Customer Reviews

Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel

5 star:		(196)
4 star:		(189)
3 star:		(111)
2 star:		(66)
1 star:		(41)

 

 

The year is 1954 and Kabuo Miyamoto a Japanese American fisherman is standing trial for murder in small town in Puget Sound Washington. Up until World War II, his family was growing strawberries and making payments towards owning the land they lived and worked on. With the onset so the war left for the land, they were sent away to a Japanese internment camp. After the war ended they came back to Puget Sound only to find the land that they had struggled for was sold.

The narrator of the story was the journalist covering the trial, Ishmael Chambers. As a child, he played with and later fell in love with Hatsue. When she was sent to the Japanese internment camp with her family, she sent Ishmael a "Dear John" letter. When she returned to Puget Sound, she was married to Kabuo Miyamoto.

Ishmael never stopped loving Hatsue and may be the only one to be able to uncover the truth and set Kabuo free. Will he let his feelings get in the way of doing the right thing?

This is a book of love, friendship, betrayal, honor, tradition, and racism. David's Guterson's characters ring true to me. His writing flows beautifully as he peels away the layers of the town and it's inhabitants. This is a fast reading book that I didn't want to put down. I highly recommend it!

A beautifully written and crafted book. Through the story of a Japanese man on trial for the murder of a fisherman, Guterson brings to life the people of a remote island community, their histories, relations, loves and hatreds. In the process, he forces the reader to think about what defines humanity. The first time I started reading this I didn't get past the first several pages. Several years later, I tried again and was very glad I pressed on. By the time I was a third of the way through, I was hooked and impressed.

Tried this one because I like John Grisham, Robert Goddard, etc. This books starts off real well, but is too slow paced overall. I stopped reading it after about 100 pages in a passage with an endless description of the romance between 2 teenagers... Thought this book was better...

Many years passed between my viewing the film version of Snow Falling on Cedars and finally reading the book one morning when I was at a friend's house, awake many hours before she was. I was impressed by the stunning, detailed descriptions of landscapes, people (physically and mentally), and I appreciated the detailed way the story unfolded. Comparing the book to the film (which is always a bad idea), I can say that I enjoyed both. The book offers eloquent descriptions of characters, so you understand them with greater depth. Particularly important are the elegant portrayals of Kabuo, Hatsue, and Ishmael, and the narrative relies on flashback sequences to convey the characters' relationships to each other and to reveal the history of why each character is how he or she is. In the film, for example, Ishmael's bitterness is not fully developed, and Kabuo's character is not fleshed out well either. It was, for example, impossible for the movie to convey Kabuo's feelings as expressed in the book, e.g. "He had meant to project to the jurors his innocence, he's wanted them to see that his spirit was haunted," and, "It had seemed to Kabuo that his detachment from this world was somehow self-explanatory." Although the manner in which both Kabuo and Ishmael had been affected by the war was touched on in the film, the book delved deeply into these matters. The book helps bring the scenery and the people to life far more than the movie "incarnation" possibly could. That much is to be expected.

Having waited almost ten years to read this book, I found myself wondering why I had waited so long. SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS is a beautifully written tale of love, hate, deceit, hope, despair and mystery. David Guterson fleshes out his characters so brilliantly, one can't help but feel like they are visiting with people they see every day. It's hard to single out one character as more compelling than others, but there are several extremely original ones: Carl Heine, the victim, a strong, yet silent man, who wants to give his family a home to be proud of, who fishes only because there's little else to do; Ishmael Chambers, the newspaperman/war veteran, whose silent love of the defendant's wife brings him to a crossroads where life and death meet; Hatsue, the wife, whose recognition of her true feelings for Ishmael may have been brought about by circumstances alone. The book also shows a side of our American history that in retrospect is so shameful, in the way we treated Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. While one can readily understand our nation's fear at this time, herding them off to work camps with such despicable conditions was no way to treat these people. A tale of prejudice, indeed, yet within there are people whose love for each other carries them through.
SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS is a quiet, slow-moving, yet mesmerizing tale, and it's resolution, while acceptable, still leaves one feeling the sense of loss and hope that accompanied the tale.
Beautiful!

I really love this book. I could not put this book down and found myself reading it until 3 o'clock in the morning. I love David Gutterson is a master of storytelling. The best book I have ever read and I will keep this book forever. I also saw the movie and was absolutely moved by it but the book tells everything. I love Ishmael and the love of his life.
I wish there is another sequel to it, maybe when they get old they get back together.

