House of Sand and Fog pp.1-45

Discussion Guide House of Sand and Fog pp.1-45

Please use lined paper to answer these questions.


Why does Colonel Behrani hold such contempt for his fellow road crew workers? How does he show it?


What has happened to the Behrani family in Iran to cause them to emigrate to California?
Why does the author describe the death of the general in such graphic detail?

Why can the family not ever return to their homeland?

How does Behrani maintain the fiction that he is still wealthy and has an important job?

How have his daughter’s wedding and his wife’s insistence on maintaining a façade affected the colonel’s decision to hide his real occupations?

What is behind Behrani’s extreme dislike of the hotel front desk manager?

Explain how the colonel is able to buy Kathy’s house for such a low price.

How do the colonel’s son and wife react to the news that they will move?

How does the colonel react in return?

Irish Jimmy tells Kathy when she portrays California as the land of mild and honey,
“Dat’s what they say of this country back home, Kath…. But they never tell you the milk’s gone sour and the honey is stolen.”
Relate this to Kathy’s situation in beginning of the novel. Why has losing her house hit Kathy extraordinarily hard?

What symbolic meanings could we attach to the red Bonneville?

Why is Kathy’s mother so concerned about her? What do you suppose keeps Kathy from confiding in her mother and asking for help?

Comment on the following:
Colonel Behrani’s feelings about his fellow road crew workers.
Why Dubus chooses to include the Farsi dialogue in the story.
The Americanization of Esmail
. Behrani’s description of the desk clerk in the hotel.
The reason why the county was so easily able to take Kathy’s home.
Possible meanings of the novel’s title.