House of Sand and Fog
by Andre Dubus III
House of Sand and Fog
Andre Dubus III |
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| question to my dear friends | 2 | 41 | 07/05/2008 01:19PM |
| american dream | 1 | 14 | 11/14/2007 06:33AM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 5538)
Read in November, 2004
This book was really good. Lol. Yeah, I put that so eloquently and explained my reasoning really well, didn't I? But no, really, this book was really good. Let's clear my only problem with it out of the way before I start on the stuff I truly enjoyed about the novel...
Slow start. That's my only problem. It really took a while for things to kick up, but once they did it was a very exciting read. And even though I didn't like the slowness of the beginning part of the novel, I wouldn't h...more
Slow start. That's my only problem. It really took a while for things to kick up, but once they did it was a very exciting read. And even though I didn't like the slowness of the beginning part of the novel, I wouldn't h...more
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Read in March, 2007
This book has a very intersting situation behind it, a situation that is full of righteous action--Kathy Nicolo, a recovering addict, loses her husband and then her house quickly one right after the other, and Colonel Behrani, formerly of the Iranian military in the days of the Shah, buys the house with his dwindling funds in hopes to sell it for a much higher price and reinstate his family with some of the stature they had in Iran. Though Behrani is subject to fits of abuse, and Kathy is in a s...more
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Read in August, 2008
The House of Sand and Fog was a book that I had high expectations for. The reviews for this book have been above average, and (which I didn't find out until after I read) it was chosen for Oprah's Book Club. While I typically act high brow towards anything that is touted by the O, she has chosen to like some classics that I have, 'On the Road' being one of them. Though I don't know how the typical Oprah watcher could really get in to this... that is not the point.
Anyways, back to Dubas'...more
Anyways, back to Dubas'...more
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Read in August, 2008
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Read in July, 2008
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Read in November, 2005
This book could have been tighter towards the end; it gets a little bit predictable, and meanders to a close rather than ends. That aside, this is still an incredibly powerful piece of work. It's not a light book to get through; there are no heroes and there are very few innocents. Behrani, Kathy and Lester, three of the main characters of the novel, are all some of the most finely carved characters I've read in a long time. None of them are perfect; they are all fallible, none of them are even ...more
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Read in February, 2008
uuuugh i hated this book!!!!!! BUT before i start trashing it, i'll say that there is one thing i liked about it - the author's ability to give two completely different viewpoints and make the reader understand and empathize with them both. all i'll say about the plot is that it's about two people fighting for the ownership of a bungalow (that in itself should have stopped me from picking up this book - boringgggggg). i found myself rooting for each character at different times, for which i give...more
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Read in August, 2007
This starts off as a simple enough story about an Iranian immgrant struggling to make good in American, but Behrani's world quickly becomes complicated when he purchases a home at a county tax auction. Interestingly told from three perspectives: Behrani's, Kathy's (the original homeowner) and a random narrator who gives us the whereabouts of Kathy's cop boyfriend Les, House of Sand and Fog is quick moving (as the book jacket suggests), but I often felt while reading that the movie would ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
people who desire validation that the world is a horrible place
Forgive my inarticulate first comment, but this book is depressing as hell. Stay away from it if you don't want to end up moping around, feeling like crap about America and the world in general.
The story revolves around the chain of events resulting from a clerical error in a tax office in California that leads to the auction of a woman's home. Needless to say, things do not end well for anyone in the story.
The woman, the police officer who evicted her, and the family who bought the ho...more
The story revolves around the chain of events resulting from a clerical error in a tax office in California that leads to the auction of a woman's home. Needless to say, things do not end well for anyone in the story.
The woman, the police officer who evicted her, and the family who bought the ho...more
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Read in June, 2008
This is a phenomenal, insightful, sad book. The author tells a compelling story about cultural differences and how our assumptions about others are so often wrong. When I saw the movie version of this book years ago, it blew me away, and I am still haunted by both the story and the images of the film.
