- Taschenbuch: 368 Seiten
- Verlag: Vintage, London; Auflage: New Ed (27. Januar 2001)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 009928314X
- ISBN-13: 978-0099283140
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 12,9 x 2,3 x 19,8 cm
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.0 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (68 Kundenrezensionen)
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 185.704 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
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House of Sand and Fog
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Amazon.co.uk
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 comprising 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 US 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". A 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, he sinks his remaining funds into a house he buys at auction, thus unwittingly putting himself and his family on a trajectory with 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 The House of Sand and Fog builds to its inevitable denouement: one that is painfully dark but unfailingly honest. --Alix Wilber
Amazon.co.uk
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 comprising 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, he sinks his remaining funds into a house he buys at auction, thus unwittingly putting himself and his family on a trajectory with 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 The House of Sand and Fog builds to its inevitable denouement: one that is painfully dark but unfailingly honest. --Alix Wilber -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
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Format:Taschenbuch
"House of Sand and Fog," by Andre Dubus III (author of "The Cagekeeper and Other Stories" and "Bluesman"), is a compelling novel. Divided into two parts, "House" is a complex, disturbing, and thought-provoking tragedy.
Dubus's brilliance at characterization shines through this bleak and believable story. He climbs inside his characters' heads to give readers a chance to feel what it is like to be a recovering addict (Kathy Nicolo); what it is like to be first and second generation immigrants in pursuit of the "American Dream" (the Behrani family); what it is like to be an ordinary man (Lester Burdon).
"House" is flawed; it is not perfectly written or edited. But one can forgive these imperfections because of the powerful emotions that Dubus can generate in his readers through his storytelling. "House" is not a tragedy of Greek proportion; there is no chorus of readers which will respond in uniformity to the protagonists' or antagonists' moral claims. Rather, "House" reminds one of a Kafkaesque travesty: a minor clerical error which compounds itself into misfortune, mayhem, and murderous revenge.
Dubus employs an experimental style of narration, with his deliberate shifting of points of view. This narrative device manipulates the reader's response to the characters, thereby creating, in the reader's mind a frustration of not being able to "solve" the moral dilemma. (Tim O'Brien uses a similar technique in his short novel, "In the Lake of the Woods.")
I especially recommend this book to readers who like to weigh and measure their responses; to writers of fiction who wish to learn about characterization; to book discussion groups. Further, I recommend that you explore the writings of this writer's father, the late Andre Dubus, especially "Meditations from a Movable Chair" and "Dancing After Hours."
Format:Taschenbuch
"I rise and carry my tea out the front door and walk barefoot upon the grass. The blades are long, at least 2 centimetres, and as I walk around to the side of the house I make a mental note to purchase a grass cutter as well, something used, nothing extravagant. The sky has lost most of it's light and my new neighbours have turned on the lamps in their houses."
A great page-turner in every sense of the word. You either like the characters or you do not.The story basically centres around three people.
Meet Kathy Nicolo, a recovering alcoholic who does not realize that her home in the California hills is up for sale due to non payment of tax duties, and is evicted in a flash. Kathy
treasures this home, for it bears great sentimetal value being a gift from her father, and she hasn't the slightest idea of what this eviction is really about, as she is forced to scamper out of her home.
Meet former Colonel from Iran, Amir Behrani a former follower of the Shah who now after the revolution has made California his home. Forced to take menial jobs since coming to California, Behrani seizes the opportunity to become self employed when he purchases Kathy's house from the state. Behrani plans are for he and his family to live in it for a short while,and afterwards, selling it off at a profit. This will allow him to give menial work a hike for good, and seek out other real estate
areas, whilst restoring the family's dignity with the life they were accustomed to in the East.
Also playing a roll in this fiasco is Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who in a short space of time is totally overwhelmed and infatuated by Kathy Nicolo and takes up her crusade against the former Colonel.
