definitely not me going to my local library and buying any of the books they have for sale (for like $1 at the most) that sound remotely interesting or have a nice cover just simply because i wanna add to my overflowing bookshelf because for some reason i enjoy collecting random books more than reading them even tho i already have a lot that need to be read and i’m drowning in my tbr and my bookshelf literally has no more space on it and buying more books is really not the best plan to solve any of these problems but hey yoLo !1!!!

Extremely boring. The characters are dull, the plot is dull, everything about the book is dull. There is essentially only one important thing per few chapters and the rest is just unnecessary descriptions. It made me constantly look at the page number to see how much i had left to read. The ending is also disappointing and I wouldn’t say it’s worth reading at all.

Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson is atmospheric, haunting and heartbreaking.

This is a beautiful story of love caught between culture, and racism concerning Japanese immigrants in the US after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Life and literature is often a dialogue about missed connections, struggle and bad timing.

Told in various flashbacks and court case defense, you can't help but wonder if someone else in this story should be on trial...

This is a deeply moving, small-town drama that I read every few years. It's a reminder to me and anyone else that if you don't know history, you are bound to repeat it.

It's also a powerful reminder that before we are taught, and before we grow up, our heart always knows the way home.

It’s 1954 on an island off the Washington coast and Kabuo Miyamota is on trial for his life. Kabuo, a struggling commercial fisherman, has been accused of killing another fisherman, Carl Heine, over a land dispute.

It’s easy to see why he might be convicted. There’s motive, opportunity, and a pile of circumstantial evidence. There’s also a lot of prejudice against Japanese Americans who are regarded with hostility especially after World War II. And Kabuo himself doesn’t help. Here is the opening sentence of this beautiful novel.

The accused man, Kabuo Miyamota, sat proudly upright with a rigid grace, his palms placed softly on the defendant’s table—the posture of a man who has detached himself insofar as this is possible at his own trial. Some in the gallery would later say that his stillness suggested a disdain for the proceedings; others felt certain it veiled a fear of the verdict that was to come. Whichever it was, Kabuo showed nothing—not even a flicker of the eyes.

“You look like one of Tojo’s soldiers,” his wife later tells him. “You’d better quit sitting up so straight and tall. These jury people will be afraid of you.”

But he can’t. And that detachment, that strict insistence on giving nothing to the world, is one of the many themes Guterson explores. Another is the idea of perspective. As we get deeper into the trial and learn the secrets of each person involved, we see what's happened to these characters and how their life experiences influences everything they do. How can the true cause of a death be determined when everyone—even the medical examiner—can only see through the tiny, flawed lens of his or her own beliefs.

This is especially true for another one of the novel’s protagonists, Ishmael Chambers. Ishmael, who runs the island’s newspaper, lost his arm fighting the Japanese, and the terrible pain in that phantom limb represents all the things he doesn’t have—a wife, a sense of community, the life he wanted. Ishmael fell in love with Kabuo’s wife when they were young, and he’s never really left the hollowed out cedar tree where they used to meet. Kabuo may hold himself back at his trial, but Ishmael isn’t even really there.

This is a wonderful novel. It’s addictively plot-driven yet the events that take place are all in the service of the larger ideas that Guterson is exploring. Highly recommend.

This remains my favorite book that I've ever read. It has suspense, romance, heartbreak, injustice, you name it. In addition, the setting is in the pacific northwest where I live and relates the terrible story of how japanese americans were treated in this country during World War II.
Guterson's descriptions brought the story into vivid focus. Many of the agricultural references rang true to me, as some of the same practices were in place when I was a boy.
Interestingly, I read another of his books and was unimpressed, so I am not sure I would choose any of his other works.

One part court room drama, one part historical context of a small community and a land agreement between immigrants and a white, I guess middle class, back when middle class meant something, family. The two of whom are linked in a myriad of ways, not the least of which is the two younger siblings being socialized in the same are, but still very much raised in two worlds. When a member of the community is killed, a member of the Japanese family is fingered. An incident that ignites a powder keg in the town brewing for some time, and sparks the introspection and dissection of the community and two families being examined.

While it does feel slightly dated, I think this unequivocally is attempting to show the effects of war on a community; specifically propaganda and fear mongering feeding into racist ideology out-group(s). In this case, vilifying the Japanese in the war and back home alike.

