Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I saw the movie its opening weekend because I love the book so much. However, I do not feel the movie did the book justice. In fact, anyone who had not read the novel before seeing the movie would have been very confused in the theatre.The book is great, however. It perfectly intertwines several stories revolving around the murder trial of Kazuo Miyamoto. Before the war the Japanese and Americans lived very well together. Ishmael and Hatsue(now Kazuo's wife)fell in love. Carl and Kazuo were friends. Of course the two cultures on the island were very different. They had their problems, but everything was peaceful. When WWII came the aura of the island changed dramatically. There was no more sympathy between the two cultures. This great novel shows how the feelings of the past affeect the actions of the present to determine the fate of a man on trial.
Rating: 
Summary: Distant novel
Review: The books reads like the snow falling on cedars...slow and cold. The plot drifts and seems very detached. Didn't like it very much. I liked the attention to detail and the novel approach to race relations.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking and thoughtful
Review: This was a wonderful book. But I agree that it is not for everyone. It is primarily charcter driven, and not plot driven. Is it a great mystery? No. It is, though, a wonderful exploration of the human heart and how events beyond our control can change our lives forever. It is a book that provoked much thought in me. It makes you shake your head in sadness at how prejudices interfere with love and people's dreams.
Rating:
Summary: Very touching tale
Review: The book was marvelous to read and for once the movie really lived up to the book. It's a book that won't fade away in your memory. If you've ever been really in love,you'll enjoy it at a personal level, and then some. SIGH.......
Rating:
Summary: monumentally inessentical reading
Review: I read this book because I heard it had won many awards. Boy was I dissappointed. The writing is painfully turgid and unfocused. The stereotypes of Asians in this book is not as blatant and harmful, but they are still pretty silly and distracting. Even though the author tries to be more fair to Asians, he still can't get over the Asian fetishism in this novel. Since the book centers around a Japanese-American man on trial for murder, one would suppose the book is about him. Instead the author spends most of his time on a gratuitous, silly, nauseating, contrived love affair between the man's Japanese-American wife and a white reporter. I think the book would have been much less irritating without that subplot, but I suspect that is the main selling point of the novel, since anything that exoticizes Asian womens as sex object seems to sell well nowadays. I suppose one good thing about this book (and its inexplicable popularity) is that it's making people more aware of the terrible treatment of the nisei during WWII. I only wish the author had spent more time researching that topic and focused on it. That would have made a more interesting and intelligent book. This book is alright if you're really bored and you want a book that won't take up too many brain cells. But really, why would one read this book when there are so many books far superior to this one?
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Novel David Guterson is our modern day Steinbeck
Review: I read Snow for a book report in my English class. Read half way thru then saw the movie. It is powerful stuff. The theme of racism and prejudice,fear, love and hate are well developed in characters so full of life they seem to be real people. The love story is especially touching. Ismael and Hatsue and their forbidden love affair. But also Ismael's war experience, the Japanese suffrage and the murder trial that spands through the novel. It's a romance, a mystery and a powerful novel of human trials. I recommend the book. And the snow falling is poetic.
Rating: 
Summary: snow falling on cedars
Review: If this is the standard for a great novel nowadays, I know I'll never be able to write one. The novel is interesting to the end, and I think fairly balanced, giving the reader reason to understand the emotions of both sides and how they came about. However, it seems to me this author is overly concerned with the male sexual organ, in a few paragraphs, for some reason or another, without adding value to the story. Finally, this book would be an excellent Cliff Notes' candidate, as his descriptions and use of adjectives can easily be described as superfluous. This book, like many could easily be condensed. One misses nothing by merely glancing over whole paragraphs. It can also be seen, however, that the author spent a great deal of time on this work and and must have gone through many a draft to perfect his wording and plot. He is surely a very patient and gifted writer.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice weekend novel
Review: I wouldn't go so far as to say that this was a great novel, although it wasn't bad. I will say that if you are looking for high action and suspense, this might not be what you're looking for. On the other hand, it's the thing if you're looking for a little relaxation. The prose is beautiful and *very* detailed - the author seems very interested in making sure the reader sees what he is seeing. The atmosphere becomes as important as the story. It's a nice weekend read, but doesn't have enough depth to make it "great".
Rating:
Summary: Enthralled but Disappointed
Review: Normally, I hate books that are very descriptive, but this book has a wonderful style and story that makes it hard to put down. I became so interested in the characters and their stories--especially Ishmael and Hasue's relationship. But, in the end, I was disappointed by the lives that Ishmael and Hatsue lived, and their characters confused me. I am half-Japanese, and I was hoping to read a novel about a successful interracial relationship for once. But the author is right when he states that his characters' hearts cannot be understood.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy the hype--this one's no classic
Review: This book is definitely a quick read, but the prose gets way too heavy after a while (yes, yes, mimicking the snow, but its gets SO old...) And I totally agree that the end is a yawn, and leaves a lot of loose ends. And the characters don't really ever seem to change. This book is long on description and short on characterization. How can this be best summarized? A rich man's supermarket pageturner, and a poor man's serious novel.... This doesn't make it bad, it just makes it overrated compared to its enthusiastic reviews. (As for Guterson, he has promise. He's a step above the Clancys, but he has a ways to go to reach the likes of DeLillo, Vonnegut, and Morrison.)
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