However, having seen the movie first actually affected my ability to immerse myself in the book. It took me a very long time to read this. Sometimes knowing the ending doesn't matter, but for so...more
However, having seen the movie first actually affected my ability to immerse myself in the book. It took me a very long time to read this. Sometimes knowing the ending doesn't matter, but for so...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
adults
When Kathy Nicolo loses her father's home, her already unstable world rockets out of control as she grows more and more desperate to reclaim it. Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani, meanwhile, has at last found a steady foothold with the purchase of a beautiful seaside bungalow, one he intends to resell at a much higher price in order to support his family. But, like the eerie west coast fog that rolls in silently and with an all-consuming presence, Kathy's fears and worries boil over as she finds her ...more
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Read in November, 2007
This novel is a brilliant explication of what can happen when two desperate people's lives collide and become entwined. Dubus introduces us to two characters who couldn't be more at odds - Kathy Niccolo, a Saugus, MA native who has moved to California to escape shades of her drug-addled, under-achieving past, and Massoud Behrani, a hardworking, regimented ex-Colonel who fled Iran after a political uprising, who is struggling to maintain a semblance of dignity in a country that has little opportu...more
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Read in March, 2008
I once made it a point to avoid anything recommended by the Oprah Book Club. However, the recent inclusion of Carson McCullers' "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" into the Oprah canon has given me faith. Hell, she even recommended "East of Eden". And so it came to be that my first book accomplished in Athens was "The House of Sand and Fog", in spite of the ominious "O" on it's cover.
The novel chronicles a certain ocean-view house, which came to mean a lo...more
The novel chronicles a certain ocean-view house, which came to mean a lo...more
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Read in June, 2008
Reading this book is like being frozen to the spot while you're watching a train wreck about to happen. It's an emotional wringer. Ultimately, I have to say it's 3.5 stars out of 5. (SPOILER ALERT) I did pop out of the narrative a few times, mostly due to goofy stuff (such as inaccuracies about the SF Bay Area; eg, having BART in Pacifica?!). But really, the basic premise of the novel isn't plausible. I couldn't see the county evicting somebody one day and then auctioning the place off the very ...more
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Read in August, 2008
let me start by saying - i am usually very wary of Oprah book club books - and for the first few chapters - even first half of the book - i really enjoyed it. then - it got terrible. TERRIBLE - it was so strange because you didn't want to root for the people you were supposed to like. i read it immediately after finishing "the boy who loved anne frank" and was similarly disappointed in the overly sexed characters. PLEASE believe me i am no prude, but i was sadly disappointed that such ...more
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Read in July, 2008
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III was crazy and excellent. The conflict that the author sets up using the three main characters is really interesting and very suspenseful. The plot is driven by the three main characters: Kathy - an alcoholic who's husband leaves her shortly before the beginning of the story, Lester - a local sheriff who begins an affair with Kathy, and Behrani - an immigrant who was a colonel in Iran under the Shah to had to flee to the US during the revolution. They a...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
People who like a lot of character development
I loved this book. It was amazing. I never thought I would get so wrapped up in a story where the main character was actually a house (or should I say a "bungalow" as that is how it is mostly referred to in the book). In the first few chapters it seemed obvious who the good guy and who the bad guy in the story were, but I quickly found that line blurred and throughout the whole book I didn't know who to root for, I wanted them both to win. The reason I only gave this book four star...more
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Read in July, 2008
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Kate by:
my grandmotherrecommends it for: Tim Malone
It's taken me awhile to feel ready to write this review; "House of Sand and Fog" left me feeling tense, angry, and frustrated, which is all a testament to the gifted writing of Andrew Dubus III. Dubus convincingly uses the voice of a middle-aged, male Iranian exile; a young, desperate, female addict; and a third person, limited narrator to tell a story about misunderstanding and misplaced anger. At the beginning of the book, I thought Dubus was writing to keep the reader from taking ...more
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Read in January, 2008
Andre Dubus creates characters who feel so real that it can be difficult to continue reading. The greatest strength and weakness of this book, is the bleak reality of its characters. The characters are simultaneously figures one could care about--becoming invested in their fate, their choices, their psychic dilemmas--and figures that, at times, it is almost impossible to keep reading about. House of Sand and Fog feels always as though one is rushing towards disaster at the same inexora...more
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