-
A different view of 9-11
“An amazing and compelling novel. I liked this book even more than "House of Sand and Fog." The characters are vivid, distinct and memorable. The book will stay with you for a long time.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-11-03. -
Hail, Dubus III, defender of the downtrodden and the very stupid!
“While the quality of the writing is top-notch, the subplots themselves are not. The characters find themselves in fairly normal situations which are propelled into absurdity by their resulting knee-jerk reactions. The result comes across as forced, as drama expended for the sake of drama. And while the characters' reactions and impulses are certainly true to character, this itself is hardly a comfort. It only proves that the characters we're supposed to care about are short-fused, desperate people at the end of their ropes who will do just about anything. I won't encourage people not to read this book - only be aware that it should be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps two or three, actually.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-14. -
An authentic look at the minds of the 9/11 hijackers
“I didn't expect to love this novel, but it is a real page-turner and very well researched and written. I haven't looked into the factual correctness of the story, but it certainly felt authentic, and if so was the best rendering I can imagine of what was going on in the minds of the Sept. 11th hijackers. Dubus illustrates just how troubled and conflicted those young men really were.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-19.
I haven't read many 9/11 novels yet, but I would put this at the top of that list. ” -
Too many characters, not well-developed or appealing
“I usually only review books I like, but I'm making an exception for this one because I think there may be many people, like me, who loved "House of Sand and Fog" and waited eagerly for the paperback of this one. Unfortunately, it is similar to HOSAF only in that it explores differences in cultures and backgrounds and how these affect the trajectories of some of the characters' lives. But there are way too many characters, and they are all either poorly developed and/or extremely unappealing. To me, there was no one to root for, no one to identify with, no one who fascinated me, and no one whose fate I really cared about, with the possible exception of the older woman Jean. And in describing Jean in her Sarasota garden, the author writes: "She could smell the bougainvillea and hibiscus." A 30-second Google search would have informed the author that bougainvillea has no scent, and only a very few uncommon types of hibiscus do, and that is only a faint scent. This just seemed like such sloppy research--why not use jasmine and plumeria and make it realistic, instead of having the distraction of an error? Especially since the "garden" is part of the title, and presumably Jean's garden has some symbolic meaning. I don't really know because I cut my losses and stopped reading on page 175. It was just too long, and I wasn't looking forward to picking it up. So many of Dubus' sentences are just beautiful; the prose itself is skillfully rendered throughout but, for me, I'm sorry to say the characters and story just didn't work. I will look forward to his next book with hope that it will be an engaging page-turner like HOSAF. Mary Lee Moser, author,There and Back: A Journal Companion for Special Needs Parents”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-13. -
Long and boring
“I did not like this book. It was slow,and dragged on and on...I finished it to see how it ends...and like the rest of the book, it was disappointing. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-10.
