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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
i feel like the alternate title of this book is "well, that escalated quickly."
Wonderfully compelling through and through, but the ending was not great.
Such tragic characters, yet they stay with you. You feel for them, even though you are telling them to stop and think first. Beautiful story.
A story of two people battling over possession of a house... Both the characters have undergone recent life changes and are desperate to return to the time when their lives were better and happier. And both feel the only way to accomplish this is to keep possession of this particular house. Each of them is so determined to win that you know that it can't end well. What I loved about this book is that neither of the characters is really "bad" but neither is especially admirable either. I found myself going back and forth between who I felt was in the right and who was wrong. This is a book that makes you think and stays with you long after you've finished it.
What I wrote in 2007
And who thought ignoring letters from the council could destroy so many lives?
I can't believe I've had this book sitting on my shelf for almost a year and I've only gotten around to reading it!!! It was a fantastic read, really well written and the characters were deep and complex - no one person obviously being whiter-than-white good. I haven't seen the film (although I really want to now) and I didn't really know the story before I started this book.
In a way, if you take each of the main three characters individually, you can understand why they did what they did and some of the pressure and frustration they were suffering. If only they had all had a bit of human empathy, they might have been able to work out the situation so that no one had to die at the very least. I agree with everyone else that your sympathies do tend to jump about during the book from character to character. Ultimately my sympathy ended up with the Behrani family, and I felt that Kathy was most at fault. She completely destroyed two families (although not on purpose) and it was all over a house. If only she had opened those letters and dealt with the tax problem straight off. Lester lost my sympathy completely when he became what he'd always hated and broke into the Behrani's home threatening and bullying them.
I also felt that Dubus did a good job of depicting immigrints' experiences - the frustration of trying to adapt to a new country, get similiar work, support their families and so on. And this realisation with time that no matter how hard they try and how long they are there, they will always be 'foreigners'.
And who thought ignoring letters from the council could destroy so many lives?
I can't believe I've had this book sitting on my shelf for almost a year and I've only gotten around to reading it!!! It was a fantastic read, really well written and the characters were deep and complex - no one person obviously being whiter-than-white good. I haven't seen the film (although I really want to now) and I didn't really know the story before I started this book.
In a way, if you take each of the main three characters individually, you can understand why they did what they did and some of the pressure and frustration they were suffering. If only they had all had a bit of human empathy, they might have been able to work out the situation so that no one had to die at the very least. I agree with everyone else that your sympathies do tend to jump about during the book from character to character. Ultimately my sympathy ended up with the Behrani family, and I felt that Kathy was most at fault. She completely destroyed two families (although not on purpose) and it was all over a house. If only she had opened those letters and dealt with the tax problem straight off. Lester lost my sympathy completely when he became what he'd always hated and broke into the Behrani's home threatening and bullying them.
I also felt that Dubus did a good job of depicting immigrints' experiences - the frustration of trying to adapt to a new country, get similiar work, support their families and so on. And this realisation with time that no matter how hard they try and how long they are there, they will always be 'foreigners'.
I've had this book for a long time and picked it up a few times to start. However, I recently went through all my books, checked their reviews on here, and decided to get after the ones I own that are popular. Since I started another one that was really good, I waited until I finished it before getting into this one. I also rented the audiobook from the library to help with getting into it. Boy, I was not disappointed and finished it within a day. I then found out there is a movie version on Amazon Prime and watched it that day too, which was also good and followed the story closely, except for the ending where they changed a few things to make both main characters appear a bit better than the book.
What I loved about this book was the dual narrative, switching from both "owners" of the house, and how it made you sympathize with both of them and wonder which one was really the protagonist and one you should be rooting for. It reminded me a bit of Gone Girl where I didn't like either of the main characters by the end but still wanted a good outcome.
I did not expect some of the twists near the end, which is why it gets labeled as a thriller, but it also gives readers a glimpse of the immigrant experience in our country and how cultural differences can also cause people to be misinterpreted and/or have different expectations for themselves and their children. Neither of the main characters took the time to understand the other and their motivations for wanting the house (although at one point I thought they might).
I would recommend this book to any fans of dual narratives, mystery, and maybe even a little romance. This book will stay with me for a long time, and I am so glad I did not give up on it or put it in the "get rid of" pile. It now makes me more eager than ever to delve into the myriad of books I have in my own home before buying or starting others that are currently popular.
What I loved about this book was the dual narrative, switching from both "owners" of the house, and how it made you sympathize with both of them and wonder which one was really the protagonist and one you should be rooting for. It reminded me a bit of Gone Girl where I didn't like either of the main characters by the end but still wanted a good outcome.
I did not expect some of the twists near the end, which is why it gets labeled as a thriller, but it also gives readers a glimpse of the immigrant experience in our country and how cultural differences can also cause people to be misinterpreted and/or have different expectations for themselves and their children. Neither of the main characters took the time to understand the other and their motivations for wanting the house (although at one point I thought they might).
I would recommend this book to any fans of dual narratives, mystery, and maybe even a little romance. This book will stay with me for a long time, and I am so glad I did not give up on it or put it in the "get rid of" pile. It now makes me more eager than ever to delve into the myriad of books I have in my own home before buying or starting others that are currently popular.
I was so curious how this story would end. I never would have guessed what happened.