Snow Falling on Cedars : A Novel

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Summary: Overated and disappointing for Puget Sounders
Review: The only convincing parts of this yarn are about fishing.Guterson knows nothing of Japanese growers on the Sound. The letter from the Jpanese mother is as unrealistic as the description of the lack of supervision of Japanese american girls. Too politically correct to be meaningful.

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Summary: This was the 1950's in the Puget Sound
Review: This story does a masterful job of portraying the Puget Sound that I knew in the mid-50's. Growing up in Anacortes, I was moved by the description of life in the islands, the look and aromas of the environment, the changing nature of the waters and the lives and careers of the people. The pride and prejudice of the people was familiar and accurate. The one-armed man I worked with briefly at the pulp paper mill in Anacortes, was brought to mind. My summers of picking strawberries on commerical plots was resurrected, as was the fact that a brother worked for some time as a strawberry research technician for the Sakumas. It was fun to pluck the few geographical inaccuracies (Anacortes is also on an island) but more importantly, the characters were real and brought to mind the fishermen, the students, the small town newspaper, the police and other professionals that I knew. For me, this was a nostalgic trip and a book that I read to completion in very few sittings

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Summary: a book that's in memory always
Review: This book was one of the best books Iv'e ever read. I read it a while back, but bits and pieces of it come back to me time after time. This book provided a feeling Iv'e never had before while reading a book. This book clearly displays the harsh realaties of life. A must read, I plan on reading it again in the very near future

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Summary: good story but very disappointing
Review: When I first found out that I was going to read this novel for my college english course, I was excited because I knew that it had won many awards and was sure to be a good book. Boy, was I wrong. It had a good story line and an interesting plot, but it did not need half of what Guterson put in. The novel could have done without the graphic sex scenes and the the back grounds on Carl's wife and many other unimportant characters. I knew from the begining that Kabuo was innocent. Guterson presented too much evidence that could convict him and not an equal amount of evidence that could get him off. Overall, I was very upset about this novel. I did not see anything that great about it

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Summary: Distracting!!
Review: I am a sophomore in high school and this novel was on the recomended readers list for Sophomore Honors English. Being of curious mind and enjoying post war-time novels I checked it out of the library. As I read I began to notice how graphic the book became. It went into great detail of sexual acts and acts of sexual mutilation as well as masturbation and other topics which frankly embarassed me. My friends father wrote a letter to the School board aswell as the Governer of our state which was published the newspaper. We have requested that this letter be removed from the recommended reading list in all schools with the feeling that children of this age need not be exposed to this kind of depiction. I understand that there is a great literary value in this book but i feel that children my age will be distracted by the ammount of sexual and violent misconduct. Aside from that I feel that this book does depict very accurately the way many Japanese-Americans were treated after the war. Maybe I will be ready for this book again someday

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Summary: the words became pictures in my mind
Review: how refreshing in a best selling novel to find words that create pictures in the mind. the descriptions created a beautiful picture of the area and the characters. i never felt that the words were excessive...they just added more meaning and understanding of the characters and the story. it left me with a feeling that new fiction can take on the feeling of past classics

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Summary: Guterson took me by surprise
Review: When I cracked the cover of this book and read the first few pages, I groaned audibly. Not another bandwagon book dealing with courtroom drama... Thankfully I stuck to it, because I would have missed one of the most compelling novels in recent history. Snow Falling is a book that is so complex in its storytelling that you actually feel transported to their world. You can smell the fields of strawberry, and the salt in the surf. You can feel the love between Ishmael and Hatsue. You are transported. Great read

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Summary: Wonderfully atmospheric Northwest Coast mystery/novel
Review: Provocative; not only has he captured the essence of the San Juan/Gulf Islands area, he provides insight into the injustice of the Japanese internment & race relation

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Summary: A remarkable mystery of prejudice and love.
Review: A quiet but important book for those who disdain trash reading. The imagery and symbolism are particularly clear in this story of love, separation, prejudice, and redemption. Starts slowly, but well worth the wait -- and every award it has won

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Summary: Juvenile literature for the politically correct
Review: This book is almost style-less. The characters are cardboard. The juxtaposition of the storm against the conflict in the courtroom is overwrought. It bludgeons one with its heavy-handedness. The guy can't write, and it's surprising that he admits that he spent 10 years on it. There's a bunch of people out there trying to hoist this on the public as serious literature. If this is the future of what "serious" American literature will be, we can look forward to a lot of amateurish attempts with politically-correct subject matter, and not much more. It's not surprising that Guterson's inspiration, Harper Lee, politely declined to be present when he received that Pen/Faulkner award, which will now have zero clout with thinking readers everywhere. This could make it to the little screen, I think, maybe as an after-school special about why prejudice is bad, or could be embellished and play as a Sunday night TV soap opera movie. By the way, some people have noted the seriousness of this book's tone; I had one out-loud laugh: the description of the reporter's lack of interest in hanging around at the pool hall, playing pool with the other guys. I can understand that; the guy lost his arm in the war. And I found his description of Mozart's Jupiter symphony as "melancholy" puzzling, since it is delivered unironically. Was this his character's perception of the piece, or was this supposed to be descriptive? Only Guterson knows for sure. (The second movement is soft, but one could hardly describe its mood as "melancholy."