Snow Falling On Cedars

SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS

by David Guterson

 

Award: PEN/Faulkner Winner 1995

 

Date Read: September 3, 2021

 

I remember long ago watching the film they made of this book and being mesmerized. The book is just as beautiful and since I don’t remember the film all that well, even better. Guterson is able to captivate all your senses from the snow softly falling, to the smell of wet cedar, to the mist that surrounds their island, to the taste of ripened strawberries. All of this adds up to perfection.

 

Ishmael and Hatsue unexpectedly and scandalously fall in love just before the beginning of WWII. Ishmael knows better than to associate with a Japanese girl and vice versa. The Japanese in the U.S. are notoriously deprived of rights (e.g. not able to own land, to vote, to marry anyone other than a Japanese, etc.) and their situation is made all the more precarious once Pearl Harbor is bombed. From there, Hatsue’s life goes from bad to worse.

 

Although they are forced to say goodbye, Ishmael dedicates his heart to Hatsue and says he will love her always. Hatsue, perhaps more rational of the two, knows that she must move on and that their love is impossible. In the internment camp, she meets and marries Kabuo, a man she tries to love.

 

Fast forward ten years and Kabuo is on trial for murdering Carl Heine, a man from a family that Kabuo’s family has had friction with since before the war. Just before they were interred, Kabuo’s family had two payments left on 7 acres of land owned by the Heine’s. Rather than honor their agreement, Etta Heine returns their money and sells the entire farm to another. The bitterness of this snub lasts generations.

 

Kabuo still has not lost hope and still dreams of owning those 7 acres. Craig Heine is in the process of buying that farm back and Kabuo pleads with him to allow him to buy those 7 acres. And just as it looks as if Craig is going to agree, Craig dies while fishing under suspicious circumstances.

 

Kabuo’s trial definitely has the feel of a man falsely accused due to his race. This, combined with shoddy police-work, makes it look as if Kabuo is guilty. Meanwhile, Ishmael still is in love with Kabuo’s wife, Hatsue. He now runs the local paper, having taken over from his father. Ishmael discovers some information that could possibly exonerate Kabuo but he sits on it for a time, deciding what to do. If Kabuo is sent to prison for 50 years or hanged, could Hatsue finally be his?

 

Richly textured and finely nuanced, Snow Falling On Cedars is one of the best books I’ve read lately. This is a gorgeous, honking huge gem.