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House of Sand and Fog (Oprah's Book Club) (Vintage Contemporaries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Andre Dubus Iii
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  748 reviews
Sales Rank: 12800
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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
Product Description
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
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 resotre his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman 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 doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge in an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog marks the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 743 more reviews...
 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!!!
Kathy is a creep; Lester too July 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
OMIGOSH, how is it possible to hate a person who has had her home taken away erroneously (but I did hate her)? And to hate the 'noble'(lascivious) police officer that comes to her rescue? Even though Kathy lost her home due to ignoring important mail regarding taxes, I found it so difficult to sympathize with her. That creep Lester had NO redeeming qualities; bullying Col. Bahreen while pretending to be an officer was deplorable--Not to mention jumping into bed with the 'poor victim' almost immediately. So, faced with the dilemma of whom to root for--I found myself feeling guilty for supporting Col. Bahreen.
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