Beautifully written, complex story. I loved the writing, and the way the story develops (as apposed to the plot being pushed and twisted as in many modern novels). While it makes extensive use of flashbacks, these flashbacks are important and smoothly integrated as part of the narrative. Deals with universal themes of love, hate, war, prejudice, honor, etc. ( )

One of Gregory's favorites.

I first read this in my high school AP English class and was glad to revisit it, now 13 years later, with a more mature perspective. Even though this book is fiction, it does a great job capturing the emotions and sensibilities of white and Japanese-Americans in small-town America in the 1940s and 1950s. In many ways, Ishmael is a sympathetic character, but he is also swallowed by his grief and resentment, and plagued by so many what-ifs, that he is also deeply unlikeable. Whether or not he is redeemed by the end of the novel is debatable. An even more compelling topic for discussion would be whether the question of Ishmael's redemption overshadows the harm his actions and the actions of other white characters have perpetrated. As a student in a small town first reading this novel, I often wondered what mistakes my own police department would make in high profile murder investigation. The themes of this novel are universal and would be compelling for an advanced high school audience. ( )

I read this years ago and remember being captivated by it. Upon rereading, I was surprised by how much of the story I'd forgotten....but I remained captivated. What great writing!

This is a fascinating story about Japanese Americans during and following WWII. It focuses on the love between young people of different races, and later on a murder trial where the accused is Japanese and the victim white. We see how prejudice manifest on a personal level, and those effects. Recommended. ( )

Really enjoyed this book. Managed to successfully blend elements of romance, courtroom drama and coming of age into a thouroughly satisfying mixture. Elements reminded me of mockingbird, and I thought that the author did a good job of capturing some of the complexity of racism . Will definitely try to leRn more about internment ( )

This is a carefully told tale of prejudice and racism and circumstantial evidence leading to a murder trial in a small fishing and farming community. It takes in a lot of detail about the Japanese internment camps during WWII, generational agreements and disagreements, and historic relationships. Its really well told, though a little slow in places as it gradually unfolds. I don't feel like the women are written especially well but overall I think its really atmospheric. The weather becomes a character in its own right as a snow storm comes in to disrupt the trial. ( )

I can see why some people would dislike it. It did get slow in parts. I had a difficult time getting through the internment camp section, but I loved the story and the writing. I've read it twice. It suited me. ( )

I thought I was about to dive into a cozy romance. Nope! It opened up in court where a Japanese, Kabuo Miyamoto, was on trial for the murder of another islander, a gill-netter, Carl Heine. Crap! I can’t stand law and order and courtroom novels. BUT, this one’s different. I ended up loving it. The story is actually told in-between witnesses, and boy was it told. The author had done incredible research to tell this story. Every aspect of it was so real and true, from the lives of the islanders, young love, the experience of the Japanese concentration camps, to the racism against the Japanese in the 1950’s, which was still strong after the bombing of Pearl Harbor just ten years earlier. He did great in setting the scene for Washington and making you feel like you were there.

There was no reading through pages and pages of court proceedings. Although, I felt he could have left out the “retelling” of the whole murder incident by the journalist on the last several pages that seemed to go on and on.

The story is set in 1954, September 15 and 16th to be exact, on fictitious San Piedro Island in Washington. (This island is said to actually be based on the real Bainbridge Island.)

In 1940’s, Kabuo’s father had made arrangements with Carl’s father, Carl Sr., to purchase 7 acres of land for growing strawberries at a time when it was unlawful for Japanese, or any foreigners, to even own land in the U.S. Carl’s mother, Etta, was as racist as they came and never wanted Carl Sr. to sell any of their land to the Japanese, but the agreement was made and was to be completed by the time Kabuo was to become a citizen of the U.S.

The Miyamoto’s couldn’t make the last two payments because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the war with Japan. All the Japanese around the U.S. were being rounded up and sent to concentration camps. This included the Miyamoto’s and all the other Japanese on the island. Unfortunately, during this time, Carl Sr. died of a heart-attack and Etta sold the strawberry land out from underneath the Miyamoto’s.

It’s now 1954, and Etta's son, Carl Jr., is found dead. He was found drowned and all tangled up in his gill net with a big gash and cracked skull behind his left ear. They believed it was murder, and they believed Kabuo, Carl’s long-time friend, who had his land stolen out from under him by this family, was the culprit. The evidence seemed to be piling up against him, and so was the prejudice.

