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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I can't believe this made Oprah's book list,
If you think that you are too happy with your life and you want waste a couple hours, then this is the book for you. I can't believe that this book was made into a movie or that Oprah put this on her book club list. It is that bad.
I did find it interesting to review the cultural differences and expectations of different societies, but other than that it was extremely depressing and a total waste of time. If you want to know the ending - everyone either dies or goes to jail. What an uplifting story - not!
If you think that you are too happy with your life and you want waste a couple hours, then this is the book for you. I can't believe that this book was made into a movie or that Oprah put this on her book club list. It is that bad.
I did find it interesting to review the cultural differences and expectations of different societies, but other than that it was extremely depressing and a total waste of time. If you want to know the ending - everyone either dies or goes to jail. What an uplifting story - not!
7/10
Almost right from the first chapter I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was not going to be a pleasant story.
Almost right from the first chapter I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was not going to be a pleasant story.
I hated this the whole way through. All the characters are awful people. It is so drug out with repetitive and monotonous details. This was just a waste of time. There is nothing to gain by reading this. Bad people doing bad things and it ends.....can you guess? Badly.
I should have known better than to think that an Oprah Book Club Selection would have one ounce of hope or happiness. The characters were quite compelling, however, and I couldn’t put it down.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm sad this was the last book I read this year. It was ugly and base. The only characters I liked were minor to the story. The end really slogged to a crawl for a long time. It's a sad, pathetic tale of greed and pride.
ok. this was a fucking tragedy. and it was done well but i didn't like it and so am not sure how to rate it. (borrowed from lisa k)
I really liked this book a lot. Although it dealt with a theme that I don't generally enjoy very much, it was a really masterful plot that sucked me in. There was so much desperation and it seemed that the two sets of characters' predicaments could not be resolved without one set getting screwed over by the other, so I was waiting the whole time to see what kind of resolution the author came up with. I am not always the quickest on the draw, but I didn't predict the end (although I might have if I'd thought about it) so I was happy to see it all get resolved.
Although I found myself wondering after it was over, what happened to Soraya? Although she wasn't a major character in the book, Col. Behrani was so sort of obsessed with her and the rest of his family that her psychic presence was such that she was almost physically present throughout the book. Of course, there were many loose ends that didn't get wrapped up.
Although I found myself wondering after it was over, what happened to Soraya? Although she wasn't a major character in the book, Col. Behrani was so sort of obsessed with her and the rest of his family that her psychic presence was such that she was almost physically present throughout the book. Of course, there were many loose ends that didn't get wrapped up.
Tragedy in the true Greek fashion. Outstanding story. Movie also well done, but you've got to read the book.
I saw the movie years ago and really liked it. It’s one of those that I still think about sometimes...how out of control situations can get so quickly. I did not remember a lot of details from the movie, and of course the book goes into a lot more backstory of the characters. The ending is also a little different, I suspect because they had to cut some of the original story from the book to keep the movie short enough.
Basically, though, I thought a couple things: I don’t really like any of the characters, but the author wrote them well enough that I feel like I understand them. Also, I could not figure out the time period in which this takes place. At first the colonel talked so much about the Iranian Revolution (1979) that it made me think it had just recently happened, so I eventually decided the book was taking place sometime in the mid-80s, just a few years later. Until I got near the end of the book and there was a mention of a computer with a modem and Internet and email. I went, Huh? I realized then that the teenage son had been a baby when they left Iran (although I don’t think this was made clear until well into the book), so I guess it was the early to mid-90s? (Also: house as a character, a la the Dutch House.)
Basically, though, I thought a couple things: I don’t really like any of the characters, but the author wrote them well enough that I feel like I understand them. Also, I could not figure out the time period in which this takes place. At first the colonel talked so much about the Iranian Revolution (1979) that it made me think it had just recently happened, so I eventually decided the book was taking place sometime in the mid-80s, just a few years later. Until I got near the end of the book and there was a mention of a computer with a modem and Internet and email. I went, Huh? I realized then that the teenage son had been a baby when they left Iran (although I don’t think this was made clear until well into the book), so I guess it was the early to mid-90s? (Also: house as a character, a la the Dutch House.)