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Reviews of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
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Fighting the distrust and prejudice of his neighbors on a remote island
in
Puget Sound, a Japanese-American man who spent time in an internment
camp during World War II, finds himself on trial for murder. The histories
of the accused and the victim, both fishermen and residents of the small
town of San Piedro, unfold as newspaperman Ishmael Chambers
embarks on a quest for the truth. Lonely and war-scarred, Chambers
strives for justice and inner strength, while coming to terms with his
ill-fated love for Hatsue Miyamoto, the wife of the accused. Evocative
and beautifully written, Snow Falling on Cedars won the 1995
PEN/Faulkner Award. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of
this title
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Ishmael Chambers, the one-man staff of the newspaper on San Piedro
Island in Puget Sound, is covering the 1954 trial of a high-school
classmate accused of killing another classmate over a land dispute. Actor
Peter Marinker--a stage veteran who has appeared in such movies as
The Russia House and The Emerald Forest--takes us deep inside the
world created by David Guterson in his award-winning 1994 novel. We
learn the sensory details of life in a small fishing community; the emotional
lives of people scarred inside and out by World War II; and the deep
and unresolved prejudices toward the island's Japanese Americans, who
were interned during the war--a tragedy that led to financial advantage
for some islanders. Marinker deliberately but nimbly moves from the
characters' distinctive voices to the poignant interior perspectives of
the
soulful, wounded Chambers as he tells a combination love story, murder
mystery, and painful history lesson. (Running time: 15 hours, 10
cassettes) --Lou Schuler --This
text refers to the audio cassette
edition
of this title
Literary Fiction and Classics Editor's Recommended Book
This is the kind of book where you can smell and hear and see the
fictional world the writer has created, so palpably does the atmosphere
come through. Set on an island in the straits north of Puget Sound, in
Washington, where everyone is either a fisherman or a berry farmer, the
story is nominally about a murder trial. But since it's set in the 1950s,
lingering memories of World War II, internment camps and racism helps
fuel suspicion of a Japanese-American fisherman, a lifelong resident of
the
islands. It's a great story, but the primary pleasure of the book is
Guterson's renderings of the people and the place.
Amazon.com Reading Group Guides
Are you in a reading group? There is a reading group guide available for
this title. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title
Buy Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson at amazon by clicking here
New York Times Book Review
"Compelling . . . heart-stopping. Finely wrought, flawlessly written."
--This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title
Citation by The New York Times as a Notable Book for 1994
"A handsomely constructed, densely packed first novel whose characters
are those who suffered and those who profited from the internment of
Japanese-Americans in World War II, called upon by a criminal trial to
act decently later on."- --This text refers to the hardcover edition of
this title
Time
Luminous...a beautifully assured and full-bodied novel [that] becomes a
tender examination of fairness and forgiveness...Guterson has fashioned
something haunting and true. -- Pico Iyer --This text refers to the
hardcover edition of this title
Publishers Weekly
"A luxurious book whose finely detailed evocation of its small-town
setting effectively draws the reader to consider its larger issues." --This
text refers to the hardcover edition of this title
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From Booklist , August 19, 1994
A 1954 murder trial in an island community off the coast of Washington
state broadens into an exploration of war, race, and the mysteries of
human motivation. The dead man, Carl Heine, his accused murderer,
Kabuo Miyomoto, and the one-man staff of the local newspaper, Ishmael
Chambers, were all scarred by their experiences in World War II but
resumed normal-seeming lives upon their return to the fishing and
strawberry-farming community of San Piedro in Puget Sound. While
fishermen Heine and Miyomoto set about raising families, the
newspaperman remains alone and apart, alienated by the loss of an arm
and a childhood love, who married Miyomoto. Chambers comes upon
information that could alter the verdict of the trial if presented or change
his own life if suppressed, creating a private trial as momentous as the
public one, with the outcome as much in doubt. Guterson's first novel is
compellingly suspenseful on each of its several levels. Dennis Dodge
Copyright© 1994, American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title
From Kirkus Reviews , July 1, 1994
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) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus
Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the
hardcover edition of this title
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Kirkus Reviews
A thoughtful, poetic first novel... packed with lovely moments and as
compact as haiku--- at the same time, a page-turner full of twists. --This
text refers to the hardcover edition of this title
Book Description of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award
American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award
San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no
one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local
fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American
named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the
ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's
guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the
fields of ripe strawberries--memories of a charmed love affair between
a
white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife;
memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is
haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents
during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while
its neighbors watched. Gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric, Snow
Falling on Cedars is a masterpiece of suspense-- one that leaves us
shaken and changed.
