Finished Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, and am happy about that. The story was very slow and predictable at times that made me wish I hadn’t have started it. But parts of it were great. That’s why I read it till the end.
From the first pages I felt like I was pushed into the middle of a busy street - the novel was that thick with various characters and details of island life. That was an irritating part - too much detail for my taste. A boring part of it was an abundance of maritime descriptions. Note that I love reading stories about ships and sailing but here the pages abounded with detail that made me yawn instead of get excited about a fisherman’s life. Maybe it was done on purpose, to show that a fisherman’s life wasn’t that exciting, but I don’t believe it. A disappointing part was a romance that pretended to be dramatic, but ended up being pathetic with a very abrupt and hurried resolution. My soul yearned for more heartbreak.
What I loved was a story of American Japanese population during the WWII. I knew that people of Japanese descent were rounded up and sent to war camps after Pearl Harbor, and that was the extent of my knowledge. The book portrayed their plight vividly. In that respect, the novel is a great addition to The Artist of the Floating World by Ishiguro, where the author explores the life before, during and after the WWII in Japan.
And another thing that impressed me was the way the present and the past were interwoven in the book. The story moved smoothly between time periods and characters, building a very rounded picture in the end.
3.5/5 ⭐️