Ishmael Chambers, a journalist, is very interested in this case because he and Kabuo’s wife, Hatsue, had a young-love, secret affair while in high school. Ishmael was sent off to war to fight the Japanese and Hatsue was sent off to a concentration camp with her family. Their love would never be. It was absolutely forbidden, but Ishmael was trapped inside his own head after coming back from the war with only one arm and having lost Hatsue. He never married and never had children. Hatsue had moved on. She married and now had three children by Kabuo and living life back on the island.

At the end of the trial, Ishmael had gone to the U.S. Coast Guard station and researched what exactly the weather and ships in the channel were doing the night of Carl’s death. He found evidence that there was a ship that had been re-routed through the Shipping Channel and would definitely have caused a wake that ended up knocking Carl off the boat and killing him, but was holding back that information until he realized what a loser he was, in life in general, and how bad he must have appeared to Hatsue. He ended up doing the right thing because it was the descent thing to do as a human-being, but also to prove to himself (and maybe even to Hatsue) that he was worth more than just printing school and town functions and advertisements in his father’s newspaper, which he had taken over after his father’s death. This evidence caused the judge to declare a mistrial and the case was thrown out of court, giving Kabuo back his life.
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MOVIE: "Snow Falling on Cedars" (1999), starring Ethan Hawke as Ishmael Chambers (Journalist) and others I don't really know. ( )

Haunting work inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird.
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A novel that grabbed my sensibilities through more than one reading. ( )

Maybe 3.5. I quite like the exploration of how environment influences personality; and more importantly a good telling of overt and unexamined racism and war hysteria as it affected japanese americans in the 40s and 50s. Yes, it can get overly detailed and oddly flat, but that adds to the tone for me. ( )

Old passions, prejudices, and grudges surface in a Washington State island town when a Japanese man stands trial for the murder of a fisherman in the 1950s. Guterson (The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind, 1989, etc.) has written a thoughtful, poetic first novel, a cleverly constructed courtroom drama with detailed, compelling characters. Many years earlier, Kabuo Miyamoto's family had made all but the last payment on seven acres of land they were in the process of buying from the Heine family. Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Kabuo's family was interned. Etta Heine, Carl's mother, called off the deal. Kabuo served in the war, returned, and wanted his land back. After changing hands a few times, the land ended up with Carl Heine. When Carl, a fisherman, is found drowned in his own net, all the circumstantial evidence, with the land dispute as a possible motive, points to Kabuo as the murderer. Meanwhile, Hatsue Miyamoto, Kabuo's wife, is the undying passion of Ishmael Chambers, the publisher and editor of the town newspaper. Ishmael, who returned from the war minus an arm, can't shake his obsession for Hatsue any more than he can ignore the ghost pains in his nonexistent arm. As a thick snowstorm whirls outside the courtroom, the story is unburied. The same incidents are recounted a number of times, with each telling revealing new facts. In the end, justice and morality are proven to be intimately woven with beauty—the kind of awe and wonder that children feel for the world. But Guterson communicates these truths through detail, not philosophical argument: Readers will come away with a surprising store of knowledge regarding gill-netting boats and other specifics of life in the Pacific Northwest. Packed with lovely moments and as compact as haiku—at the same time, a page-turner full of twists. (Author tour)

-Kirkus Review

Finished on the plane home to Washington from Kansas.

Essentially a romance thriller. Not sure what I expected, fine for what it is. ( )

Great novel of Washington boy in love with Japanese-American girl during WW 2. Movie not quite as good. Also a mystery. ( )

Basically told through the trial after one of the local fisherman is found dead. Lots of flashback scenes that give depth to the current events. Historical elements, including Japanese/American relationships, war stories and lifestyles of fishermen and strawberry farmers. Glad I read it but probably won’t read it again. ( )

Published in 1994, and set in 1954, Snow Falling on Cedars is an atmospheric novel with a strong sense of place. It is set on San Piedro, a fictional island off the coast of the state of Washington. As the story opens, Kabuo Miyamoto is on trial for the murder of Carl Heine, a fellow fisherman. Miyamoto is alleged to have resorted to murder in order to settle a land dispute that dates back to WWII when the Miyamotos were forced to relocate to an internment camp. Ishmael Chambers, owner of the local newspaper, is covering the trial. He is the childhood sweetheart of Miyamoto’s wife, Hatsue, and has remained obsessed with her. The story gradually reveals the backstories of the characters, in non-linear segments, including many violent and traumatic episodes experienced during WWII, which have had a lasting psychological impact.

