Snow Falling on Cedars
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Written by David Guterson.
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Winner of the PEN/Faulkner AwardAmerican Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award
San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries--memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched. Gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric, Snow Falling on Cedars is a masterpiece of suspense-- one that leaves us shaken and changed.
"Haunting.... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper."--Los Angeles Times
"Compelling...heartstopping. Finely wrought, flawlessly written."--The New York Times Book Review
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TonyTT thinks this book is Excellent.
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
(1995 – Vintage Contemporaries)
Did you ever have one of those books that you just had a hard time starting? Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson was one of those for me. I still am not sure why this book sat on my book shelf for so long but once I cracked the cover and started reading it, I was well and truly hooked.
The backbone of this novel is the trial held in 1954 after the suspicious death of a local fisherman on the isolated San Pedro Island just north of Puget Sound. Charged with murder based on an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence is a Japanese American fisherman named Kabuo Miyamoto. Guterson uses the trial as his vehicle for examining questions fairness and forgiveness as he relates the story of the Miyamoto family before, during and after World War II.
Partly a mystery story with a twist; partly an engaging court room drama; partly a historical docu-drama about Manzanar where Japanese Americans were held during WWII; partly the story of a son coming to understand his deceased father (and himself); and partly a love story, Guterson was able to hold this reader’s attention all the way to the surprising and satisfying conclusion.
Told via flashbacks, family stories, and personal remembrances, the story moves back and forth through time. Like a pointillist painter each story fragment adds another daub of paint to the canvas until the entire picture is revealed. To Guterson’s credit I was never confused about the time period being visited or of the significance of the information being imparted by the characters.
I highly recommend this book. It received numerous awards including the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award. Both my wife and I read and enjoyed this novel very much. Written with assurance and with a deft hand it contains something for everyone.