Scan barcode
sakeriver's review against another edition
This book packed a pretty big emotional punch for me, being a story mainly (I think) about a father and a son, about how dysfunction is conveyed from one generation to the next, about struggling to find a place for yourself in a place that isn’t your own, whether or not you’re actually from there. There were a lot of parts where I felt like I ought to have been laughing, where I thought “This is funny,” but it was just a little too raw for me to get there. But then I think this is a book where humor and pathos are pretty thoroughly mixed together, where even the traumas (mostly) have a lightness to them, and the funniest parts also have a darkness. If nothing else, it’s also just a really well-written book.
moirastone's review against another edition
1.0
120 pages in, didn't take. I am disappointed, though am uncertain if in myself or the book.
momwrex's review against another edition
3.0
The complexity and expressiveness of this novel drew me in. The family dynamics of the characters who each were figuring out how to deal with their past lives and current lives as immigrants was intriguing. However, the inner monologues were too lengthy, and became predictable and too angst-ridden. I ended up skimming the last half....
This was her first novel, and I will be looking for her other books to see how she has developed.
This was her first novel, and I will be looking for her other books to see how she has developed.
annm1121's review against another edition
2.0
Porochista Khakpour has a unique writing style that kept me reading this mostly plot-less book. I do not think the author's choice to haphazardly throw 9/11 into the mix helped with the narrative and felt cliche and over-written. Not great, not horrible, too long.
falturani's review against another edition
3.0
One of many long-overdue reads, I first heard about this through an interview with the author on a books podcast from PRI's The World. I subsequently read and enjoyed several of her essays/columns, and from the feel of it, Khakpour seemed like she wasn't going to be writing the typical, easily pigeonholed "ethnic" or immigrant novel. Upon actually cracking it, though, the novel came off far tamer than I had expected or would have hoped, and its maximalist style, something I often enjoy, largely felt excessive. Still, Khakpour is a capable, funny writer, and while I was on the fence throughout much of the novel, I await her next book, assuming there's one in the works.
mattstebbins's review against another edition
3.0
Some of Khakpour's imagery was excellent, the kind of words you can't help but pull a notebook out for, to jot down and etch against your mind, in the hope that you'll later transform it into something equally beautiful, and yet your own, but -- outside of that imagery, I found it all in all an extremely ordinary novel. First generation immigrant struggles to find an identity, a place in their family, etc -- nothing new here, and of the summer easy-reading variety at that. Perhaps if the ending had been stronger, but as it was, it felt too easy, too predictable.
Perhaps this is what I get for having re-read House of Sand and Fog just before...
Perhaps this is what I get for having re-read House of Sand and Fog just before...
rachelwalden's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn't get into this book and eventually gave up.
akmorris's review
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
rekhainbc's review against another edition
2.0
Promising in parts. I did not like the prose style, felt little sympathy towards the characters except Laleh. The ending was ridiculously contrived and left me unsatisfied. I was disappointed.
corey's review
4.0
An incredibly overlooked novel from 10 years ago that might, in the era of Trump, find itself coming back into relevance, SONS AND OTHER FLAMMABLE OBJECTS centers around the relationship between a father, Darius, and a son, Xerxes, in a Persian-American family.
Khakpour, in the tradition of Zadie Smith, gives us a long novel with a simple enough plot: the Adams' move from Iran to America. They all have difficulty adjusting, especially the patriarch, Darius. This breeds a bad home situation, and eventually Darius' son, Xerxes, grows up, moves from his LA to New York, and refuses to speak to his father.
Throughout the novel, Darius struggles with the conflicting impulses to both push his son away and reclaim him as his own, while Xerxes, grappling with an identity crisis, slowly comes to the realization that he can't disown his family if he wants to properly figure out who he is.
I keep wanting to call this a Great American Novel, which in some respects it is: it is long and the prose is fantastically well-written, the author is an American citizen, and it has something in common with other books that have been given that vague title--The Corrections, Infinite Jest, etc.
On the other hand, none of its main characters are born in America, and none of them seem to feel particularly American. It is not so much a novel about the US as it is about the IDEA of the US--the Adams, after fleeing their homeland, are in search of a new, safer identity: that of American. But, as they eventually learn, what they're looking for can't be found; the US is a collage of immigrant cultures, which amalgamate to form something truly bizarre and incoherent. Perhaps that is what makes it the ultimate Great American Novel--that Khakpour seems to reject the very idea of an "American" anything.
Khakpour, in the tradition of Zadie Smith, gives us a long novel with a simple enough plot: the Adams' move from Iran to America. They all have difficulty adjusting, especially the patriarch, Darius. This breeds a bad home situation, and eventually Darius' son, Xerxes, grows up, moves from his LA to New York, and refuses to speak to his father.
Throughout the novel, Darius struggles with the conflicting impulses to both push his son away and reclaim him as his own, while Xerxes, grappling with an identity crisis, slowly comes to the realization that he can't disown his family if he wants to properly figure out who he is.
I keep wanting to call this a Great American Novel, which in some respects it is: it is long and the prose is fantastically well-written, the author is an American citizen, and it has something in common with other books that have been given that vague title--The Corrections, Infinite Jest, etc.
On the other hand, none of its main characters are born in America, and none of them seem to feel particularly American. It is not so much a novel about the US as it is about the IDEA of the US--the Adams, after fleeing their homeland, are in search of a new, safer identity: that of American. But, as they eventually learn, what they're looking for can't be found; the US is a collage of immigrant cultures, which amalgamate to form something truly bizarre and incoherent. Perhaps that is what makes it the ultimate Great American Novel--that Khakpour seems to reject the very idea of an "American" anything.