Pet Peeve

One of the great benefits of an extended vacation in a place like Maine is the opportunity it provides for uninterrupted reading. I read every day, thirty minutes here, an hour there. But up here, I can read like it’s my job. So far, two novels completed, half way through a third. If you think that’s a lot, Kaitlin is on number six! 

A quick word and one pet peeve about one of the books I’ve read...

Back in 1999 a guy named Andre Dubus III wrote a novel called House of Sand and Fog, which became a National Book Award finalist and was later made into a movie starring Ben Kingsley. I found it in the book case downstairs, read the reviews and said, why not?...Ok, Dubus can write. Really well. But, never perhaps in the history of literature, has so much exquisite prose been wasted on so vile and pointless a story. Without knowing it, he wrote a novel that, if anti-government folks actually read, they would have hailed as their manifesto. Of course, this notion would never have occurred to Mr. Dubus who, no doubt, is most likely a raging leftist. Neither did it occur to any of the reviewers of this work who spent all of their time gushing over its empathy and longing. Here’s the problem...caution: spoiler alerts follow!!!

Kathy is a troubled young woman who cleans houses while living in the one thing her father gave her upon his death, a bought and paid for house in California. Colonel Behrani, is a former official associated with the autocrat, Shah Rena Pahlavi of Iran, who has just been overthrown and murdered by the radical mullahs back home. Behrani and his family had to flee the country because to stay would have meant execution. The trouble is, the Colonel is having a hard time adjusting to his greatly diminished life in America, where he works a series of odd jobs while living beyond his means to keep up appearances and to assuage his crushed ego. Lester, is a police officer with the local county who serves an eviction notice to Kathy in the first few pages of the book, for unpaid taxes. Of course, he falls for Kathy, out of the aforementioned empathy. Kathy is thrown out on the street despite claiming not to know anything about any back taxes. Meanwhile, the good Colonel, out of desperation to restore his family name and fortunes, decides to buy a house at auction with what remains of his nest egg, fix it up and sell it for a hefty profit. Naturally, his first auction yields him Kathy’s house, which he purchases for a mere $40,000. Immediately, he moves his family into the house that Kathy has been kicked out of. Like night follows day, Kathy ends up shacked up with Lester and thus begins the tragic downward spiral which ultimately results in the following:

- the murder/ suicide of Colonel Behrani and his wife

- the death of their son from a gunshot wound administered by a county policeman

- the incarceration of Kathy and Lester for the rest of their miserable lives

Halfway through the book, we discover that all of this Greek tragedy has been set in motion by the feckless and incompetent county government of San Mateo, who had been sending delinquent tax notices to Kathy’s house because of a spelling error. In fact, Kathy owed nothing to the county. Therefore, not only was she evicted illegally, the ensuing sale of her house at auction to Colonel Behrani was itself illegal! No where in this story does the county government suffer any consequences for their bureaucratic bumbling. In fact, their coffers were enriched by $40,000, and one of their employees killed a teenage boy as a bonus! Mr. Dumus doesn’t even make an attempt to address this outrage, since he’s so fixated in examining the cultural clash involved. 

Isn’t this always the way it goes in life? Some pencil pushing functionary down at the county can’t spell, and before you know it, three people are dead and two others get life in prison! But, guess who gets off Scott free? That’s right...our public servants. Like the apologists for the Soviet Union used to say...if you’re going to make an omelette, you’ve got to break a few eggs.

End of rant. No more literary criticism. My next blog will be back to vacation news. Or maybe I’ll follow my daughter’s advice and give the people what they want..a blog about Kaitlin!