Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel

I thought this was a good read. A historical novel: when a Japanese-American WWII vet is accused of murder in 1950’s America, all kinds of emotional baggage comes out - legal questions; prejudice; jealousy; love; hate; and Post-Traumatic-Stress about being in war. I liked the imagery of the American Northwest - how the land was never quite the same when the community faced upheaval from...more

I thought this was a good read. A historical novel: when a Japanese-American WWII vet is accused of murder in 1950’s America, all kinds of emotional baggage comes out - legal questions; prejudice; jealousy; love; hate; and Post-Traumatic-Stress about being in war. I liked the imagery of the American Northwest - how the land was never quite the same when the community faced upheaval from the war. The scenes about what it must have been like in the US on the day of and after Pearl Harbor - strangely reminded me of how we experienced 9/11/01 and 9/12/01 here in NYC; for a book published in 1995, it reminds me of how some things are quite evocative. "Snow Falling on Cedars" has weaknesses as a mystery or a romance, but it was a still a good read.   hide

i had this book with me for more then one year, but i never cared to open it, its because of my busy schedule but one day, i found that they are showing a movie based on the book, and because, i prefer a book over its movie, i thought to finish, and i was really glad, i read it finally. Its a well crafted book, with emphasis of the details, with nice plot, david gutterman described the psychology...more

i had this book with me for more then one year, but i never cared to open it, its because of my busy schedule but one day, i found that they are showing a movie based on the book, and because, i prefer a book over its movie, i thought to finish, and i was really glad, i read it finally. Its a well crafted book, with emphasis of the details, with nice plot, david gutterman described the psychology of the japanese living in northwest US during world war 2 and post war. the plot is also very moving, and it keeps u absorved in it   hide

This was a good book and I felt good reading it. Even the name of the book sounds good.

I enjoyed this book. It was slow going, but I liked all of the subplots. Sometimes a book begs to be thoroughly read, and this is one of them.

Superb book. I came to it late, it having been published in 1994. But it had all the best ingredients of a great book. It is built around a courtroom drama, which is good if well done (and it is), it mixes in a snowstorm and the effect on a fishing village of the snowstorm. It then throws in the relationships between Japanese-Americans and other Americans in the postwar and pre-war eras. It tells...more

Superb book. I came to it late, it having been published in 1994. But it had all the best ingredients of a great book. It is built around a courtroom drama, which is good if well done (and it is), it mixes in a snowstorm and the effect on a fishing village of the snowstorm. It then throws in the relationships between Japanese-Americans and other Americans in the postwar and pre-war eras. It tells the stories of several of these people to illustrate the good and the bad of relationships, living and the effect of war. And it ties together with a satisfying ending. I haven't read as good a book as this for a while. Recommended!   hide

I found it rather absorbing, not just from a dramatic standpoint but from a stylistic standpoint as well. The prose was great, and, at some points, brilliantly poetic, especially during some of Ishmael's reflections on naturalism. The story was also absorbing and the use of flashbacks just added to the overall completeness of the story. My main criticisms of it I guess would be that I never...more

I found it rather absorbing, not just from a dramatic standpoint but from a stylistic standpoint as well. The prose was great, and, at some points, brilliantly poetic, especially during some of Ishmael's reflections on naturalism. The story was also absorbing and the use of flashbacks just added to the overall completeness of the story. My main criticisms of it I guess would be that I never really bought the love story at all. It was good from a functional standpoint in the story but it seemed rather generic from a literary standpoint (maybe thrown together and uncreative would be a better phrase). I also would have really liked to see Nel and especially Alvin developed more. Alvin was painfully flat, and I think he could been used to maybe show a bitter more lucidly the prejudices of the town. However, these criticisms are rather just quibbles in comparison to the rest of the book. All the moods through the book coupled with the overall introspective feel of the book makes this a great reading experience. Is it five stars worthy? Perhaps not, but it's definitely one of the best fiction books I've read in a while.   hide

Snow Falling on Cedars By: David Guterson 4/5 This was one of my challenge books for 2010, as I have always had this book in possession for a few years now and never ever picked it up to read, even though I have heard great things about it. I didn’t even really know what it was about when I first picked it up, or when it was taking place. Snow Falling on Cedars takes place in a few times...more

