Snow Falling on Cedars was an excellent book. It wrapped up nicely, but not in a way that was particularly satisfying. The story about Ishmael and Hatsue was the heart of the story for me, and when that had it's great ending, everything that came after was just kind of empty...well-written, tragic, but empty. There was also a tiny chunk in the last 30 pages with The Jury talking at the end of the trial and I really could've done without that. We'd never known these characters, the conversation wasn't too interesting, and It just delayed the ending....I think it reminded me a little too much of 12 Angry Men but condensed down to like 6 pages...it was just redundant. Guterson really makes the island of San Piedro feel alive, and like a small town. It both works to his benefit and his detriment. It's interesting to get little takes on these characters who might only feature in a single page or a handful of pages...it makes everyone on the island feel like real people, but it was a little cumbersome at times, especially near the end of the book. But the cast of character itself that play significant roles is probably about 25 large and they're all handled with just the right amount of care and development to flesh them out in ways that are both interesting and contribute to the narrative...one of my favourites was on the coroner. There is an obscene amount of detail and research when it comes to boats and fishing and all the minutiae of island life, and the vivid descriptions of the land itself, really grounds it all in reality. That said it was a little much for me at times...I can only process so much description at once before I have trouble adding new elements to the picture.
All in all, it was a very good book. Great characters. Very true to life. The style in which it was written, with the trial being the linear thread, but constant digressing to past events, of the time of the murder and the weeks leading up to it, of a decade before when the Japanese were shipped off the island and put in an internment camp, the characters experiences in WW2, Ishmael and Hatsue as kids, their parents lives before they were born, delving into the lives/experiences of Witnesses while they are on the stand...it's all very well laid out provided you enjoy good digressions. At one point there was so much digression I began to forget what was happening in the trial, because there was like 150 pages of backstory of a dozen characters and it was all really, really good. In many ways it's a collection of short stories: the story of Kabuo on trial for murder, and the stories of those connected to the case, and their families and their hsitories, all interconnected, but distinct. Even the side characters at times get their little tales told, some interest, some banal, but all serving the greater purpose of bringing live to San Piedro island.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a good, well-written story with good characters, who doesn't need a gripping narrative to keep them engaged. The narrative is good, but it comes in pieces and chunks. The trial narrative is the glue, but I found the history of Ishmael and Hatsue, and the history of the central families and the decades of story before the trial to be the heart of the story.
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Originally Posted by Garrell