It can turn a phrase and is more comprehensive in its showing of subtle interactions and motivations. It’s as much a character study as the man accused of murder is having to prove his character to white people who measure him with white standards and attitudes. Decent pacing, great description and dialogue. No real complaints, though I don’t think it knocked my socks off; probably because of the more dated aspects in the characterization of the Japanese family, which border on orientalism in the quintessential reduction of the racial identity. However, as mentioned, it is always clear what the intent of the story is.

This novel is a gem, a pleasure to read, and goes somewhat unnoticed in the realm of modern literature. It has striking similarities to "To Kill a Mockingbird". It's themes of prejudice, forbidden love, and greed are played out on a sleepy Puget Sound island in 1954. A white fisherman dies while out fishing one morning, and a Japanese American is accused of his murder. The prejudice surrounding Japanese Americans is strong in the aftermath of World War II, in spite of the fact most of them were native born American citizens. There is a trial and there are flashbacks to World War II right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when these same Japanese American citizens were placed in internment camps. So well written, an absolute necessity for a dialogue driven novel.

Thoroughly an engrossing read for a wintery week in the Pacific Northwest! So much descriptive and picturesque prose here of lush hemlock and cedar forests (and herons!) that reminded me of home (David Guterson is from Bainbridge and San Piedro is based on an amalgamation of Puget Sound islands). A powerful reckoning with the island’s sordid and shameful history as one of the first places Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to internment camps in WWII.

São 4,5 estrelas. Descreve muito bem a atmosfera suspensa de um julgamento numa ilha perto de Seattle no meio de uma tempestade de neve. Interessei-me pela história por causa do destino dos japoneses que viviam na América antes da segunda guerra. Mas temos também uma tragédia de pesca, a respectiva investigação policial, um amor adolescente proibido, a sempre traumática experiência de guerra de onde se sai com cicatrizes visíveis ou invisiveis, relações de vizinhos, de pais e filhos e um mundo tecnologicamente ultrapassado. Gostei.

Really enjoyed this, was just perfect for me at the moment! I tend to like writing with lots of detail, more often than not, and this had that in a way that totally fit for me. Also great characterizations, interesting plot, a current story and lots of historical context filled in slowly in a way that really worked for me. It's also very visual, and I really liked that. I liked the map, I was visualizing scenes much more distinctly than I usually do while reading.
If this sort of content often works for you as well, I'd highly recommend it!
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Layers are one of the main thing I love about this book. There are layers of snow falling over everything on the small island of San Piedro, just east of Washington State, where this story is set. And this story is nominally about a murder trial, but that is only the most superficial layer. It is actually about what is involved in being human and having experiences and being shaped by those experiences.

How much can a person resist the effects of what happens to them, and how much is the impact of life on each person out of our control?

Race identity and race consciousness are the main vehicle for exploration of these questions.

Set in 1954, this story includes information about two main sets of people on this island - the white population and the Japanese population. Through extensive narrative on the past - mainly through the eyes of Ishmael Chambers, the one-armed newspaper man - we see the macro life of the island move forward over the decades. And we see in particular detail the period around the bombing of Pearl Harbor - which prompted an amount of hysteria against the Japanese community. The result of that hysteria was the internment of that population - that entire population, from this island - for a period. Which is something I hadn’t known too much about, was great to learn more. And then this novel’s main storyline - about a purchase of property by a Japanese family from a white family which was nearly concluded at the time of internment - is a personal layer woven into that historical reality.

The murder trial going on is that of Kabuo Miyamoto, who was the son of the man buying the property in question. He is accused of killing Carl Heine, the son of the man about the complete the sale when the internment took place. Carl was found dead on his fishing boat, and evidence (and racism) quickly directed attention to Kabuo. Kabuo is married to Hatsue, a woman of striking beauty. Hatsue and Ishmael had been close childhood friends, and were just at the threshold of becoming sexual when the internment took place. Ishmael remained completely enraptured with Hatsue yet to the current time, and plays a pivotal role in the trial as an outcome of that love.

Betrayal, jealousy, passion, racism, and other human intensities are woven into this community’s life on this small island that is built on fishing and tightly-wound relationships. I adore the details at the various levels - from the actual battlefield experiences of Ishmael in Japan to the internment camp to the fishing boats to the trial to the minute effects of the huge snowstorm that hits the island during the trial to the intimate human interaction details. And great enveloping read!

