Play Book Tag discussion

Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
4****

At once a courtroom drama, a love story, a war story and a coming-of-age story, Guterson’s debut novel is a marvelous work depicting one man’s struggle against his baser instincts.

Kabuo Miyamoto grew up on his family’s strawberry farm, land that his parents, born in Japan, were prohibited by law from owning. They leased the land from Carl Heine Sr, with an agreement that when their son turned 21, he (an American born citizen) would own the land. Natsue Imada also grew up on a strawberry farm, at the opposite end of San Piedro Island from the Miyamoto’s farm. Her near neighbor and childhood friend was Ishmael Chambers, son of the local newspaper owner/editor. Natsue and Ishmael form an attachment as children and teenagers, but their plans are interrupted by World War II, and the internment of all Japanese. Twelve years later, Hatsue is married to Kabuo, who is on trial for murdering Carl Heine, Jr, a local fisherman, and son of the woman who “stole his family’s land” while they were in the internment camps.

Guterson uses the trial as the framework for telling the story of these three people, whose lives are intertwined and bound by local history, prejudice, regret and grudges. The men, in particular, harbor resentments from past injuries, and seem trapped in holding on to their feelings of having been wronged and/or done wrong.

Island life is unique in that the residents have few opportunities to truly isolate themselves from one another. Separated from the rest of world by an expanse of water, they must form a community to help one another. There is one hardware store, one post office, one grocer, one mechanic, one school. They may have squabbles, but if you make an enemy you will not be able to avoid that person. So, in general, they set aside their differences and get along – at least on the surface. But all that is unsaid is kept inside one’s soul, festering and shaping thoughts and behaviors.

This is the quandry for Ishmael and Kabuo, and to some extent Carl Jr. The attack on Pearl Harbor unites the American citizens against “the Japs” and results in tensions between families that have peacefully coexisted for years. Guterson masterfully pits a German family against a Japanese family – at one point even having a character comment on the irony of the Japanese being viewed as the enemy, while the Germans are NOT automatically labeled as Nazis.

Ishmael’s quandry is more complex. He loses his heart to Hatsue, only to have it broken, and then loses an arm in the Pacific theater – “blown off by a Jap.” Covering the trial, he cannot bear to look at her, he cannot bear to look away. He longs for her and yet blames her for his current state. His moral dilemma is made more difficult by the latent prejudice rife among island residents, to which he is also falling prey.

I love this paragraph near the end of the book (no spoiler):
Islanders were required by the very nature of their landscape, to watch their step moment by moment. No one trod easily upon the emotions of another where the sea licked everywhere against an endless shoreline. And this was excellent and poor at the same time – excellent because it meant most people took care, poor because it meant an inbreeding of the spirit, too much held in, regret and silent brooding, a world whose inhabitants walked in trepidation, in fear of opening up. Considered and considerate, formal at every turn, they were shut out and shut off from the deep interplay of their minds. They could not speak freely because they were cornered: everywhere they turned there was water and more water, a limitless expanse of it in which to drown. They held their breath and walked with care, and this made them who there were inside, constricted and small, good neighbors.

NOTE: I would not have tagged this as Asia, though someone else has. There are several scenes were Ishmael is serving in World War II in Asia / Pacific Theater, but the majority of the book is set in Washington state.

LISTOPIA list, # 21

LINK to my review

I read this a loooonnnnnggggg time ago and loved it.

I love this book and have read it twice. I bought it because I liked it so much, even though I'd read it twice from the library first.

I loved this book so much.