Thanks David you are the best.

Carl Heine a local fisherman is found dead tangled up in his fishing net. The sheriff takes the body to be examined and the corner finds a head trauma that reminds him of the type of trauma caused by a gun butt, the type a Japanese soldier would be trained to inflict. The Sheriff searches the boat of the American citizen of Japanese descent, Kabuo, and finds enough evidence to charge him with the murder of Carl Heine.

"Snow Falling on Cedars" is a book that confronts racism and its blinding effect it has on intelligent people. The book takes place eight years after the end of the World War II and the people of San Piedro Island are mistrustful of the Japanese in their community. The Japanese of the community had been sent off to exile during the war losing all their possessions. Though Kabuo even served in the war fighting Germans on behalf of the Americans the town people are convinced he is responsible for Carl's death. The interesting point here is that Carl is of German descent, but since there is no great physical difference between him and the majority of the population like there is with the Japanese no one mistrusts Carl for an instant.

Ishmael the town reporter is a sorrowful character with no life to speak of. He was involved with Kabuo's wife when they were teenagers, but she detached herself from him and he became bitter and cursed the Japanese when he fought them in war for they reminded him of Hatsue and her lack of love for him. He carries a grudge for pretty much the rest of his life, and is a social outcast, much like Ishmael from "Moby Dick"

The book is about different types of losses, each character losing a different thing, Carl his life, Kabuo his freedom and his father's land, Hatsue her innocence, and Ishmael his love or physical obsession with Hatsue.

I found Hatsue fascinating; I could not figure out why she spent so much physical time with Ishmael who lusted after her in their private cedar tree, but ignored her in public. I was glad when Hatsue finally realized how wrong he was for her and that when she was with him it was wrong.

A satisfying read, but I did find myself skimming some areas because the book got wordy and repeated itself. It ended differently than I had predicted which is a pleasant surprise because I usually predict correctly.

With all that is going on in the world, somehow SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS is extremely relevant. Thankfully we learned something about the Japanese interrment during WWII and how not to treat people. But in some ways we still find ourselves wrestling with the same old demons. But what is truly amazing about this story is Guterson's handling of the matieral--material that might turn too emotional or dangerous in many other author's hands.

While I'm normally one to stick to a tried and true bestseller like "Da Vini Code" or "Bark of the Dogwood," I decided to give this book a chance. That, plus the fact that I didn't see the movie, made me want something slightly off the beaten path. What I found was an excellently written novel full of insight and warmth. The settings are just remarkable and Guterson has quite an eye for detail and the ability to translate them.

World War II sets the stage for this compelling and different tale. It's the 1950s, in Washington state, and the tensions between the Japanese and Americans is still thick in the air.

What's so amazing about this book is not the premise (which alone would make it worth reading), but rather its combination of genres. The only two other books that come to mind--books that combine genres so successfully--are Capote's IN COLD BLOOD, and McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Capote's book, at the time it was written, was a combination of mystery, fiction, fact, and superb gray area thrown in for good measure. The result was a hybrid novel. In McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, he combines styles and voices effectively. This, along with the hybridization of genres (mystery, fiction, history, literary,humor) makes it one of the most unique books out there, something akin to SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. And in Guterson's book, a similar effect is achieved. It's part mystery, part history, part romance, and certainly great literature. Then there is the racism theme (again, similar to McCrae, Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, or even the more recent SECRET LIFE OF BEES) which never really goes out of style.

But the most intriguing aspect of SNOW is that of character development and its relation to the plot. Rarely has an author so deftly woven the fabric of people, place, and history so well together. This, accompanied by the fact that not a lot of novels are set in this area of the country--the Pacific Northwest--makes it an interesting reall all-round.

This is one book you'll want to read more than once--it's not only entertaining, but a pleasure to curl up with. Do yourself a favor and buy it.

And the movie ain't half bad either . . .

Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD

The first page of the novel caught my attention. I found myself with a vivid image of the character introduced.

While strong descriptions can grab the attention, continuing along this vein gets monotonous. I feel as if I thumbed through way too much detail. Being concise would have gone a long way to helping me enjoy the story.

I felt rather numb by the time I got to the ending. I'm satisfied with how things ended. I just found all the previous verbosity took away my caring for the characters.

Of course, people that love reading lengthy descriptions might totally dig this. For me, I prefer things to get to the point.