A recent immigrant from the Middle East–a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force–yearns to restore his family’s dignity in California. A recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck struggles to hold onto the one thing she has left–her home. And her lover, a married cop, is driven to extremes to win her love.
Review
I needed some space from this book before reviewing it. The House of Sand and Fog was so deeply sad, y’all.
And futilely so. All of the deep drama and terrible endings could have been completely avoided if a simple piece of paperwork had been completed correctly.
Or one of our main characters had opened and acted on their mail earlier.
Or if another main character would not have been so stubborn.
Or if the only main character in the book that I ended up not liking at all would have just NOT.
All of the sadness could have been completely avoided.
The writing in this book was fantastic. I cared deeply about each and every character (yes, even the one that I ended up hating).
Even though I remembered most of the devastation from the movie, I still rooted for them. I didn’t want any of it to happen, and I had deep feelings for all of these characters.
Aside from the cop. I did not like him in the end. He was using {insert character name here} as a way to escape from his own life he was unhappy with. He was acting like a hero and doing what he thought she needed, not actually being a hero.
He created more problems than he solved – in everyone’s life, including his own, and ended up being the villain in the end.
Or was it paperwork?
Or mundanity? Or depression?
It was a great read.
Also, this will probably be the last traditional book review you’ll see from me. While I enjoyed the journey of recoding my Maeve Binchy reading last year, it wasn’t so much about the books as it was what I discovered about myself.
When I started this year with the intent of writing traditional reviews, it became a demand. So I’ve stopped putting pressure on myself to review the books and am instead simply reading them.
It’s much more fun and relaxing.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ll still write about what I’m reading, but it will not be traditional in any way that you’d expect.
Reading Journey
What I listened to:
Days read:
- Monday, January 27
- Wednesday, January 29
- Thursday, January 30
- Friday, January 31
- Monday, February 3
- Tuesday, February 4
- Wednesday, February 5
Thoughts while reading (could be about the book, could not):
- I made a playlist specially for this book. The book was made into a movie, which I have seen, so I used the score for that movie. Then, I remembered that the movie was depressing as hell, and I always need singing options when I’m reading, so I mashed up the score (James Horner got an Oscar nod for it) with my most depressing sing-along playlist: Rilo, Regina, Damien.
- I watched the movie based on this book as part of my “Watch All the Oscar Nominees” in 2004.
- This movie is where I fell in love with Shohreh Aghdashloo, who was also nominated for an Oscar for the film (Best Supporting Actress – lost to Renee Zellweger for Cold Mountain)
- Ben Kinglsey was nominated for Best Actor, too. He lost to Sean Penn for Mystic River. But they both should have lost to Bill Murray in Lost in Translation.
- Oh, also, I am reading a physical copy of this book that I got from one of two places:
- King Books in Downtown Detroit
- Melvindal Public Library book sale (Less than $5 for, like, a whole BAG of books)
- Now I am reading (and singing).
- I am also learning new words! Today, I learned “pooldar” which is Persian for widow!
- I’ve learned so many words from books rather than tv or movies, so I mispronounce things somethings. It used to be embarassing, but hey, at least I’m well-read!
- A musical artist named “Daryoosh” was mentioned, so I added them to the playlist, too!
- Okay, so “pooldar” has come up more than once in ways that leads me to believe that it means something more than widow.
- On a google search, all I could find were the AI definition of the word and a bunch of links to posts about the book I’m reading.
- On Duck Duck Go, I found the Genius page to this song, which translates to “I don’t want a rich husband” so I’m going with pooldar = rich.
- Also, my book fell apart. It was well loved and some of the pages just fell away from the binding. Luckily they are ones I’ve already read. How do I fix this does anyone know?
- wednesday
- I feel like the word “sand” or “fog” is used at least once on every single page of this book.
- this doesn’t annoy me … yet.
- RR Recovery program.. is this real?
- Yes.
- I do not recall the character of Lester from the movie, so I’m gonna go look up who played him.
- Ron Eldard. This is perfect casting. I’m definitely gonna watch the movie again when I finish the book.
- I am so moved by the Behrani’s relationship -the wife thawing to him slowly and he painfully smitten by her after all these years still. Sure there are other emotions there, but the loves always shines through.
- thursday
- I care about every single character in this book so much. I wasn’t expecting it. I am used to strong villain and hero arcs. This is honstly kind of nice!
- Okay, I don’t know if I like Lester any longer. He’s feeling kinda racist.
- But then, what did I expect from a cop?
- friday
- This book is so much heavier and filled with tension than what I read last year. I have to keep reminding myself not to look for me in any of the characters.
- My brain does that sometimes, and then it is really hard on itself, and for a lot of reasons, it shouldn’t.
- I didn’t even realize this for the longest time. It was eye-opening, and now I enjoy media in a much different manner.
- Also, the playlist for this book (see above) is amazing. Googoosh will become a regular in my listening rotation. I’ma keep an eye out for her on vinyl too!
- Ooh, I have just begun Part II.
- I am not enjoying the writing style of part II nearly as much as the first part.
- It is long blocks of text.
- We’re in a straight white male cops’s mind, though, so that kind of tracks.
- Okay, so I just flipped back through the parts I’d already ready, because I wanted an old POV came back into the story and they were long paragraphs of text too.
- The whole book has been long blocks of text. I think I just didn’t enjoy the voice of the white male cop.
- That also tracks.
- This author is incredible at voice. Holy shit. Like, I found myself actively getting angry at the book, and the only thing that changed is whose POV it was.
- monday
- I feel bad that this book is taking me so much longer, but it’s a lot heavier than the other two I read, so it makes sense.
- I don’t know what I’m gonna read next. I’ll probably just go snatch something from my bookshelf. We bought a bunch of stuff from the Melvindale library over the past year that I didn’t read yet, because of, well… Binchy.
- tuesday
- It has been so hard for my brain to go to a creative place lately. I do not like it one bit.
- I’m just horrified that I live in country with so many truly bigoted and racist people.
- I’m disgusted that all of this hate was just bubbling under the surface for so many people.
- And now they feel safe to hate.
- What a gross place to be in time.
- This book is depressing as fuck, but the world is more depressing.
- “I felt queasy like an important organ inside me wasn’t attached all the way.”
- I instantly relate to this feeling but had previously had no way to express it. Thanks, book!
- Oof, there was a big shock I was NOT expecting near the end.
- wednesday
- I had ceramics class today and it really makes me sad how many folks are being gaslit by a bully.
- I mean, it really sucks.
- OMG, like I said, I’ve seen this movie before and I knew the end was sad. HOWEVER, I thought there was only one big sad thing, but then this other big sad thing happened, and it got even sadder, and now I am crying, and I probably won’t stop until the book is over.
- I didn’t.
- Hoof, that was sad.