It is an interesting blend of mystery, courtroom drama, history, and first love. Rather than focus on a blow-by-blow question and answer of witnesses during the trial, the author artfully employs narrative sequences and flashbacks to provide the essence of the testimony without overburdening the reader with detailed courtroom procedures. Themes include racism, justice, obsession, and the emotional trauma of war. It explores the difficulties several characters experience in moving on from the past to be able to more fully live in the present. The presence of a winter storm sheds light on the role of unpredictability of life:

“Those who had lived on the island a long time knew that the storm's outcome was beyond their control. This storm might well be like others past that had caused them to suffer, had killed even—or perhaps it might dwindle beneath tonight's stars and give their children snowbound happiness. Who knew? Who could predict? If disaster, so be it, they said to themselves. There was nothing to be done except what could be done. The rest—like the salt water around them, which swallowed the snow without any effort, remaining what it was implacably—was out of their hands, beyond.”

This novel is beautifully written in a traditional style with a strong storyline, vivid setting, and deeply drawn characters. It is engrossing, creative, and engenders an emotional response. It meets all my criteria for an exceptional reading experience. I loved it and have added it to my list of favorites.
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Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Snow falling on cedars sounds so peaceful; the crimes committed, and people around them, jarring (aftermath of WWII Japanese internments). Many times the image of snow falling on cedars in Puget Sound, WA has come to mind since reading this novel." ( )

Never before have I read a book that used simple objects to make the story come alive. While reading this book, you will see exactly why the book has its title and would appreciate the author for it. There are themes of war and love written in an intense and beautiful way. The only flaw I would say that there may be confusion in terms of flashbacks and why certain things happened the way that they did. However, it is still a good book that captures the beauty and intensity of the world around us. ( )

Haunting and atmospheric. The writing was so beautiful that I wasn't as annoyed with the overly long descriptions of fishing boats as I would have been in the hands of a less skillful writer. ( )

The story gives the reader a real sense of "being there". I enjoyed the insights into the minds and hearts of an island of very nervous (for good reason) people. The paranoia that swept the U.S. after the Pearl Harbor attacks is usually swept "under the rug". I appreciated a story from the perspectives of both the White-Americans and the Japanese-Americans. The characters are well developed and I empathized with all of them. What I thought was overkill was the fact that the author for some reason felt the need to detail many of the character's sex lives. It would have been fine to include a bit of that here and there, but I really didn't need that many details. Still this was one of those "I can't put it down" books and I enjoyed it. ( )

Beautiful book. I loved the imagery in it. The plot is a bit thin, but the plot is sort of beside the point. The characters and the setting were perfect. A few of the minor characters were a bit two dimensional, but that couldn't be helped. There's a huge cast of characters.

No one has an easy time of things. The characters grow up in financial devastation and as adults witness the horrors of World War.

Women are trapped in various situations because of tradition and their limited rights. Their fears during wartime leads them to make decisions that might not be in their own best interest.

Some of them are stripped of rights because of the way they look and speak. But, mostly because of the way that they look.

Prejudice is usually generational. People my age wince when we hear the term "Jap". Our parents used the term derogatorily and excused themselves with "Pearl Harbor". We were at war with Japan. There was a great deal of propaganda.

German-American citizens and immigrants were rounded up and put in camps during WWI, and a large number of German-Americans and recent German immigrants were put in camps during WWII. People who had recently immigrated from Italy were limited in where they could live and where they could go during WWII. None of this is a secret. There was prejudice. We were at war. The book doesn't mention any of this and it easily could have. It isn't generally taught in schools. Propaganda continues in a different form.

In any case, there are very few people left who were adult decision makers of that day.

I think the book does an excellent job of showing the double standard and the hypocrisy. It also shows characters shedding those same bitter prejudices and becoming better people. That's the best we can hope for. ( )

I read this due to "The Final Case" which I enjoyed. This is equally as good. Set after WWII in an island of northwest US, the islanders are mostly fishermen including a number of Japanese families who had been interred during WWII. Now they are back hoping to restore their lives.

Carl Heine was fisherman whose father had been a successful strawberry farmer. The Miyamototo family had purchased seven acres from the father, but were unable to make the last payment due to the internment. After the father's death, the mother refused to let the Miyamoto family have the rest of the lad since the last payment was made. Kabuo and Carl had been friends as children but the friendship has strained after the war although both served in the US services. Kabuo approaches Carl about buying the seven acres, but no immediate decision is made.

