DaveNash3 reviewed House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
Review of 'House of Sand and Fog' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
"For our excess we lost everything"
Probably the best line in the novel as it applies to each of the three characters and something to think about in our own lives as it's an rumination on the overthrow of Shah of Iran.
Dubus is able to tell this story from two divergent view points - the former Iranian Colonel, now a trash picker and convenience store clerk and Kathy Nicole - the downwardly mobile recovering addict. What these two different characters have in common is that they don't fit in their current life. For both of them this modest house - the house of Sand and Fog - becomes much more than a place to live or a real estate investment.
The three main characters suffer from a perception issue. They can't perceive reality and can't communicate between themselves, which predictably leads to disaster.
Part One alternates between the Colonel's …
"For our excess we lost everything"
Probably the best line in the novel as it applies to each of the three characters and something to think about in our own lives as it's an rumination on the overthrow of Shah of Iran.
Dubus is able to tell this story from two divergent view points - the former Iranian Colonel, now a trash picker and convenience store clerk and Kathy Nicole - the downwardly mobile recovering addict. What these two different characters have in common is that they don't fit in their current life. For both of them this modest house - the house of Sand and Fog - becomes much more than a place to live or a real estate investment.
The three main characters suffer from a perception issue. They can't perceive reality and can't communicate between themselves, which predictably leads to disaster.
Part One alternates between the Colonel's and Kathy's first person narrations and its a good build up.
Part Two has problems. Mainly the character of Lester Burdon. Lester is bad from the beginning because he consistently acts in ways supposedly inconsistent with his character. He's the good looking caring cop type. Dubus doesn't show what a great cop or dad or lover he is. He's a selfish boy seeking to release his pent up impotent rage. For Lester, Dubus alternates between a close third person narration with Lester in action scenes and higher level more omniscient in the background scenes.
Part One setups up the story as an un-resolvable confrontation between Kathy and the Colonel over the house. And this is really the story here. However in Part Two, Lester takes over for Kathy, who simply drinks herself into inertia. The novel devolves into the trope of the scared accidental hostage taker in an inescapable situation. At that point it would really be a better story than as a movie than a book.
Only in a bad horror movie would a cop forget his service piece in the trunk of his newly met unstable lover's car or would the ex-Colonel overprotective husband/father leave a loaded gun on his kitchen counter. How stupid can you get? Chekhov wants his gun back.
