House of Sand and Fog (Oprah's Book Club) (Vintage Contemporaries) | 
|  | | | Title: | House of Sand and Fog (Oprah's Book Club) (Vintage Contemporaries) | | Author: | Andre Dubus III | | Publisher: | Vintage | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 01 March, 2000 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0375727345 / 9780375727344 | | List Price: | $15.00 | | You Save: | $4.80 | | Amazon Price: | $10.20 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
"Elegant and powerful...an unusual and volatile...literary thriller." --Washington Post Book World
In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Niccolo is a recovering alcoholic and addict whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills--and what it represents to each of them--and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge on an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog is a devastating exploration of the American Dream gone awry.
Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, November 2000: Andre Dubus III wastes no time in capturing the dark side of the immigrant experience in America at the end of the 20th century. House of Sand and Fog opens with a highway crew composed of several nationalities picking up litter on a hot California summer day. Massoud Amir Behrani, a former colonel in the Iranian military under the Shah, reflects on his job-search efforts since arriving in the U.S. four years before: "I have spent hundreds of dollars copying my credentials; I have worn my French suits and my Italian shoes to hand-deliver my qualifications; I have waited and then called back after the correct waiting time; but there is nothing." The father of two, Behrani has spent most of the money he brought with him from Iran on an apartment and furnishings that are too expensive, desperately trying to keep up appearances in order to enhance his daughter's chances of making a good marriage. Now the daughter is married, and on impulse he sinks his remaining funds into a house he buys at auction, thus unwittingly putting himself and his family on a trajectory to disaster. The house, it seems, once belonged to Kathy Nicolo, a self-destructive alcoholic who wants it back. What starts out as a legal tussle soon escalates into a personal confrontation--with dire results. Dubus tells his tragic tale from the viewpoints of the two main adversaries, Behrani and Kathy. To both of them, the house represents something more than just a place to live. For the colonel, it is a foot in the door of the American dream; for Kathy, a reminder of a kinder, gentler past. In prose that is simple yet evocative, House of Sand and Fog builds to its inevitable denouement, one that is painfully dark but unfailingly honest. --Alix Wilber
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Customer Reviews:
• Don't Let The Plot Line Deter You From Reading This Amazing Book 12 June, 2009
This is an amazing book. Don't let the plot line about an Iranian man and a drug addict fighting over a house deter you. It is extremely well written and characterized. I have known many Iranians who live in the United States and are unfairly treated because of their country of origin. I can easily understand how the father cannot seem to get a good job, no matter his qualifications. I also have known many addicts and alcoholics, both in and out of recovery, and unfortunately, not getting your life together is inherent in the disease. Our other main character, a female addict loses the house and the Iranian man buys it. They both make the contested ownership of the home their last stand and pivotal point of their existence. The way the book is written shows you how important winning this battle is to both characters and how they both end up basing their whole self-worth and existence on this one possession. It is a fantastic book; don't miss it. Power Path to Love
- Reviewed by customer ID: ASSEMF90ZNJV3
• The Pathos... 27 February, 2009
This is a gripping novel, from beginning to end, with themes even more relevant today than when it was written, in 1999. Two radically different individuals are locked into a struggle over a house, which each sees as their last chance for salvation. One of the two is aided by a third, who has become romantically attached, tragically. All three would easily qualify for Leonard Cohen's "club" of "beautiful losers." There is the once powerful and wealthy Col. Beharani, formerly of the Iranian air force during the days of the Shah. He and his family are involuntary immigrants to America, being forced to flee Iran in 1979, when the Shah fell from power. He sees the house as his last chance to rebuild his now severely diminished fortune. There is the "native" American, Kathy Nicolo, who inherited the house from her father. Hers is a constant struggle to "get her act together," which includes overcoming bouts of alcoholism. A "good day" for her is collecting the money earned by cleaning other people's houses. The third person, "looking for love in all the wrong places," is the married Sheriff, Lester Burdon, who decides to aid Kathy in the struggle to retain her house.
