House of Sand and Fog

I picked up this book at the same time I selected Family and Other Accidents.  I think this was the book that stopped me reading adult fiction for a while.  I selected this book because I know that a movie has been made of it, and while I haven't seen the movie, I've thought about it.  

An ex-Iranian military man dreams of owning his own place and beginning to attain a level of life similar to that which he left behind.  A woman gets wrongly evicted from her house and her house sold at auction.  What would you do to keep your dreams?  What would you do to get your dreams back?  

These are the questions that are the main focus of this book.  While I found this book a very interesting read, it is not happy by any means.  The ending, while not a surprise, was worse because I saw it coming.  Very well written and just goes to show that you don't need a book to be positive for it to be effective.  Actually, now that I think about it, most well written books aren't positive.  Why do you think that is?