East of the Mountains

Rating:
Summary: The Strength of the Human Spirit
Review: East of the Mountains by David Guterson is a moving account of the strength of the human spirit. Ben Givens, a retired heart surgeon who has been diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer, takes the reader on a hunting trip designed to cover up his planned suicide. Though actually spanning one week of time, Givens adventure in the high desert of Eastern Washington State guides us through a lifetime of memories and leads us to a deeper understanding of Ben's desire to end his life. Guterson's style of slow and patient writing adds to the feeling that his main character is winding down, putting things in perspective and trying to make sense of a life that he can no longer control. Guterson writes with the wisdom of someone who has experienced the slow process of forced acceptance.

Through vivid flashbacks and visual descriptions, Guterson paints a picture of Given's childhood in the apple orchards along the east bank of the Columbia, the area itself, and how he met and fell in love with Rachel. When Ben is called to serve his country in World War II, he witnesses death first hand on the battlefields in Italy's Apennines, and is awed by the power of healing that emanates from the hands of the Army doctor. This experience leads Givens to choose a fulfilling career as a thoracic surgeon. After marrying Rachel and fathering a daughter, Ben is sustained by the love and devotion of his family, the power of healing others, and the richness of personal accomplishments. When Rachel dies, Ben realizes how deeply his own sense of self was rooted in his relationship with his wife; now, only nineteen months after his wife's death, Ben is faced with the onset of colon cancer. The fight or flight syndrome is even more intense for a surgeon who is personally acquainted with the process of a slow death. "Ben was aware of regions of pain so terrible, they obliterated all arguments"(p 15). Ben envisions the burden and pain that such a painful fatal illness will inflict on both him and his loved ones; he turns to the alternative-suicide. "Like all physicians, he knew the truth of such a verdict; he knew full well the force of cancer and how inexorably it operated. Better to end it now, he'd decided; better to avoid pain than to engage it" (p 4).

However, the human spirit clings to life, and as Ben Givens spends a week in the east side of the mountains, he encounters several people who influence and help him to discover his inner strength. After Ben wrecks his 1969 International Scout at Snoqualmie Pass, he nearly loses his eye and alters his immediate plans. Ben meets a couple of incense-carrying "forevers" who remind him of youthful desires and a drifter who provides him with marijuana to ease his pain. Givens encounters a coyote hunter and survives a wild nighttime standoff with a ravenous pack of Irish wolfhounds, leaving one of his dogs dead and the other critically injured. Ben tests his physical endurance as he carries his wounded pet from the desert to a veterinarian where her touch reminds him of the power in a surgeon's hands. As his journey continues, he meets a migrant worker who tries his ability to understand and comes face to face with a situation that questions his identity as a physician. However, Ben's skill saves the life of a mother and infant in a very harrowing delivery, and life begins to take on new meaning for Ben. "Things looked different" (p 264). Guterson makes us understand that even when the body gets old and betrays us, the human spirit is ageless and can endure.

Ben Given's decision to end his life is not so shocking considering the road ahead of him; however, his inner strength to find a new path toward his final passing is inspiring. In the unhurried quiet of Ben's soul, truth was affirmed. Ben's encounters with people on the east side of the mountains taught him that life is a gift filled with purpose and beauty, and that even in the darkest hours, the human spirit can reach out and touch someone's heart. Guterson reminds us that we are all human, that we do not want to suffer, and that it takes an extremely strong person to live life fully when faced with the finality of death.

Rating:
Summary: Well written, thought-provoking story
Review: East of the Mountains is a simple story. Ben Givens, a Seattle-area doctor in his 70s, learns he has terminal cancer. Knowing the horror of the disease's course, he decides to take his life but to make it look like a hunting accident so his family doesn't have to know about the disease or that he took his life. The book takes place over the next few days as he tries to carry out his plan but is foiled, first by a car accident that ironically nearly takes his life, and then by a series of quests to rescue his hunting dog and to aid some migrant farm workers. He treats these events as diversions that interrupt but don't deter his goal, and yet there is an odd incongruity in his concern about the daily details of life when one would expect him to be letting go.

Like Guterson's earlier book, Snow Falling on Cedars, this book is beautifully written and a pleasure to read. The main character, Ben Givens, is very richly described. He comes to life both through a series of flashbacks that flesh out his history as well as through the detailed description of his matter-of-fact reactions to the events occurring in the present. The other characters in the book play only small roles, and yet most of them felt real, each one adding interest to the story. Givens has a gift for portraying characters succintly through choice details. Consider this introduction of the veterinarian who helps save the dog:

"The veterinarian was a solid young woman with the sturdy hands and face of a farmgirl and thick, soda-bottle glasses. She spoke in the direct, firm way of the country, with the vigorous practicality and certainty that had remade the sage desert into fields. Kneeling in the parking lot, she examined Rex, and Ben guessed she was not yet thirty, even though her professional manner suggested years of experience. There was something irrepressibly young in her, some vague crack in her doctorly demeanor through which her private self seeped as she introduced herself as Dr. Peterson and made note of his blackened eye without commenting on it."

Beyond enjoying the characters and the storytelling, I experienced this book as a reminder to appreciate the dailiness of life, the small interactions with strangers, the minor obstacles we overcome along the way. I especially appreciated Ben's inability to disconnect from these concerns, even when it all should have seemed trivial from the perspective of life and death. I took Guterson to be saying that those details *are* what matters when seen in the right perspective.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful tale of a life-changing journey
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Better than Snow Falling on Cedars
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Another gift from Guterson
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book...
Review: 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.