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House of Sand and Fog (Oprah's Book Club) (Vintage Contemporaries) | 
| Author: Andre Dubus Iii
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
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Rating:  749 reviews
Sales Rank: 13069
Media: Paperback
Edition: Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 365
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0375727345
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780375727344
ASIN: 0375727345
Publication Date: March 1, 2000
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| Customer Reviews: Read 744 more reviews...
 a tragedy that dribbled away to inconsequence January 6, 2009
Dubus came up with an unusual and intriguing premise for his novel: A bureaucratic error over the ownership of a house in down-market (!) San Francisco that leads to its being contested by two protagonists. The house's newest "owner" is a dignity-hewing, appearance-maintaining former colonel in the Shah of Iran's (since deposed) air force groping for the first rung on the ladder of the American dream. His place in the narrative is enriched by his Persian family relationships: his wife Nadi and 14 year-old Americanized son Ismail.
The colonel is pitted against the real owner of the house, Kathy Nicolo, mistakenly evicted by the county from the home she inherited from her father. She has addiction issues, lacks moorings, and is the sort of unrealistic blue-collar girl that unerringly picks sexy but unintelligent and irresponsible guys who leave.
Well and good - a conflict set up between a disciplined patriarchal ex-military man with a bruised sense of honor in his Persian-American community, and an undisciplined, depressed "heroine" floundering in isolation and inaction.
In a real literary tragedy, the house in dispute would become the third character, serving as a metaphor that balances and defines the relationship between the colonel and Kathy. In other words, the house would hold the protagonists in artistic tension, like the great white whale in Moby Dick, or the boat in John Casey's award-winning Spartina of 1989.
But Dubus never goes there and the house becomes just a place where the conflict deteriorates, devolving into a distracting, manipulative melodrama. Instead of a house potent with symbolic meaning, the reader instead gets, er ......... officer Lester Burden, he of the crooked mustache and sudden penchant for rescuing lost loser ladies. Literary troikas, where three characters are harnessed together by adroit plot making, can have narrative complexity and drive as its characters interweave in the story -- but first, the author needs to know something about his horses and harnesses, and second, should never saddle a protagonist with a moniker like Lester.
And it's not just the unfortunate name. This character -- a trainer of new police recruits who look up to him, makes some unbelievably bad judgement calls, causing the irreversible loss of his career and family. When Lester numbly concludes in his jail cell that his police career is over, this reader laughed out loud: no s__t, sherlock! After an exasperating, melodramatic showdown at the courthouse between Lester, the colonel and Ismail, and which goes terribly wrong, the rest of the book sputters along in a protracted anti-climax for several more pages. All of the tragic elements have drained away and Dubus's tale ends pointlessly.
I listened to the audio version. Dubus provides the male voices and does a decent job. His wife assumes the character of Kathy Nicolo but struggles to realize the hapless character created by her husband. I suspect the film was much better.
a brave attempt at reading the immigrant psyche December 3, 2008
I loved the book.
Did drag for the last 75 pages and then picked up again.
Dumas touches the immigrant psyche: and I appreciate that.You come to new culture but it takes a while for you to grow roots. In the meanwhile, you 'live out of suitcase'. You don't really belong to a specfic place but the US is your 'home'. Its hard to define, but a lot of the educated immigrants who arrive here are already living the US way of life; we work hard, pay our taxes,educate out children, live a clean life, are law abiding and expect everyone to be so. Its a self selected population of people who decide to immigrate to their 'Utopia'.
But, once in a while, you get let down.
Homeless people on the street corners, inefficent govt workers and the common crook may make you have doubts about your new home. Fortunately the US is much more deeper and stronger that that.
great book for a new comer to this country and especially so for people who still carry some 'baggage' from their previous cultures.
5 stars.
 Apathy. November 29, 2008
The story is told primarily from two different people's points of view. I am not sure if the author intended the readers to feel any sympathy towards the characters in their predicaments, but I found all of them to be pretty despicable, and I thought they all probably deserve what's coming to them. At times I subconsciously root for one character or the next, but both of the main characters are greedy and selfish. Kathy is a screw up and incompetent which leads to all the trouble she gets in. Behrani is egotistical, stubborn and cares mostly about himself, imposing his own ideas of what is "best" for his family.
It is interesting hearing it from two different points of view, separated by different chapters, but I also feel like he stereotyped both characters a great deal. Using strategically broken english and an overbearing sense of pride through Behrani's words, and perhaps the exact opposite for Kathy.
Often this book is a perfect page-turner, but just as often I found myself wanting to skip over chunks and chunks of paragraph. What makes this book great is the gripping story and eerie building of suspense. You might suspect what is going to happen next, but you definitely do feel the need to keep reading. Where the book is weakest, I feel, is the pacing. Several points throughout the book the author will pause in the midst of a character's thoughts and dive into a flashback that can last up to three pages. And all of these flashbacks provide little more insight into the character... instead it seems like wasted words and space, and like I said, destroys the pacing. The climatic scene happens well before the end of the book, making the remaining pages very uninteresting and the ending is pretty unsatisfying.
Overall, a depressing but fairly well written book with a great story.
Flawed Characters August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Structurally, the book was interesting. Several characters narrate the book, and the plot unfolds around a central issue--who owns a particular house. Who can live in the house? Who can sell the house? But, the major problem is that the characters are difficult to identify with or find sympathy for. All three of the central characters--Kathy Nicolo, Lester Burdon, and Colonel Behrani--remain the same. They are never changed by incredible circumstances--death, murder, suicide, inprisonment--they remain the same. Kathy has a chip on her shoulders that's never explained and Lester is just plain stupid. What motivates these characters? The reader never knows. Kathy gets herself into trouble blindly and so does Lester. The reader is left wondering how these two are bungling through life. Surely, every human has some kind of thought process that at least partially puts the world into focus--but Kathy and Lester never do. Even in jail, both Kathy and Lester are still thinking about sex with each other. Well, their worlds have fallen in on them and there is no opening in sight, and they are still thinking of a little sex. Unbelievable! Where is the introspection? When Kathy's relatives show up at the jail, she still has a chip on her shoulder. Why? What's happened between them? The writer's job is to give us some insights into human relationships. The insights are missing here. Colonel Behrani is a little easier to understand. He's outside his primary culture. He operates with a different world view than most of us, and thus we cut him some space. But even he doesn't change. His last coherent thought is that his daughter should sell the house for a certain amount. That's why the book ultimately seems flawed to me--the characters are unbelievable, unlikable, and ultimately are boring. I also agree with the reviewer who said the book is not for kids. I know there is an audio version for kids (unabridged)--but this book is definitely not for kids. The sex is raw, the drug additions exposed, the blind and stupid behavior accepted. I don't think this book will be much discussed in a decade.
Avid Reader
 * NOT For KIDS !!! * August 11, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I gave this book 1 star, only because the review requires at least 1 star. This book was given to my 14 year old son to read for a High Honors required summer reading program. He read through the first 2 chapters and handed the book to me and said he wasn't going to read it. My husband and I then read the book and discovered extreme graphic sexual content, not just once, but, many, many times! The description of the sexual content is not done in a metaphorical way, it is exremeley graphic! I'm totally disgusted and appalled that not only did a teacher choose this book, but that it was approved by the Director of Curriculum! PARENTS BEWARE!!!
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