Casa de Arena y Niebla (Spanish Edition)
by Andre Dubus III
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Book Summary Information
Author: Andre Dubus IIIEdition: Paperback
Audio: Spanish (Unknown); Spanish (Original Language); Spanish (Published)
Published: 2002-07
ISBN: 8487254969
Publisher: Diagonal -Grupo 62
Book Reviews of Casa de Arena y Niebla (Spanish Edition)
Book Review: COMPELLING...COMPLEX...COMPLETE...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the Spanish text edition of "House of Sand and Fog", a book that is simply a masterpiece. It is an exceptionally well written and brilliantly told story of two people whose destinies become intertwined through a simple twist of fate. It is the story of what happens to them and to those who love them, when their respective worlds collide in a climactic and tragic ending.
It is the story of Colonel Behrani, a formerly wealthy Iranian, who had thrived under the regime of the Shah, only to lose everything during his country's revolution. Now, he and his family find themselves undergoing the immigrant experience in America, working to maintain appearances among their fellow exiles, and finding the going hard. Working long hours at menial jobs, Colonel Behrani longs to be a master of the universe again.
It is also the story of Kathy Nicolo, a woman with some serious issues. She is a sad and pathetic bottom feeder, who has lost nearly everything in life, including the one thing that has kept her somewhat anchored: the house she inherited from her father. She is a loser and innocuous bumbler who has totally squandered her life. When she loses that which she holds most dear, her house, and is summarily evicted from it, she meets Sheriff Lester Burden, a married man with children, who is smitten by her. His obsession with her would lead him down a path from which there would be no return.
When Colonel Behrani's quest for the American Dream finds him with an opportunity to buy a house at a bargain basement price at a county auction, he plunks down the remainder of his family's life savings. At the time, he knows nothing of the circumstances of the county's possession of that house, Kathy's house. He and his family move in. Colonel Behrani's head is filled with dreams of selling the house at a large profit, becoming a real estate speculator, and leading his family back to its former glory and place in society. He truly believes that America is the land of opportunity. He still believes in the American Dream.
Kathy, on the other hand, has done nothing with the opportunities afforded her. She has simply squandered them by marrying the wrong men, boozing, and drugging herself into oblivion. Living a marginal existence by cleaning houses and proving herself to be an untrustworthy and totally amoral person with little regard for others, her life is the antithesis of the American Dream. Still, she has this house, and when she loses it due to a bureaucratic error, the bottom totally falls out of her life. For now, she truly has nothing. Like a dog with a bone, she refuses to let the issue go and will stop at nothing to get her house back from the Behranis, whom she views as greedy usurpers. Her view of the situation is supported by Sheriff Lester Burdon, who becomes embroiled in Kathy's struggle and takes it to a level that not even Kathy could have anticipated.
As the author takes the reader to the book's climactic ending, the reader will not be able to put down this beautifully crafted, literary tour de force. The author evokes a distinct mood in his narrative of the Behrani family through a clever use of language and sentence structure that seems to match the syncopation of their first language, giving it a rich, three dimensional flavor. The language of Colonel Behrani has a rich infusion of the cultural milieu out of which he arose. It is a wonderful literary contrivance used to great effect by a very talented and gifted writer.
When the author writes about Kathy, the language and sentence structure of the narrative is simpler, looser, baser, and reflective of the individual around whom the author is trying to create a mood. Again he succeeds, as Kathy is a very primal character, unlike Colonel Behrani, who is more introspective. She is someone who ruins almost everything that she touches without meaning to do so. She is a person totally lacking in self-control. When she meets Sheriff Lester Burden, a tightly wound, conflicted man, very much in control of himself, his passion for her causes him to begin to lose his self-control. He begins a downward spiral that ends in a personal meltdown. The character of Kathy is somewhat pitiable, as she is the catalyst around whom the tragic events unfold. They unfold, however, in a way that she never intended.
This modern day Greek tragedy, with its layers of moral and cultural complexities, is a spellbinding and suspenseful page turner, crafted by an enormously talented author who is able to construct a rich and powerful novel of the first order. It is simply a great book. Bravo!
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