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Title: Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, Peter Marinker ISBN: 0375404686 Publisher: Bantam Books-Audio Pub. Date: November, 1998 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 10 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.74
Rating: 4
Summary: Although the story is well-written, the ending is flat.
Comment: David Guterson's _Snow Falling on Cedars_ is a novel in which the author continuously weaves elements of foreshadowing and mystery throughout. The "shady" setting, Amity Harbor on San Piedro Island, seemed quite appropriate for the plot due to the fact that the murder trial is occurring. Guterson did an excellent job of allowing his words to create real pictures. One can almost see a thick layer of fog surrounding the well-developed characters. The author takes us through several detailed events which give the reader a better understanding of who the characters actually were and what they had experienced over the years, such as Kabuo and Ishmael's World War II experiences. I think these flashbacks were valuable to the book as they helped to provide more depth to the people of the Amity Harbor community. In addition, I thought the book dealt with the whole trial aspect well, and didn't give us too many uninteresting details. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with how Guterson ended his novel. The whole text builds itself up so well, and then just dies in the last couple of chapters. Overall, I thought this was a good book, but it could have been made much better by a more surprising ending
Rating: 5
Summary: Author's First Novel Hits the Mark
Comment: Reviewer's Disclaimer: I grew up in the Puget Sound area and worked a couple of summers picking strawberries on farms owned by Japanese-American farmers.
Snow Falling on Cedars was an absorbing, thoroughly enjoyable read. At times an interracial romance, a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and a fictionalized chronicle of the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans, this book pulls the reader into an accurate rendering of life on an island in Puget Sound. The disparate aspects of the novel are seamlessly interwoven into a narrative that allows the reader to embrace the plot, the characters, and the dead-on descriptions of the physical characteristics of the novel's setting.
The novel is narrated by Ismael Chambers, the publisher of the only newspaper on San Piedro Island, the fictional stand-in for Bainbridge Island, Washington. The islanders are, with few exceptions, either strawberry farmers or Salmon fishermen. When a white fisherman dies under suspicious circumstances, the evidence points towards a Japanese-American fisherman who was the last person to see the dead man alive. Ishmael's boyhood romance with Hatsue, the girl that later becomes the accused man's wife, provides fertile material for interesting flashbacks to the early 1940s, when virtually all of the island's Japanese-American population was carted off to internment camps soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
I have always believed that one of the true marks of a great novelist is his/her ability to create believable characters of the opposite sex. Many well-respected writers fail at this task. In this novel, David Guterson's portrayal of Hatsue rings as true as any reader could hope for.
If you have seen the film based on the novel, please don't let its substantial shortcomings steer you away from this book, which is a must read for anyone who enjoys contemporary fiction.
Rating: 3
Summary: Average Book for a Bored Person
Comment: Overall, this book was not as bad as I had heard, but it definiately was not one of the best books I have ever read before. Some scenes are described in great detail which were slightly disturbing andthe beginning was so incredibly slow. The basic plot was average, I have definately read better. If you're a hopeless romantic then it wasn't too bad, but in my opinion, most people would find this boring if it was for pleasure. I had no choice because I had to read this for my English class.
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Title: Cliffs Notes on Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars by Richard P. Wasowski ISBN: 0764585673 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier ISBN: 0375700757 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 19 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur S. Golden ISBN: 0679781587 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: East of the Mountains by David Guterson ISBN: 0151002290 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 20 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: SHIPPING NEWS by Annie Proulx, E. Annie Proulx ISBN: 0671510053 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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