Snow in summer

     I faced a decision yesterday about David Guterson's novel Snow Falling on Cedars. The first half had taken me ages to read because things got in the way, and as a result I hadn't been gripped by it as I might have been, so (she says sotto voce) I was considering giving up.  But then I read the second half in a day and that immersion in the story did the trick. It is a very good book.
     Set in 1954 on an island off the north west coast of the US, it is centred on a murder trial. A fisherman has been found dead, brought up in his own net; a Japanese man with whom he was involved in a dispute over land rights is the accused. As the court sits, so snow starts to fall, and as the storm intensifies, so does the pressure on the defendant and his elderly attorney, and the painful involvement in the proceedings of the local newspaper man.


    The book relies in great part on the back-story, detailing the lives of the characters who make up this fully-realised island community, explaining its racial tension, discrimination and prejudice, establishing its period feel and charting the relationships which flesh out the story. That's why it flags in the middle - there is just too much material, I think - but then David Guterson starts to bring it all together and the reader cannot put it down; by the end, the writer is back in control and it feels like a 'complete' book.
    The courtroom scenes are particularly effective and atmospheric, and the plot overall is skillfully constructed; the pace - with the exception of a discursive incident too many - is right for the subject matter. Where his characters are concerned, Guterson has them by the scruff of the neck, and the sense of place is keen, too. It's a very full book and an impressive one. I'm glad I stuck with it.

Comments

[lindsay]

I remember, several years ago, watching the film of this book. I'm not a great film buff, and I tend to regard the book as primary, so it is very unusual for me to have seen the film and not read the book - commonly its the other way around. A long, long flight was the reason; I recall that the film was very beautiful but tended to wallow sentimentally in the middle - it didn't really hold my attention, just as the book failed (initially) to hold yours.

[Bride of the Book God]

I read this several years ago but have to confess that it left me cold; not sure why.

[Becky]

I remember reading that book during a heatwave (well, a heat wave for Maine!) and how I just didn't feel the humidity and discomfort--I was in a snow storm on the west coast! Haven't read any more of his; not sure why.

[Barbara MacLeod]

I grew up in a small community on the other side of the USA border from where this story was set. The community was rural, including fruit farming, with a lot of Japanese families who were berry farmers.

This story resonated with me on all sorts of levels. (In 1954 I was 10 years old.) I guess the nature of enjoyment of a book has a lot to do with how you come to it. The plot, here, for me, was just the framework for more interesting observations of people and community and how a nation treats its citizens.

[dovegreyreader]

I read and loved this back in 1996 according to my reading journal. Alwasy interesting when I look back to see what I read fore and aft and it was Listening to the Orchestra by Susan Hill and Theory of War by Joan Brady, then Captain Corelli's Mandolin.