Critical Overview
Critical reception of Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars has been overwhelmingly positive. The novel's evocative setting, courtroom drama, tender love story, language, believable characters, and portrayal of fear and prejudice have all earned critical acclaim. Los Angeles Times critic Michael Harris notes,
David Guterson's haunting first novel works on at least two levels. It gives us a puzzle to solve—a whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence—and at the same time it offers us a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper.
The unusual structure of the novel could easily be mishandled, but critics often note that Guterson intertwines the past with the present, the personal with the collective, and the various individual stories with control and grace. In a review of Guterson's short story collection and first novel, Philip Graham of the Chicago Tribune writes, "Guterson displays a fine eye for the mysteries of the human soul, creating dramatic moments that are often layered with social and historical complexities." Similarly, Susan Kenney of the New York Times Book Review praises the novel's "meticulously drawn legal drama" that provides only the outermost layer of this complex narrative. Only a few critics find that the novel lacks a compelling protagonist and loses momentum in all the detail. Malcolm Jones, Jr., of Newsweek, for example, writes that Guterson "loads—and sometimes overloads—his novel with lyrical touches, starting with that haiku-y title."
Perhaps because the novel is set in Guterson's native Washington, his ability to describe the setting is frequently praised by critics. Nancy Pate of the Chicago Tribune notes that Guterson "is particularly good at evoking a sense of place," noting that the details "give his story weight." Kim Hubbard of People Weekly comments that "the book's rhapsodic descriptions of the island's beauty came from the heart." In Publishers Weekly a critic refers to the book as "luxurious" for its small-town details and presentation of important themes within that context.
That Guterson took five years to complete this novel is not surprising given the level of detail he provides on the many aspects of life portrayed in his complex novel. His time seems to have been well spent because critics frequently comment on how realistic and accurate his descriptions are. These comments refer not only to the novel's setting, but also to fishing, farming, and other important processes and cultural forces present in the book. Kenney remarks on Guterson's ability to expertly balance so many details, warning the reader not to lose sight of what is at stake during the trial. She writes:
Guterson has done his homework on everything from autopsies to Zen Buddhism taking on the enormous risk of crossing boundaries not just of time, but of sex and culture as well. The result is a densely packed, multifaceted work that sometimes hovers on the verge of digressiveness, but in Mr. Guterson's skilled hands never succumbs to the fragmentation that might well have marred such an ambitious undertaking. In fact, so compelling is the narrative that we almost lose sight of the central issue, which is, as the defense attorney Nels Gudmundsson reminds us in his summation, whether Kabuo Miyomoto is on trial for murder —even worse, will be found guilty— simply because he is Japanese.
The book's tone and ability to draw on the reader's emotions are also recognized among its strengths. Hubbard observes that the novel "manages to combine issues of prejudice and personal accountability with a crackling courtroom drama." In Booklist Dennis Dodge remarks, "Guterson's first novel is compellingly suspenseful on each of its several levels." Describing the novel as "poetic," the Publishers Weekly reviewer writes that it "beautifully captures the painful legacy of war and a community's struggle to deal with that pain."
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