of Oprah's book recommendations, and have been very satisfied with her selections until now. I have been completely disappointed in this book from the first page. I am on page 161 now, and although I will finish it, I'm not really all that into the story. The book has an interesting premise: an Irani Colonel who buys a house at an auction to try to restore his family's faith in him, Kathy Nicolo whose life is falling apart (first her husband leaves, then she loses her house to the county's mistake), and their ensuing battle for ownership of the small, one-story, L-shaped house with a hedge-lined yard on Bisgrove. The unfortunate thing is the actual telling of the story. Mr. Dubus does have a good grip on the use of the English language, and there are some shining moments in his prose, but seeing as his first book was a compilation of short stories, and he has won awards for his short stories, and this book feels like it should have been a short story, he should have stuck with that format. My major complaints are lack of suspense (despite what all the critics have said), a lack of humor in this dark, depressing, drag-down book (please, just one moment to laugh at somewhere), and the fact that the only characters I have come to feel any emotion for (other than complete revulsion) is the Behrani family, and Mr. Dubus gives them the raw end of just about everything in this book. I'm sure the Persian friend he asked for help in the accuracy of the the Behranis was thrilled with their portrayal. Give me a break. In closing, I believe there are many other worthwhile books you could spend your time and money on, and really you should pass this one over. I'm sorry I wasted my time and money on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good FIRST half.....
Review: Yes, with those who say read the first half and skim the second, I hole-heartedly agree. I fould myself intrigued with all characters as the book began and started to develop, but as the second half began I became suspicious. I, too, was wondering what the purpose was of switching the narative point of view. Toward the end, I found myself wanting the Behrani's to keep the house and move on with improving their lives, and I wanted Kathy to move on and out of her old patterns and drop the "Burdon". The fact that Lester turned into a hostage-taker really threw me. What a loser this guy (Lester) is! I felt like Lester and Kathy got what they deserved. I skimmed the last few pages as well, and it left me wondering why I read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the read
Review: Although this book is well written, the second half ruined what could have been a good book. When I was finished with this book I was very annoyied that I had wasted my time. I would not recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Collision of Two Opposing Forces
Review: Andre Dubus III has created an intense and gripping novel that is impossible to put down with the hope of never reaching the end. Daring to risk a departure from the conventional use of a single protagonist, Dubus develops two main characters who polarize our emotions and intellect. Between themselves, Massoud Behrani and Kathy Nicolo are the antagonists to each other; however, for us the reader, it becomes a vacillating experience that makes us feel for the both of them while at the same time has us pass critical judgment on their flawed natures. Hoping for some compromise to resolve the struggle to possess the treasured house, Dubus instead allows the plot to form its own direction, like a raging river overflowing its banks and forging its own course.
Rating:
Summary: Just as great as "I Know This Much Is True"
Review: Just Wonderful! For those of you fellow Oprah book club fans, I know that just about EVERYBODY loved I Know This Much Is True. BUT...this is just as realistic and absorbing and I couldn't stop reading it, and still thinking about the characters two days later. They seemed so "real". What a treat to read such an absorbing book!
Rating:
Summary: A series of stupid and inevitable chain-reactions
Review: The structure of this story was very simple: the goverment errneously evicted Kathy from her house, which thereafter perchased by a Iranian formal colonel. Meanwhile Kathy happened to fell in love with deputy (married) Lester, and these 3 guys tried their own ways to get the possession of this house. Then numerous errors led to a total tragedy. Les accidently kindnapped the family, forced them to sold back the house. On their way for the sale Colonel's son, Esmail, errneously shot by other deputies; Furious colonel then (almost) strangled Kathy, then commited suicide with his wife. At last the whole Iranian family died, Kath and Les spend their rest life in jail. I wept for the Iranian family, they were victims. I wept for their never-fulfilled American Dream. I felt both angry and compassionate toward the stupidity of Kathy. She is a good but foolish girl, and her bad reaction and foolish steps were half-forced by her fear of her family and her past. However I felt total angry about Lester. His reluctance for adimitting being defeated was the main reason of this tragedy. Dubus's ability of depicting the inner state of every protagonist was superb. Every main charecter of this story ( Kathy, Colonel, Lester) was very vivid. I found myself sigh for every mistake they committed, but at the same time their wrong choices were inevitable, their action were comprehensible, according to their own past story, their own charecter and nature. However, the pace of this book was not balanced. The first half too slow and the second too fast. The depicting style of the two parts of this book were differen. I wonder why Dubus insisted the story to be told only by Kathy and Colonel. Why not made Lez have his own voice during the second part? And the ending was quite suddent (just like cut in the middle) and a bit loose. The whole story ended without telling us the future of the house, the hearing, Kathy, Lez, Carol(Lez's wife), Kathy's family, etc. But this book is a worth-read. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Totally REal and Captivating
Review: Fog is the grand metaphor of this work, as we wade through the muddled mental states of the three main characters (squeaky clean sherrif, recovering addict, exiled Iranian) and learn to see the world from their viewpoint, however suspect those views might be. The characters are totally believable, and as such we see a part of ourselves in them, making the book a wonderful tool for selfreflection. Especially representative of this is his masterful use of the gory details of everyday bodily functions, which at first glance might seem voyeuristic, but is necessary to bring the characters and their tragic flaws alive. And once the readers empathy is triggered in this way, he is too connected to do anything but keep reading to see what happens. And what happens is so gut wrenching as to make the effort to get there seem trivial by comparison. My surprise of the year.
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