|
House of Sand and Fog (Oprah's Book Club) (Vintage Contemporaries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Andre Dubus Iii
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.94 (100%)
New (72) Used (1407) Collectible (20) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  742 reviews
Sales Rank: 5551
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
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 737 more reviews...
 GREAT READ July 19, 2008
This is a great story of tragedy. I found it an easy read and couldn't put it down. I finished it very fast because the writer keeps the story moving. Very good writing as the characters are strong and easy to imagine. Highly recommended.
Suspenseful, keeps you reading! July 18, 2008
Events occur & become intertwined with one another. Dubus keeps you wondering where it is all heading. The book is easy reading & you have to
keep reading to FIND OUT what is going to happen! When NOT reading this book I found myself wondering what Kathy & Lester & Behrani (the main characters) were up to next!
 Excellent July 7, 2008
Arrived within a week of the online order.
Was in exactly the condition described.
Seller is dependable and will use again.
Israel June 28, 2008
House of Sand and Fog could well be an allegory for the complex and embattled history of Israel with its Arab neighbors, and of course, with Iran. What is Israel's claim? "The Holy Land was promised to us by our Father"...Kathy inherited the house from her Dad. She feels entitled. the tribes of Israel were wrongfully evicted from their true home early in their history, and when they finally came back to claim it, they found other people living there. But the Persian family can, especially now, represent Iran itself, in its currently extremely hostile relationship with Israel. The Behrani's son, who is the most innocent of every character in the book, of course is victim of the collective failures of the so-called "mature" adults around him. So are the truly innocent among us sacrificed to our wars. If there is offense at the less-than-admirable character of Kathy symbolically representing Israel, i need only refer to Hosea. hasn't the modern state of Israel compromised itself? hasn't it gone to extreme lengths to do what it feels it must to defend itself...even going so far as to bring itself and the world to the point of total destruction? If there is any level of allegory in this novel, it would seem to humanize Israel's enemies and render one sympathetic to their situation. On the other hand, the Colonel as a representative of Middle Eastern world-view, is over-strong, denies the humanity of Kathy-as-Israel and lacks all compassion for her until it is too late. The consequences accruing to the Behrani family and those accruing to Kathy combine to prevent a peaceful resolution, on the other hand, the narrative taunts the reader with countless instances of opportunities for making a better choice. this modern novel does attain the weight of classic tragedy. the moral of the story is: prophecies don't have to be fulfilled. we are given the freedom to choose. it doesn't have to end like that. Wonder if anyone will listen?
Mr. Dubus' portrait of the barely in recovery, relapsed addict Kathy could only come from first hand experience, or else it represents a miracle of intuitive genius i have never seen before. My only criticism of the novel is Kathy's walking into a Legal Aid office in San Francisco to find NOBODY in the waiting room! i find that hard to believe.
 Check it out from a library May 31, 2008
Do not spend money on this book. It is well-written, but as other reviewers have noted, the plot is too unbelievable at the end.
I grew to dislike the characters so much...perhaps that was the author's objective.
|
|
|
Copyright 2008 - RailroadBookstore.com
| |