Snow Falling on Cedars By: David Guterson 4/5 This was one of my challenge books for 2010, as I have always had this book in possession for a few years now and never ever picked it up to read, even though I have heard great things about it. I didn’t even really know what it was about when I first picked it up, or when it was taking place. Snow Falling on Cedars takes place in a few times mostly during WWII and then 10 years after the war, taking place on a small island in the Northwest of America. Since those times many things have changed including perceptions of people and the way we look at the world. The story involves many different families on an island, a close tight community that is mixed with Japanese Americans at a very difficult time. The story is a trial story, intertwined with individual stories of linked stories on the island. The story can be a story of childhood love lost, or of a murder trial that is unjust and prejudice, or the story of a small town during a brutal snow storm, or of maintaining relationships. There are many characters like Hatsue, Ischmael, Kabuo, Carl Hein, Susan Marie, and more, of which we learn a little by little of their intertwined lives. This was my first experience with David Guterson and his work, and I am not even clear if he wrote more books. I love the intertwined lives, and the suspense of the trial. Is there a deeper meaning in this book? Maybe. Does the snow resemble cleanness and impurity of the island? I guess not, I could not see that, as there are very few people who are hesitant to point a finger at JAP! The story does have 4 different settings that actions happen, which is the town, the sea and boats, the strawberry fields, and the cedar forest. Looking simply at the forest it seems to be the place of secrets as if the trees that are together can better hide a person, and yes even a secret love affair. The sea is open, and large calm and at time ferocious. The dense fogs that lays across the harbor also can hide many secrets as well, as secret dealing between fisherman that by character are men of few words. Most scenes on the sea talk about the calmness of things to come. The strawberry fields are scenes that take the reader to think about the larger aspects of life, like the future and families. Most of these scenes are talking about children and working in them, they create a sense of security, which is why maybe a lack of field for Kabuo meant a lack of this secure feeling. And lastly the town, which seems to have the most harsh scenes of brutal winter storms. This to means might portray the brutal and mixed up feelings of the people in the town about the war and a people that they were trained to think to hate. The reason I give this book only a 4 out of 5 is due to the amount of pages and sometimes and unnecessary discussion of family backgrounds that were unnecessary, such as learning about Ischmael’s father, or maybe the life of Fujiko as maybe I don’t see the point of learning that much. I would have liked to learn more about the main characters.   hide

Completely absorbing, but left me thirsty for more detail. Perhaps just because the historical context was so unknown to me, but either way, I was hungry to know more about what happened to both the Japanese and American families in the US North-West after 1941.The mentions of all the different families by surname, the glimpses of their lives as we followed our characters through what was itself...more

Completely absorbing, but left me thirsty for more detail. Perhaps just because the historical context was so unknown to me, but either way, I was hungry to know more about what happened to both the Japanese and American families in the US North-West after 1941.The mentions of all the different families by surname, the glimpses of their lives as we followed our characters through what was itself merely a glance into backstory, made me constantly enquire as to "what happened to everyone else?" And maybe that's the point. Inspiring.   hide

What a beautiful book! Guterson did a great job at developing all the characters, not only the main ones. The passages regarding Hisao and Fujiko Imada are beautiful - in a couple of paragraphs, you see a love story growing from the seed to become a strong tree. Carl and Susan Marie's relationship is also beautifully described. I don't want to spoil the story to anybody, but I felt my heart was...more

What a beautiful book! Guterson did a great job at developing all the characters, not only the main ones. The passages regarding Hisao and Fujiko Imada are beautiful - in a couple of paragraphs, you see a love story growing from the seed to become a strong tree. Carl and Susan Marie's relationship is also beautifully described. I don't want to spoil the story to anybody, but I felt my heart was broken just like Ishmael's was. Why is life so complicated? At the same time, I can understand Hatsue's reasons. The author showed in a few short lines a woman trapped in the body of a teenager, who has to make adult decisions. My favortie part is on p443 (because it's so true - especially the last sentence): "(...)He cut through the dell of snow-covered ferns to the hollow tree of his youth. Ishmael sat inside for a brief time with his coat wrapped tightly around him. He listened to the world turned silent by the snow; there was absolutely nothing to hear. The silence of the world roared steadily in his ears while he came to recognize that he did not belong here, he had no place in the tree any longer. Some much younger people should find this tree, hold it tightly as their deepest secret, as he and Hatsue had. For them it might stave off what he could not help but see with clarity: that the world was silent and cold and bare and that in this lay its terrible beauty." This book makes me want to go to Washington state and experience all this natural beauty.   hide