Set on San Piedro in the Gulf Islands, it’s a trial novel with brilliant metaphors for surviving love, loss, and racism, while maintaining suspense until the last three pages (which does have unnecessary, anti-climatic explanation). The subplot is a story of love, loss, and waiting.

Here's the story...
Hatsue Imada was a childhood friend to Ishmael Chambers. Her parents were labourers on a stawberry farm; his father ran the newspaper—a fierce defender of Japanese Americans.

Early on the kids have a conversation about oceans—a metaphor for their respective inherited worldviews. Hatsue maintains that there are seven different oceans, with different names, colours, salt levels, etc. Ishmael sees just one continuous body of water; it is the same underneath. The novel’s beauty is the understatement of such metaphors—only suggested as images, yet yielding much thematic power.

Because Hatsue’s parents would never allow marriage to a white boy, the teenagers develop a long-term, secret romance, meeting inside a hollowed out cedar. When the war comes, the Imadas are sent to internment camps, and Ishmael goes to kill faces which look Japanese. The children plan to continue writing in secrecy, but Hatsue gives up, not wanting a part in duplicity which puts her at odds with family in such times. She writes and tells Ishmael that she has realized she no longer loves him. Her heart actually follows her willfull decision, and she soon agrees to love Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese boy who grew up watching Hatsue and practicing the lethal art of kendo stick fighting. They marry at the camp and dream of a strawberry farm together.

Ishmael loses his arm in the war and suffers phantom pain, still he refuses surgery to kill the nerve endings—a metaphor for his heartache. He still loves Hatsue and would rather feel something, pain, than have no connection at all. He cannot will to move on.

In the parallel main plot, Carl Heine and Kaboa grow up as childhood friends in the midst of racial tension. Kabuo’s parents work on Carl’s family land before WWII. To the chagrin of fastidious Etta Heine and her racism, the Miyamotos arrange to purchase seven acres with Carl Heine Sr., making payments to eventually put the land in the name of the only legal heir, a born American citizen, Kabuo. In comes the war and all Japanese Americans are sent to internment camps, causing the Miyamotos to miss their final two payments. Carl Sr. suffers a heart attack, giving Etta opportunity to sell the strawberry farm she has always hated—the Miyamoto’s land is sold beneath them, lost to Ole Jurgenson.
t
Ten years later, both Kaboa and Carl Heine are salmon fisherman. After they both return from service abroad, they purchase boats and begin families. Ole ages and eventually puts his farm, the Heine/Miyamoto land for sale. Carl agrees to buy it, Kabuo is too late. Carl and Kabuo discuss the sale, Kabuo asks for the 7 acres; Carl considers it.
t
Both men go fishing one fateful foggy night. Carl’s lights drain his battery; his boat floats dead in the water. Kabuo finds him, ties up, and loans a new battery. Before Kabuo pushes off, Carl agrees to the land sale. Shortly thereafter, Carl is struck broadside by a large ship’s wake and is tossed into the water after hitting his head on the ship’s gunnel.
t
Kabuo is then arrested for the murder of Carl Heine—the motive being a land dispute, weapon being his fishing gaff, used kendo style in a high seas attack. The court proceeds as snow falls to quiet and unplug the world. The snow, ironically, is a metaphor for healing and unity:

The snowfall obliterated the borders between the fields and made Kabuo Miyamoto’s long-cherished seven acres indistinguishable from the land that surrounded them. All human claims to the landscape were super-ceded, made null and void by the snow. The world was one world, and the notion that a man might kill another over some small patch of it did not make sense. (321)

The dramatic conflict builds as Ishmael uncovers evidence which could save Kabuo—and restore Hatsue to her husband. Ishmael’s war-bred hate for the Japanese holds him, but in the end he saves the life of Hatsue’s second love.
t
One overwhelming theme is fairness—that it cannot be expected in this world. And though the world is tossed by injustice and accidents, humanity retains a will. Will is everything—to live, to work, to dream, to love and to wilfully replace loss by love again. The novel ends with Ishmael understanding this: “That accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart.”

I really loved this one back in the day, but have been disappointed with his offerings since.