"Haunting.... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and
surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something
altogether richer and deeper."--Los Angeles Times
"Compelling...heartstopping. Finely wrought, flawlessly written."--The
New York Times Book Review
Synopsis of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
A Japanese-American fisherman's 1954 murder trial becomes the
backdrop of a story that follows a doomed love affair between a white
boy and a Japanese girl, a simmering land dispute, and the wartime
internment of San Piedro's Japanese residents. Reprint. 100,000 first
printing. Tour. NYT.
Buy Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson at amazon by clicking here
Synopsis of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
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. Reading tour.
Synopsis of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
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.
From the Inside Flap of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
The place is the fictional island of San Piedro off the coast of
Washington, a community of "five thousand damp souls" [p. 5] who
support themselves through salmon fishing and berry farming. The time is
1954, eight years after the end of World War II, in which some of San
Piedro's young men lost their lives and many others were irreparably
injured, physically as well as emotionally.
Now one of those survivors--a gill-netter named Carl Heine--has
drowned under mysterious circumstances and another fisherman is on
trial for his murder. The fact that the accused, Kabuo Miyamoto, is a
first-generation Japanese American is not mere coincidence. To the local
coroner, Heine's injuries suggested that the sheriff look for "a Jap with
a
bloody gun butt" [p. 59]. And among San Piedro's Anglos, hostility
against Japanese still runs high, even if, like Kabuo, those Japanese were
born and raised on the island and fought for the United States during the
war. Kabuo's trial, in a sense, is a continuation of the white community's
quarrel with its Asian neighbors.
But the Japanese--and particularly Kabuo and his wife, Hatsue--have
their own grounds for resentment, stemming from years of bigotry that
culminated during World War II, when thousands of Japanese Americans
were interned in government relocation camps and Kabuo was effectively
robbed of land that his father had worked and paid for. Even as the state
presents its case against Kabuo Miyamoto, the reader is compelled to
recognize the Miyamotos' case against their white neighbors, the best of
whom stood by as an entire community was driven into exile. Their case
never receives a public hearing: it can only be prosecuted in the
courtrooms of memory and conscience.
It is not only the Japanese who remember. Among the trial's observers is
Ishmael Chambers, the embittered war veteran who runs the San Piedro
Review. Ishmael is not an objective witness. He grew up with Carl and
Kabuo. He lost an arm on Tarawa to Japanese machinegun fire. Most
important, Hatsue was Ishmael's boyhood love and he has never come to
terms with losing her. In the course of the trial he will find himself
torn
between rancor and conscience, loath to forgive Hatsue yet unable to
condemn her husband. To a large extent, Snow Falling on Cedars is
about the ways in which Ishmael, Kabuo, and Hatsue at last
acknowledge their respective losses and recognize the sense of mutual
indebtedness and need that may survive even the gravest injuries and
betrayals--the way in which loss itself may become a kind of kinship. In
a
place as isolated as San Piedro, "identity was geography instead of
blood" [p. 206] and people make enemies reluctantly, knowing that "an
enemy on an island is an enemy forever" [p. 439]. The snow that falls on
David Guterson's hauntingly imagined world falls on everyone who lives
in it.
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Historical Background
Between 1901 and 1907, almost 110,000 Japanese immigrated to the
United States. They were drawn by promises of ready work--American
railroads actually sent recruiters to Japanese port cities, offering laborers
three to five times their customary wages--and by worsening economic
conditions in their homeland, which was undergoing social upheaval in the
aftermath of the Meiji Restoration. Although many originally came as
dekaseginin--temporary sojourners--work was plentiful, not only on the
railroads, but in the lumber camps, salmon fisheries, and fruit orchards
of
Oregon and Washington. Increasingly, the newcomers stayed on. Many
purchased their own farms. In time, these issei--first-generation
Japanese--started families.