The story takes the shape of an ongoing battle between the two, Behrani and Nicolo with the Sheriff at her side. This battle which gets loud and terrible physical at times as each party plots against each other in the meanest way, stopping at nothing and going to unbelievable destructive lengths to get what they both desire, that house in the California hills.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (Sugar-Cane 13/07/-07)
A great page-turner in every sense of the word. You either like the characters or you do not.The story basically centres around three people.
Meet Kathy Nicolo, a recovering alcoholic who does not realize that her home in the California hills is up for sale due to non payment of tax duties, and is evicted in a flash. Kathy
treasures this home, for it bears great sentimetal value being a gift from her father, and she hasn't the slightest idea of what this eviction is really about, as she is forced to scamper out of her home.
Meet former Colonel from Iran, Amir Behrani a former follower of the Shah who now after the revolution has made California his home. Forced to take menial jobs since coming to California, Behrani seizes the opportunity to become self employed when he purchases Kathy's house from the state. Behrani plans are for he and his family to live in it for a short while,and afterwards, selling it off at a profit. This will allow him to give menial work a hike for good, and seek out other real estate
areas, whilst restoring the family's dignity with the life they were accustomed to in the East.
Also playing a roll in this fiasco is Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who in a short space of time is totally overwhelmed and infatuated by Kathy Nicolo and takes up her crusade against the former Colonel.
The story takes the shape of an ongoing battle between the two, Behrani and Nicolo with the Sheriff at her side. This battle which gets loud and terrible physical at times as each party plots against each other in the meanest way, stopping at nothing and going to unbelievable destructive lengths to get what they both desire, that house in the California hills.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (Sugar-Cane 13/07/-07)
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Dubus does a great job of developing his two main characters. Their first person narratives give the reader a real sense of their motives and an understanding of their - sometimes questionable - behavior. It is soon clear that these two are on a collision course and the reader's anxiety increases to an uncomfortable level near the novel's final pages. However, although the ending seemed inevitable, and Colonel Behrani and Kathy were quite believable, Lester's behavior was not easy to buy - this is the novel's only real flaw. An exciting read.
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Fascinating, dark, gripping tale
A very interesting tale of a woman and her house, her interpersonal relationships, enormously self-destructive characters, and what happens when the main character loses the only... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 31. Juli 2000 von Andrea Merkowitz
Hypnotizingly readable and intensely suspenseful!
After reading the reviews, all of which emphasized the traumatic doom and gloom of the plot, I expected this book to be both depressing and hopelessly melodramatic. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 21. Juli 2000 von Mary Whipple
A deeply affecting story
The characters in this novel are not just pieces on a chessboard being pushed through their paces by the author. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 17. Juli 2000 veröffentlicht
A heart-breaking story
Dubus' novel is a gripping and often frustrating look at two characters whose imperfect lives are set on a collision course. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 12. Juli 2000 von A Reader
Compellingly Stark and Tragic Tale
There is not one wasted word in this devastating and compelling tale in which two diverse and desperate people's lives collide in a totally believable sequence of events. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 25. Juni 2000 von N. Feldman
Mark Bowes's review is right on target
I too wanted to throw the book away as it degenerated into unnecessary, pop-culture violence in Part Two. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 22. Juni 2000 von Polly Merrill
A reading experience forcing one to look at one self!
Perhaps some of Amazon.com's clientele remain unaware of the perils facing an enthusiastic reader residing in a rural area. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 22. Juni 2000 von scabb
A reading experience forcing one to look at one self!
...The novel entitled "House of Sand and Fog" is oneof my very best choices when spending hard earned money on paperbacknovels. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 22. Juni 2000 von scabb
Loud Echoes of Steinbeck's "The Pearl"
I liked the book, but I'm surprised that none of the above reviews mention that the plot is in lockstep with Steinbeck's "The Pearl". Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 14. Juni 2000 von pweil
gripping
I usually don't like books of tragedy, but this one was so well done, that I loved it anyway. The lasting message that I take away is that it is so very easy for people's lives to... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 8. Juni 2000 veröffentlicht
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