I'd love to know what sort of real life events inspired Dubus to write this novel--surely all of this is not the product of a very fertile imagination. The author is a master at capturing the heart-breaking details that ring all too true. Consider Beharani, anxious to preserve his status in the Iranian exile community, primarily for the sake of his daughter's marital prospects. He dresses in his business suit every morning, leaves his overly priced apartment in a complex favored by the exiles, goes to a downtown hotel, changes in the bathroom into his outfit so that he can pick up trash along the highway, along with other recent immigrants. He also works in a 7-11 at night. Kathy decides to stop looking at any of her mail... it is just too much trouble, and hence does not see the notice of sale by the city for past due taxes. Who amongst us could throw the first stone? Every day the mail contains those cleverly designed envelopes, all announcing their importance, in an attempt to have us open them, and read an advertisement for something we do not need. Each of us is capable of deciding enough is enough.
This is very much a novel of the American "dream" gone sour, which it increasingly has, both for immigrants as well as "natives." Dubois skillfully handles these flawed characters, in the fashion of a Greek tragedy; they drive forward to a heart-breaking denouement, with the Colonel finally able to go home to the hills overlooking the Caspian, and Lester, too, fulfills his fate--the work of a lifetime?
There are currently 752 other reviews posted at Amazon on this book, and what is unusual is the almost perfectly even distribution, from 5-stars to one. I've looked at the one stars; seems that the main criticism is that the book was not cheerful, and that it is not, or that the characters are not role models to emulate, but then neither is Oedipus the King, or much other great literature. If you are searching for escapism literature, then clearly this is not for you--unless you chose to draw the conclusion that after this story perhaps your own life isn't so bad after all.
A marvelous American novel, highly recommended.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2YXRT2XIJIO57
• Mesmerising Page Turner 09 February, 2009
I picked up this novel from a charity shop and I must admit, I had second thoughts about buying it, as the plot blurb on the back cover did not exactly reach out and grab me by the throat: two parties elbow pushing over the disputed ownership of a bungalow in California does not sound like excitement city. Well, I'm here to say that the plot description does this novel a great disservice. This book is absolutely fantastic and the plot is thoroughly riveting!!!! What a well-crafted, brilliantly characterised story it is. Told from the alternating points of view of the current owner of the property, an Iranian immigrant and his family and the former owner of the bungalow, an ex alcoholic and junkie, the book is never less than gripping. The way the plot pans out to an out-of-control, tragic ending just blew me away. This novel is absolutely terrific and I have given it a 5-star rating. For anyone who loves great writing and terrific plot and characterisation, look no further, this book is for you.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A291UBOYOPZNIX
• Decision-making 25 February, 2009
I tend not to like books about people who seem incapable of making good decisions. And one of the characters in this book is definitely like that. She just never seems able (or willing) to take any responsible action. Realistic this may be, but it's also annoying.
Another main character, on the other hand, tends to make good decisions. Decisions that are responsible financially, good for his family, and on the right side of the law. And yet, things don't turn out well for him either.
If this is a book the purpose of which is to show how quickly things can spiral out of control, then it succeeds. Good decisions or bad, no-one wins here. Too many of us, who manage to have lives that are more or less in control, this is a valuable thing to learn about. But this is an awfully depressing education.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3GWVB80CNOSN8
• A Tragedy Of Grandiose Proportions 25 February, 2009
I chose this book to read originally because it was an Oprah Book Club selection. Little did I know the world that would open up to me - writing of distinction and richness, characters who become real and present, and a tragedy of grandiose depth.
The novel's plot is of an Iranian refugee, a colonel in his country forced to flee when the Shah loses power. He feigns richness to his family while actually working on a road cleaning crew and as a 7-11 store clerk. He buys a house at auction in a last-ditch attempt to regain his fortune which has now dwindled to nothing. It is his hope that he can resell the house for a good profit. Kathy, the home's owner, loses her house because of the depression she falls into after her marriage fails. Because of her depression she neglects paying her tax bills. When she straightens this out, there is a bureaucratic error that results in her house being put up for auction when she is still the legitimate owner. Kathy is evicted from her home by a policeman who later falls in love with her.
The house, its meaning, and the destruction of all these lives lead to a chilling end.
I give this book my highest recommendation.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A39650P2CZUUC9
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