Customer Reviews

East of the Mountains

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(58)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(34)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Guterson is certainly a wonderful wordsmith, and East of the Mountains is a perfect showcase for this talent. Unfortunately, I don't think he's a natural storyteller.

Like many novels with literary sensibilities, we witness a retelling of the central character's life, and we discover those pivotal moments that define the character's personality. We are also treated to a beautiful description of Washington State. But we see a much thinner plot than Snow Falling on Cedars. While the latter has a serviceable mystery and a large degree of historical tension to sustain the plot, I find that East of the Mountains really lacks a satisfying conflict to propel the story forward. A man, dying of cancer, meets a few interesting (and life affirming?) characters and then decides he loves life too much to commit suicide... Call me crazy, but it neither grabs nor holds my interest.

I plowed through right to the end, and was relieved that the novel is a fairly quick read, but I'm afraid that ineffable quality of an engaging narrative just isn't evident in this book.

Written beautifully with such a life affirming message. I could see the main character so clearly and he haunts me still. I loved this one and highly recommend it.

I'm quite suprised by the reviews that rate this book a poor follow up to Snow Falling on Cedars. They are very different books, and East of the Mountains is intentionally more focused on an internal journey of an individual man. If you understand that going in, the book completely lives up to what we expect from Guterson's writing.

It does lack the intricate weaving of multiple characters and storylines of Snow Falling on Cedars, but I really enjoyed the attention Guterson gives to Ben's character development. And no one has ever captured the essence of Eastern Washington like this author has--having lived there for 5 years (now in Seattle, much like the lead character), his visual portaits of the land are both accurate and stunning.

If you appreciate understanding what motivates characters, and enjoy rich, descriptive detail of landscapes, you will like this book.

The author of this book has wonderful literary talent. But unfortunately I found the work to be,if not downright pretentious, highly presumptuous. There was no story. The events were episodic, predictable and boring; points to be made by the author masquerading as plot. One cliche after another. Snow Falling on Cedars was much better but even those characters never really breathed life either. All the characters this author creates seem to have life happen in their close vicinity rather than that they lived.

Guterson's skills as a writer are unquestionable, as was demonstrated in his first book. However, East of the Mountains is no Snow Falling on Cedars. The writing is there, which kept me reading, but the plot is lacking. The story of a dying man on a journey toward death who encounters individuals who, *surprise*, each represent a little piece of himself was predictable and uninteresting.

One of the best aspects of Cedars was Guterson's character development and the author's subtle intertwining of those characters. This is not the case in his second book, as each character appears for only a few pages. I found myself much more interested in the migrant workers, the vagabond, and the kids in the VW bus than in the main character.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, it does feel as if Guterson rushed on this one. It's pretty good, but certainly not great.

I had never been to eastern Washington state -- until I read David Guterson's loving portrayal in this rich and understated novel of a sick old man trying to lose his life, and finding it in the process. Guterson's plain, beautiful prose in this book took me to that region of the U.S. His writing here reminded me of both Wallace Stegner and Willa Cather, both exemplars of loving and meticulous portrayals of the American west and its people.

The emotional descriptions are never overwrought, and because of that they are immensely affecting. Ben Givens is likable in spite of a stubborn thread. The flashback accounts of his halcyon youth on an apple farm are just gorgeous; you will smell the crisp apples hanging from the rows of trees and feel the love between young Ben and his brother, mother, and father. In Guterson's fictional world, husbands and wives love each other deeply and unwaveringly; children and elders operate from a platform of profound mutual respect and affection. What a pleasant change from much of today's ironic, cynical, nihilistic fiction about relationships!

I liked "Snow Falling..." very much, but I feel this book is the greater writerly achievement of the two. In my view, it vaults Guterson into the ranks of some of our finest regional and national fiction writers.

The premise of this novel seemed interesting and the author garnered a slew of accolades for Snow Falling on Cedars (though I haven't read that work). Based on the above I thought I'd give this a try. Unfortunately I found it a poor effort. The writing is uninspiring and the plot unimaginative. If Cedars was as good as the ratings indicate, Guterson either rushed this, or resurrected something he'd written before he developed his talent and had wisely stored away on a closet shelf, forgotten. With his Cedars' success, he pulled it out to foist on an unsuspecting public. Either that, or he and his publisher mimiced his East of the Mountains' character, Ben Givens, and were smoking dupe. I made it through 200 pages and skimmed the rest. Take my advice and skip the whole thing.

This is an excellent novel about a seventy-three year old widower who decides to take his life after learning he has terminal colon cancer to spare himself and his family the painful experience that is sure to come over the next few months. A retired surgeon, he plans to stage a gunshot accident while hunting for birds in the Yakima Valley which is "east of the mountains" from Seattle where he lives. He spends three days in the valley where he grew up as a boy during which he confronts other issues about life and death and reflects on some of the important events in his life while growing up. This is a thoughtful novel that speaks volumes regarding the value of life and how individuals affect the lives of others.

It is interesting to see how other people have reacted to this book in light of the success of "Snow Falling on Cedars." Second novels tend to be judged harshly, especially when people have expectations that the next book will somehow be the same as or a continuation of the first. "East of the Mountains" has a different premise and explores different issues than "Snow Falling on Cedars." Instead of dealing with issues of cultural expectations and community values, "East of the Mountains" is about personal fulfillment and the value of life. Ironically, despite the pallor of loss, it ultimately expresses more about hope than "Snow Falling on Cedars." Readers who can accept this book as its own work will find it to be a profound and carefully crafted story.

This book was my introduction to the author. It had contrived situations but the message regards how we encapsulate our lives and then regret the emptiness of our existence. This novel takes a suicidal individual out of his everyday life and thrusts him into situations where he faces life's complexities, it's frustrations and joys. In other words, he began to live again.

I read his first book after reading this, and though it was good I prefer East of the Mountain.

It'd be hard to top Snow Falling on Cedars, and D. Guterson hasn't quite done it with East of the Mountains. But it's definitely a worthwhile read, a quiet exploration of the meaning of life set against the certainty of death, whether it comes naturally or by suicide, which is the crux of this book. At the beginning, the protagonist, Ben, a retired surgeon, has been diagnosed with cancer, knows it's terminal, and sets off toward his childhood home in the Cascade Mts for the purpose of committing suicide. Like most of us, he dreads a slow inevitable decline in which he becomes a burden to his family. As he moves forward toward what he expects will be his death, at the same time he moves back in time to his past. Like a film rolling backwards in a story that's moving forward, readers are treated to the history and analysis of his whole life, the choices he made, and how those choices continue to affect him. The odd people he meets along the way contribute to his saga with their own incomplete stories. He is yanked back and forth between life and death decisions, hard choices, philosophically faced, reasoned with, and decided upon.
Beautiful rhythm and flow to the quiet, low-keyed writing, as well.