Snow Falling on Cedars : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A well written thriller is both riveting and literature
Review: Snow falling on Cedars will appeal both to the Grisham reader, looking for a courtroom thriler and to the more "refined" reader, concerned with good prose, character construction and story evolution. A special treat for anyone that has lived in the pacific northwest, it presents a deep thread of love, prejudice and friendship that reveals a great deal about human nature at its best.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written tale
Review: A beautifully written story. Fine depictions of interracial love, post-war veterans, family conflicts and so on. I especially like the part where Carl Heine told Kabuo that he still had his bamboo fishing rod after all these years. A friendship that was surpressed for many reasons is finally released. I thought it was a particularly touching moment, and of course this book has many beautiful moments

Rating:
Summary: Immerse yourself in a tragic story that changes perceptions.
Review: A delicately-woven web of discrimination envelops a small Pacific Northwest community during World War II as a murder trial plays out within its bounds. A magnificent portrayal of love and laughter, tragedy and despair, loyalty and patriotism set in a region saturated with a history and beauty all its own. Unforgettable! A must-read for fiction and mystery lovers alike.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: This beautifully written book escapes categorization. It is at once a historical novel, a love story, and a murder mystery. Snow Falling on Cedars takes place on an island in Puget Sound. When a white fisherman dies, suspicion is cast upon a Japanese-American fisherman, whose wife, Hatsue, had a childhood romance with Ishmael, the story's narrator and the editor of the local paper. As the trial unfolds, it takes the island back to the trauma it experienced in the 1940s when much of its population was taken away to the Japanese internment camps.

I loved this book because it pulled together so many different elements in such a beautiful way. The characters are true to life and I found myself completely invested in their history and their future. As a lover of history, I really enjoyed the portrayal of the effect the Japanese internment camps had on this small island community, even decades after all its residents had returned. I was taken in by Ishmael's story and engrossed in the trial and its outcome. A beautiful story.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: I first got a glance of Snow Falling on Cedars off my teachers list of options for our independent novel project. The Title of the novel intrigued me; however the book was little on the lengthy side so I was a little skeptical about reading it. But that all changed after I read the first page. I couldn't put the book down. It has a perfect blend of history, romance, lies, and a lot of suspense. Gusterson takes you back 60 years ago to a little island before, after, and during World War II. Emotions run high as a large percentage of the population is Japanese; in a time where they were not the most wanted people in the US, after Pearl Harbor and all. The majority of the novel takes place during a mans trial for murder. But it is intertwined with everything that lead to him being their. I would recommend this book to anyone, so please read it!

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Summary: Suspense, love, murder....
Review: "Snow Falling on Cedars" written by David Guterson deals with the murder trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American who was accused of murdering his childhood friend and fellow fisherman, Carl Heine. Watching the trial intently, was Ishmael Chambers, who owns the local newspaper, as well as Kabuo's wife, Hatsue. Throughout the trial, there were flashed back of family histories and how their lives were interconnected in the small community in San Piedro, Washington.

I am not a huge fan of courtroom drama but this one was able to hold my attention. It starts off slowly but once you get into their stories, it is quite interesting. I like that the characters were written very well and at the end of the day, you feel like you really know them personally. In addition, I also enjoy the bit of history that the author provided regarding the Japanese-American internment during World War II. This is definitely a fascinating read!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I picked this book up, much like other books I read, by browsing through the shelfs of our local bookstore. I must admit, however, that the cover of the book drew me to it the most. But after reading the first few pages, I was enthralled by Guterson's wonderful usage of prose. I cannot simply describe how beautifully the words flowed off the pages as I was reading--but this book isn't just good because of the prose.

The storyline, while at the start of reading seems quite simple, but after the finish of the book, seems quite complex. Guterson manages to introduce the main plot--a murder trial-- from the beginning, but later reveals other plots that all lead up to the murder trial. He also manages to intertwine a love story threatened by the trivial ideas of racism.

Overall, I wouldn't classify this book as a modern marvel of fiction; however, I would classify it as book that far surpasses, if not crushes, the other books out on the market today. Its richness of prose and storyline make it a book that I would recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: The beautiful imagery and history conveyed by Guterson pulled me through the occassional pockets of the story that lagged. Guterson's tale of race relations between Asian and White America during the bombing of Pearl Habor, set in small town USA, is both original and intriguing. I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good but Very Slow
Review: When the author mentions on page 31 how entertaining the main character found Melville's Moby Dick, I suspected that his writing style might be very similar. As it turns out, that was a dead on comparison. The book covers the three day murder trial of Kabuo Miyamoto but by the end of the book we have come to know the characters intimately over the course of their lives together and the true central plot of the strained relations of the Japanese Americans and those of European descent on a small island community off of Seattle. We get a few minutes of court time and then we catapult back through time to how Kabuo's father had settled on the island; the relationship between Kabuo's wife, Hatsue, and the journalist covering the trial; how the community held together through the difficult times of war and how knee-jerk national reactions and war affected these people. The pace picks up around page 275 when we start spending more time in the present with the ongoing court case and Ishmael's attempting to deal with ancient feelings for the girl he loved in his youth but was divided from by war. The pace stays at a steady simmer throughout and the quality of writing will keep you going.

And this IS quality writing. I sometimes wince to compare a modern author to a classic great like Melville, but I am unabashed here. The writing style is very similar in a lot of ways and the plot is so well delivered that the murder trial is just a small part of the story by the end. In this respect, a comparison to Dicken's deliveries of social outrages might be more in order (sans the humor). The Japanese American experience is at the heart of this novel and it is so palpable that it would seem that the author had to have had some first hand exposure to the elements making up the story. This could be a modern classic, easily.



Rating:
Summary: A piercing, evocative novel about far more than just murder.
Review: I reluctantly picked up this book at the library, mostly because the cover was pretty and I only had two minutes to get to class. Both of my parents had read it, and immediately told me it was "the most boring book ever." But I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book is much more than a courtroom drama - it is a beautiful manuscript that examines the psyches of all of its protagonists just as deeply as it examines the murder trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, a character we see from both sides of the spectrum, thanks to Guterson's alternating narratives - and it is this understanding that keeps us is wonder until the very last sentence. This has a lot of symbolism and post-war pain lurking behind the eloquent wording, a feeling you'll find yourself experiencing as well. I would definitely recommend this novel.