Acclaimed Books That I Hated

I hated every minute of House of Sand and Fog – not sure why I finished it – maybe I was hoping for a surprise ending.  The only surprise was the fact that the book was as completely dreary at the end as it was from the very beginning.  I have generally come to believe that, with few exceptions, I despise Oprah’s Book Club books.  One exception that I can think of is The Road.  I loved The Road.  But back to the subject.  I hated House of Sand and Fog.  It was a book of despair and hopelessness.  I didn’t sympathize with any of the characters and I thought it was anti-American.  I was reminded about this book today when reading Debbie Schlussel - and *so surprised* that the author, Dubus, has come out with another anti-American “novel” about…wait for it…9/11 from the point of view of the islamic terrorists.  It is called The Garden of Last Days and it is sympathetic to the plight of the terrorists as they prepare to meet their virgins:

And it’s very sympathetic. The Wall Street Journal, which, sadly, is recommending this book for its summer reading list, calls it

“a fact-based novel in which a terrorist behind the Setp. 11 attacks goes to Florida strip clubs, grappling with his mission and American temptations.”

 Being a hypocrite doesn’t make you anymore sympathetic or indicate any form of “grappling” or struggle with the mass murder of 3,000 Americans.

How many people truly think any of these 19 cold-hearted Muslims “grappled” with anything relating to the murder of thousands of Americans? You saw the video last will and testament of several of them, including Mohammed Atta. They were smiling and laughing. This was something they were focused on for well over a year and something they were quite proud of. They shouted Allahu Akbar [Allah is the Greatest, ie., greater than that of the Christians and Jews and all others]. They slit the throats of crew members on the flights.

And get this, Oprah author Dubus says he feels sympathy for the 9/11 hijackers [...]

“The author’s sympathy for all of his characters draws in the reader. ‘I don’t know if I believe in villains,’ Mr. Dubus says. ‘I believe in villainous behavior.’”

Wow, this is the worst perversion of the Christian “hate the sin, love the sinner” tenet, I’ve heard yet. Trust me, if his kids or wife were on one of those planes on 9/11, he’d believe in villains.

Even more disgusting is the reaction of some booksellers pimping this piece of garbage:

“‘You’ll care about these people even as you’re horrified by what they’re doing’, says Mike Barnard, owner of Rakestraw Books, Danville Calif.”  (emphasis mine)

 

Lovely stuff.