Then on an extremely foggy night, Carl is found dead in his fishing boat and Kabuo is then charged with first degree murder. The trial provides the backbone of the book.

A local journalist, Ishamel Chambers and Kabuo's wife had been seemingly deeply in love although such a relationship was not acceptable on the island. When Ishamel goes off the the war, the girl writes to end their relationship. Ishamel loses an arm in the war, returns home, and has never married.

The story is readable and hard to put down. I enjoy the writing, the characterization, and the beautiful description of setting. I will definitely read more by this author. ( )

I really enjoyed this book . it was a little slow getting started but I couldn't wait to see what happened once I got into it. It is the story of love and prejudice. it is the story of being true to yourself and forgiveness. It is the story of fairness and bitterness.Memories and lies. All taking place during a murder trial taking place in 1954. ( )

This is a well-written novel. The author knows a lot of details about a variety of topics. He wrote about life on an island close to the Seattle coastline, life as a fisherman netting for salmon, life as a strawberry sharecropper, life as a WWII soldier, life as a first or second generation Japanese immigrant in the early 20th century, life as a coroner, life as a journalist for a small local paper......He provided intricate details in all of them. It sounded like he really knew what he was talking about, not just setting up the mood of a scene. I was particularly impressed with his knowledge of Japanese culture.

The plot is bleak. White people on the island discriminated against Japanese Americans living on the island before, during and after WWII. The Japanese Americans were sent into concentration camp by the government after Pearl Harbor. The discrimination persisted 10 years after the war, leading to the unjust suspicion and trial of a Japanese man for murdering his white childhood friend. About two-thirds of the book is pretty depressing to read. The two chapters that featured the childhood friend's mother were absolutely infuriating. That character was so awful I even tried to google her name to see if other readers also complain about her. :P And the main character, a white man who was the ex-boyfriend of a Japanese woman, behaved so poorly at a certain point of the book that I want to bang him on the head with a pan. But the story ended on a hopeful note, so I still feel reasonably good after finishing the book. It really was a very well-written and well-researched book. The PEN/Faulkner award is well-deserved. ( )

Она прекрасная.

Начну, однако, издалека. Я прекрасно понимаю, почему несколько лет назад я бросила ее через несколько страниц. Через начало я даже на русском еле продралась, что уж говорить о попытке читать оригинал.
Подобных мест - через которые нужно буквально "продираться" - в книге несколько. Целые страницы каких-то чрезмерных, ненужных деталей и мелких неважных подробностей: то про войну, то про вскрытие, то про какие-то корабельные штуки, где все написано терминологией и я реально ни слова не понимала (по-русски!!).

Мне кажется, что всё это было немного лишним, но с другой стороны, у меня нет премии Фолкнера, а у Гутерсона есть.

И книжка в любом случае прекрасная.

Она показалась мне одновременно ужасно трагичной и очень утешительной.

Трагичной - из-за самой смерти Карла (это не спойлер, с этого все начинается). Причем Карл мертв с первой страницы, но трагичность настигает тебя где-то ближе к концу. Почти всю дорогу до этого он немного реквизит - мертвое тело, толчок к сюжету, отправная точка для всей истории. Но чем дальше, тем чаще он становится реальным - человеком, который жил, у которого была жизнь, который строил планы и собирался что-то делать, и который, покинув своих близких, оставил в их жизни ничем не заполняемую дыру.
Нелепая случайность, неосторожность - и всё. Я вот всё думаю, сколько у нас всех таких неосторожностей - все мы едем чуть быстрее, чем надо; перебегаем дорогу перед автомобилем, который чуть ближе, чем надо; моем окна, высовываясь из них чуть сильнее, чем надо. А ведь одного мгновения хватит, чтобы рррраз - и всё.

Утешительной - потому что когда дочитала, моей первой мыслью было, что хорошее в людях все-таки побеждает плохое. Это реально утешительно и как-то воодушевляюще. Потом я, правда, подумала, что дай волю тем присяжным, и они бы отправили Кабуо на виселицу просто за то, что он японец, но... Но в итоге все равно остаюсь с тем, первым ощущением: что все мы, конечно, немножко нехорошие люди, и иногда делаем нехорошие вещи (и иногда хотим делать нехорошие вещи), но все же чаще делаем правильный выбор - выбор "не быть мудаком".

P.S. И мне безумно нравится название. Snow falling on cedars. Снег на кедрах. От него веет тишиной и покоем. ( )