Federation Book Club Reads Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Sometimes, we read historical fiction to lead us into research we hadn’t realized we wanted to do. Snow Falling on Cedars weaves the Japanese internment camps into a post-WWII trial in which racism plays an important role in the verdict. Our readers thought it was a beautifully written, suspenseful novel with finely crafted character development. Its rich landscape is a fictitious island off the coast of the State of Washington during a particularly ominous, unrelenting snowstorm.

While the depiction of the internment camps felt realistic and detailed, one of us got bored and wanted to return to the trial. Another thought some scenes might have been eliminated to improve the novel—especially the WWII beach battle in which a major character loses an arm. Meanwhile, I thought too little was explained about the injury to the arm. Every reader is different!

Snow Falling on Cedars was published thirty years ago, and it’s remained so popular that if you want to listen to it on the library system’s Libby app, you’ll have to accept placement onto a waiting list. We all enjoyed talking about the characters, the star-crossed love story, whether the redemptive ending was too accelerated at the conclusion, and most especially, the poetry of the narrative.

The group’s conclusive opinions were:

“Thought-provoking, relevant to our times,” “Plot twists kept it interesting,” “Enjoyed the sidebar illuminating from the trial drama,” “I had so much fear while reading it, afraid of how it would end for Kabuo (the man on trial),” and, “A long, slow read.”

Beth Buechler
Community Contributor

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Upcoming Books:

• May 13 (Changed): A Slow Fire Burning, by Paula Hawkins

• June 13: Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

• July 11: The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton

The Federation Book Club meets via Zoom at 4:00 PM on the second Thursday of the month.