Snow Falling on Cedars : A Novel

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Summary: Wonderful, evocative writing
Review: I'd highly recommend this book. It is more evocative of scene than most others I've read, and the plot kept me engaged throughout.

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Summary: A life-altering book
Review: I was so moved by this book. I had always known what was done to the people of Japanese ancestry during WWII, but this really book really brought home to me what it must have been like for ordinary people. The book also works very well as a murder mystery, with suspense up until the very end. I loved the characters, who seemed like real people with the descriptions of their histories and daily lives. This was the best book I had read since Stones From the River.

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Summary: Very enjoyable!
Review: Easy to read and to follow the flashbacks. Appreciated author's handling of sensitive issues such as internment camps and racism during WW II. Very vivid descriptions of way of life in Puget Sound during first half of the century!

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Summary: The only good thing about it is its cover photo
Review: I hated this book so much that I had to search it out on amazon.com to prevent other people from believing that Guterson has portrayed anything but a stereotyped version of the Japanese American experience in maudlin, excruciatingly forced language. I cannot believe I made it through the book. As a Japanese American woman who grew up in Seattle and Honolulu, I find the book to be utterly boring, formulaic, and ANNOYING. If you can say one thing for Guterson (judging from the polarized reviews of this book), it is that he made a good choice on a cover photo. The peaceful, misty photo of the San Juans deceived those of us who can't stand fatuous writing to buy and read this book. If you haven't read it DON'T. I agree with the reviewer who asked "why can't we give zero stars?" -- three of my friends and I ask the same question.

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Summary: Okay, but not my favorite
Review: Snow Falling on Cedars is a good book other than having too much description. The war description seemed to be pretty good. When the Japanese had to leave their home before they could make the last few payments for the land was interesting how it got twisted around. I liked the historical events that were mixed into the story without you even noticing. The sex scenes were a little more than I wanted to know. Overall, it was an okay book. But it wasn't one of my favorites.

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Summary: Snow Falling on Cedars is more than a mystery
Review: Snow Falling on Cedars is a history of past events that the characters went though years before the trial. Much of the reading covers events that tie all of the characters together. All of these characters meet at the trial to find out the fate of Kabuo. The story takes many sudden turns, but it does seem to start slow. Only read this book if you have a lot of time to spare and an interest in mysteries.

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Summary: Unless you have to read it, leave it on the bookshelf
Review: I was bored out of my mind reading this book. I thought it was slow paced and the vocabulary gave me many difficulties. It didn't like the content of the book. The storyline made me very confused and the flashbacks were also hard to understand. I would not recommend reading this book. To me it is aimed at the adult audience.

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Summary: Well Sucky book
Review: I think that this book was way too long and it wasnt even that good. It was very shady and talked about thinks that dosent even make any sense what so ever. There was definitly no reason for the scene where the poor man got his penis head shot off. Also, I think there were too many sex scenes.

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Summary: It's been done many times before
Review: Coming to this site, I am pleased to see that my opinion about this book doesn't stand alone. I don't see why this book has received the accolades it has. The plot itself is manageable enough, but I think that the writer's style was deliberate and slow to the point where I felt he became TOO conscious of his technique, and this became apparent on paper. It wasn't until I was already 150 pages into the book that I determined that I had read too much to simply toss it aside, and that for the sake of the Pen/Faulkner award it garnered, I should try to read it to completion. Now I wonder why I did. I guess the love story was compelling/sad in that manufactured kind of way, but this coupled with the author's contrived style ( of long, rambling descriptions) made it all feel a bit too force-fed.

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Summary: Could it be any more boring?
Review: At first glance of the cover of Snow Falling on Cedars one would not expect a love story, but this is exactly what the book is, a love story. Although the books' cover claims it to be a mysterious trial of a man named Kabuo, that is just a small part of the story. Instead, the story is really about Ishmael and his love for Kabuo's wife. Snow Falling on Cedars is a very well written book, but tends to be too descriptive. If you are looking for a fast pace book with a lot of twists and mysterious characters, Snow Falling on Cedars is NOT the book for you.