“House of Sand and Fog”
“And that's what I wanted: obliteration. Decimation. Just an instant smear of me right out of all this rising and falling and nothing changing that feels like living.”
“The truth is life is full of joy and full of great sorrow, but you can't have one without the other.”
“it's almost easier being down and alone than when you re up and no one s there to share the view with you”
Discussion questions
1. Do you sympathize more with Kathy Nicolo or with Colonel Behrani in part one of the novel? How does Dubus’s use of alternating first-person narratives affect your response to, and involvement with, the characters?
2. The contested ownership of the house on Bisgrove Street is the fulcrum of the novel’s plot. Who, in your opinion, owns the house once Behrani has paid cash for it? What would be a fair solution to the conflict?
3. What does Kathy’s response to Nick’s desertion reveal about her character? Why does Lester fall in love with Kathy?
4. Who, of the three main characters, is most complex? Who is most straightforward?
5. Where does the hostility between Lester and Behrani spring from?
6. At what point do Kathy’s and Lester’s actions depart from the path of a simple desire for justice and move into something else? Why can neither of them seem to act rationally? Does Behrani act rationally?
7. Is Behrani’s wife, Nadereh, an admirable character? Does her feminine role in a very traditional marriage reduce her importance as an actor in this drama?
8. Behrani tells his son, “Remember what I’ve told you of so many Americans: they are not disciplined and have not the courage to take responsibility for their actions. If these people paid to us the fair price we are asking, we could leave and she could return. It is that simple. But they are like little children, son. They want things only their way” [p. 172]. How accurate is his perception of Americans? How well does it apply to Kathy and Lester?
9. How does House of Sand and Fog highlight the conflict between downwardly mobile Americans and upwardly mobile recent immigrants? What role does racism play in the reaction of Americans and foreigners to each other?
10. What do you find most disturbing about the novel’s denouement? If you find yourself imagining an alternate ending, what would that ending be?