The Japanese government actively encouraged emigration, and although
the Gentleman's Agreement of 1908 curbed the flow of Japanese men, it
allowed unrestricted entry to their wives and children. Many women were
"picture brides," who came to join husbands they knew only through
photographs and letters and whom they had "married" by proxy in
ceremonies in their native villages.
Very quickly the newcomers encountered antagonism. Although
Japanese constituted less than two percent of all immigrants to the U.S.,
newspapers trumpeted an "invasion." The mayor of San Francisco
proclaimed that "the Japanese are not the stuff of which American citizens
can be made." The Sacramento Bee warned that "the Japs...will increase
like rats" if allowed to settle down. The Asiatic Exclusion League agitated
for legislation to halt all Japanese immigration. Politicians ran for office
on
anti-Japanese platforms. In 1923, the state of Oregon prohibited issei
from legally buying land. A year later, Congress passed the National
Origins Act, which banned all immigration from Japan.
In spite of this, the newcomers thrived. They found ways of getting
around some laws (under Oregon's Alien Land Law, first-generation
Japanese could legalize their land purchases by registering them in the
names of their American-born-or nisei-children). They tolerated other
laws. Meanwhile, the immigrants preserved the ceremonies and values of
Japan even as they encouraged their children to acculturate and,
particularly, to educate themselves. "You must outperform your
detractors," one issei counseled his children. Typically, the nisei grew
up
thinking of themselves as Americans, yet were reminded of their
difference every time they encountered the taunts and ostracism of their
white neighbors.
Following the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941, hostility turned into paranoia--and paranoia became law. Japanese
who had lived in America for thirty years were accused of spying for their
native land. The day after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Treasury Department
ordered all Japanese-owned businesses closed and all issei bank
accounts frozen. The U.S. government had already compiled lists of
Japanese whose loyalties might be suspect, and more than 1,000
businessmen, community leaders, priests, and educators were arrested up
and down the West Coast.
The restrictions escalated. Japanese homes were searched for
contraband. Telephone service was cut off. One newspaper columnist
wrote: "I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West
Coast to a point deep in the interior....Herd 'em up, pack 'em off and
give
'em the inside room in the badlands...let 'em be pinched, hurt, and
hungry." In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 9066, which empowered the government to remove
"any and all" persons of Japanese ancestry from sensitive military areas
in
four western states. Japanese residents had only days in which to
evacuate. They were compelled to sell their land and businesses for a
fraction of their value, or to lease them to neighbors who would later
refuse to pay their rent. All told, some 110,000 Japanese Americans
were deported from their homes to hastily built camps such as Tule Lake
and Manzanar, where they lived behind barbed wire for the duration of
the war.
Neither Germans nor Italians living in this country were subject to similar
restrictions, and recently declassified documents reveal that the Japanese
population was never considered a serious threat to American security.
In
all of World War II, no person of Japanese ancestry living in the United
States, Alaska, or Hawaii was ever charged with any act of espionage or
sabotage. As one nisei later wrote, the victims of Executive Order 9066
were people whose "only crime was their face."
In 1988, the U.S. government formally apologized to Japanese citizens
who had been deprived of their civil liberties during World War II.
This information was gathered from Lauren Kessler, Stubborn Twig:
Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese-American Family.
New York, Random House,
About the Author of Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
David Guterson was born in Seattle in 1956. His father, Murray
Guterson, is a distinguished criminal defense lawyer: "One of the things
I
heard [from him] early on was to find something you love to do--before
you think about money or anything else. The other thing was to do
something that you feel has a positive impact on the world."
Guterson received his M.A. from the University of Washington, where he
studied under the writer Charles Johnson. It was there that he developed
his ideas about the moral function of literature: "Fiction writers shouldn't
dictate to people what their morality should be," he said in a recent
interview. "Yet not enough writers are presenting moral questions for
reflection, which I think is a very important obligation."
After moving to Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound, Guterson taught
English at the local high school and began writing journalism for Sports
Illustrated and Harper's magazine, where he is now a contributing
editor. His books include a collection of short stories, The Country
Ahead of Us, the Country Behind, Family Matters: Why
Homeschooling Makes Sense, and Snow Falling on Cedars, which
won the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award.
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