Snow Falling on Cedars
Book Tracking
Sign up to add this book to your recommneded, reading, or planned reading list.
Book Covers
Multiple editions, click to view covers:
Currently Reading
Recommended By
Ten Taxis, kim thornton, and TonyTT.
Planning on Reading
kim thornton and Jerrett Taylor.
Suggested To
Book Details
Written by David Guterson.
Buy this on Amazon
($14.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
A phenomenal West Coast bestseller, winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and an Abby Award nominee, this enthralling novel is at once a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, the story of a doomed love affair, and a stirring meditation on place, prejudice, and justice. "Finely wrought, flawlessly written."--The New York Times Book Review.User Reviews (1) Login or create an account to write a review.
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.