“I loved this novel…I just did not want to put it down. House of Sand and Fog is a compelling and important book.” “Andre Dubus III has illuminated one of the great issues of the end of this century-the collision of cultures-and he’s done it with a novel of extraordinary narrative power and stylistic beauty. I have never felt so strongly about the talent of a young writer in my life.” No one who reads this novel will ever forget it. In terms of style and experiment and narrative technique it ranks with the best writing among both the naturalist and realist schools of literature…Dubus has taken his place with Nelson Algren and James Cain. “ House of Sand and F og is one of the best American novels I’ve ever read. It is an American tragedy, and a shockingly true picture of the country we live in today. It turns both the traditional immigrant success story and a modern love story upside down with a heartrending outcome, in a masterstroke of American realism and Shakespearean consequence. Unfolding relentlessly from its tense and colorful first lines, House of Sand and Fog is a narrative triumph. These are people with ordinary flaws, people just looking for a small piece of ground to stand on, driven by the same needs into inevitable conflict-a conflict in which even the reader, rooting for all of them, has no safe haven. ![]() But the house's former owner, a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck, doesn't see it that way, nor does her lover, a married cop driven to extremes to win her love and get her house back.ĭubus has an extraordinary ability to get us inside each of his characters, to see the world as it is for each of them. When an attractive bungalow comes available on county auction for a fraction of its value, he sees a great opportunity for himself, his wife, and his children. On a road crew in California, a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force under the Shah yearns to restore his family's dignity. And a small house will seem like the most important piece of territory in the world. In this page-turning, breathtaking novel, the characters will walk off the page and into your life. It fails to sustain a sense of tragic inevitability and that prevents it from being truly involving."Exceptional storytelling, true to life…searing and insightful…You can’t help but be impressed.”Ī National Book Award finalist, Oprah Book Club pick, #1 New York Times bestseller and basis for the Oscar-nominated motion picture. Bahrani are all superb, and the adaptation of the award-winning book is a thoughtful and serious, if uneven, translation of the book's language and tone. But the fairy tale becomes a nightmare.Ĭonnelly, Kingsley, Ron Eldard as the cop who evicts Kathy, and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Mrs. She wakes up the next morning in the house, swathed in silks like an Arabian nights princess. The Behrani family alternately treats Kathy as an intruder, a guest, and ultimately almost as a member of the family when they take her in at her most devastated and care for her as though she was a child. Behrani's devotion to his children parallels Kathy's loss of her father and the house he left to her when he died, as well as her own longing for a child. Both are too proud to tell their families the truth about their situations. Both must take on menial jobs and change their clothes in public bathrooms. The lives of Kathy and Behrani circle, parallel, and intersect each other. Pride, anger, loss, desperation, law, love, strength, and weakness collide to create vast tragedy in this contemplative story of a battle for a house that overlooks the water. But she cannot do that without destroying the lives of other people. Kathy must return to the house to be healed. For Kathy and Behrani the fight is not about money it is about home. ![]() He plans to sell the house at a profit to start his return to a position consistent with his education and ability. For him, buying the house will make it possible for him to quit his construction job. The buyer is an immigrant, an Iranian colonel named Behrani (Ben Kingsley), who has spent almost all of his savings to maintain a lifestyle that enabled his daughter to marry well. Because she did not respond, the county evicts her and auctions the house for a fraction of its value. She has retreated so completely that she has not read her mail, which included an erroneous notice of an overdue tax bill. Following the breakup of her marriage, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) retreats to her house - the house her father left her and her brother in his will.
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