After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man’s portrait, his subject’s frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray’s picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent.Though not a “Christian” book, I have heard this book described more than once as the best illustration of sin in classic literature. Besides being a great, well-written novel, this book does paint quite a picture of the ugliness of sin. Makes me think twice of ever commissioning a self portrait, that’s for sure.
Category: General Fiction
I have read very few books quite as bleak as The House of Sand and Fog, so saying that I “enjoyed” this book doesn’t seem quite appropriate. I was captivated by it. The story centers around a house and the people struggling against eachother to own it. Each chapter flip- flops from one voice, that of Persian immigrants, the Behrani family, to the other, a house keeper named Kathy Nicolo. I much prefered the story from the Behrani family, it was a mix of flashbacks of their lilfe in Iran and life as now as struggling immigrants. Kathy’s story was twinged with desperation, helplessness and too much sex (as far as I’m concerned). Read the book, then rent the movie, which won a few Oscars. It really made the story come to life.
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 composed of 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, and on impulse he sinks his remaining funds into a house he buys at auction, thus unwittingly putting himself and his family on a trajectory to 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.
“Offers such magic, mystery and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that hauntingly wonderful”
Arundhati Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz improvisation. The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely. The God of Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that’s completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.
A review on the back of this book describes Roy’s story like an onion being peeled. This is an apt description — page by page, more of the complex family dynamic is revealed. Like an onion, there are scenes and events that are enough to make your eyes water; however, it does carry a powerful message of love and acceptance. It is a riveting read, and I would recommend it with a disclaimer — this is not a Christian novel, and is not for the faint of heart.
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Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
“At once audacious, dazzling, pretentious and infuriating, Mitchell’s third novel weaves history, science, suspense, humor and pathos through six separate but loosely related narratives. “
Covering such heavy topics as consumerism, cloning, materialism and reincarnation doesn’t make for light bedtime reading, but it does make for an interesting story — especially when it is comprised of six seperate characters, each from a different place and point in time. Though they don’t know each other their decisions are able to influence the future of the others. Complicated, yes, but worth a read, and great for bookclub discussions.