Snow Falling On Cedars
by David Guterson

Read October-November 2007
Copy borrowed from Ramsey County Public Library, White Bear Lake branch
Essay written January 26th, 2008

I checked this book out from a different library branch several months ago and gave up after a few pages because there was so much underlining in that copy. I hate that.

Got a non-underlined copy. Blah. I don't have much to say about this. I think it took itself too seriously. I understand that it's a serious topic, the isolation of Japanese-Americans during World War II. But I got the sense that the author felt he was writing a book that was destined to be a Nobel-Prize winner, which it was certainly not. Oh, it'll probably be required reading in a lot of high schools, but only because it covers some pretty well-trodden ground of political correctness. Which is fine. You could do worse. But this was no classic.

The island sounded like a pretty cool place. I liked the imagery. The fog. But beyond that, pretty unmemorable.

I'll bet Oprah loved it though.

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