What I’m reading this week: Snow Falling on Cedars
Set on the fictional San Piedro Island in the northern Puget Sound region of the state of Washington coast in 1954, the plot revolves around a murder case in which Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American, is accused of killing Carl Heine, a respected fisherman in the close-knit community. via
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
I originally picked up this book because of its setting. I am very drawn to the Pacific Northwest. The weather, the landscape, the sea with the old growth forests, it all just soothes me. Did I mention the weather? Any time that I can read more about it I will.
I didn’t know what to think of this book. It’s a number one bestseller, but by the reviews on goodreads, you would never know that. A lot of people did NOT like this book. However, I am not most people, and I generally don’t give a flying fig about what other people think. So there is that.
I really liked this book. I wouldn’t say that I loved it, but I REALLY liked it. It’s slow. Not plodding, but slow in that it makes you want to stop and think about what you’ve just read for a little while before you find out what’s going to happen next.
It’s sad. It’s not going to make you sob into your pillow all night, but just the situation that all of the main characters are in is hideous. Knowing that we as a nation rounded up 120,000 people and put them into concentration camps on American soil isn’t light reading and not really what this book is about. Or is it? And if you are going to send me a quick little note to say that NO, NO they weren’t concentration camps, they were in internment camps…..Don’t bother. Most of them were second and even third generation Americans. Also – if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should definitely read this book.
If you are still with me after that little tirade, I felt that this was a beautifully written book about a terrible subject that everyone needs to read. Although I think that my next book will be a wild and rollicking comedy.
Have you read it? I’d loved to know what you thought!
You can find all of the other books I’ve read this year here!
What are you reading right now? I am always looking for another great book to read.