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Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679764021
Edition: 1st Vintage contemporaries ed
ISBN: 067976402X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 460
Publication Date: September 26, 1995
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: September 26, 1995
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
This is the kind of book where you can smell and hear and see the fictional world the writer has created, so palpably does the atmosphere come through. Set on an island in the straits north of Puget Sound, in Washington, where everyone is either a fisherman or a berry farmer, the story is nominally about a murder trial. But since it's set in the 1950s, lingering memories of World War II, internment camps and racism helps fuel suspicion of a Japanese-American fisherman, a lifelong resident of the islands. It's a great story, but the primary pleasure of the book is Guterson's renderings of the people and the place.
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner AwardAmerican Booksellers Association Book of the Year AwardSan Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries--memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched. Gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric, Snow Falling on Cedars is a masterpiece of suspense-- one that leaves us shaken and changed."Haunting.... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper."--Los Angeles Times"Compelling...heartstopping. Finely wrought, flawlessly written."--The New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - An interesting book
What I enjoyed most about this novel was Mr. Guterson's facility with descriptive language. I just loved the snow storm--though I also thought he had his characters moving around in it entirely too much--and I liked his casually elegant way of getting into his characters' heads and hearts to explain their histories.
So why only 3 stars? Because I was ultimately unconvinced by the book. By that, I mean that he wasn't as successful as he should have been in intertwining the book's themes ... Read More
Rating:  - "Let Fate, Coincidence and Accident Conspire; Human Beings Must Act on Reason..."
The clearest thing I'll take away from my reading experience of "Snow Falling on Cedars" is simply how fast it took me to race through it. I like to take my time reading books - especially if I find them enjoyable - but I found myself speeding through the chapters of David Guterson's debut novel at an alarming rate. It was nearly impossible to put down thanks to the clear yet sophisticated prose, the intriguing and well-paced "whodunit" aspect of the story and the slow unraveling of both the minds and ... Read More
Rating: - An interesting examination of the human soul
Compelling and hard to summarize, this book struck me most for its amazing organization and its beautiful prose. Set on a fictitious Island, this book examines post WWII prejudice against Japanese Americans, covers a murder trial, and examines love and passion. The only fault I had with it is that at some times the descriptions of the things going on in the book struck me as a bit perverse.
Rating: - A Beautiful Story
What amazed me about this book was the way the story was told. It's kind of a courtroom drama, kind of a romance, and very much a commentary on the state of a torn and divided nation after World War II. On the North end of Puget Sound there was a murder and the accused, Kabuo Miyamoto is a friend turned enemy of Carl Heine, now deceased.
The way it's told is the magic, as I alluded to earlier. It's like peeling layers on the silent man, Miyamoto and the entire island of San Piedro. Each ... Read More
Rating: - A Masterpiece
A very powerful book, the kind you remember. A fascinating study of the tragedy that is racism. Brilliant.
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