Reviews...
Why should you read "Snow falling on cedars" in class?
Snow Falling on Cedars is an excellent drama. It is enjoyable with its variety of plots it has and everybody can find something in the book he likes. The book is in addition to the overall thriller also a drama of life, dealing with social problems such as racism. It offers historical background about the conflict between Japanese Americans and Americans during the Second World War and about the War itself, and of course the story also contains a touching love story. David Guterson does a masterful job in combining and telling this. Still the question is if I would recommend this book to other classes.
I think for just reading the book it is obviously one of the best books I have ever read, although I had some problems in getting into the characters which is probably due to the jumping of one character viewpoint to another which I personally do not like. The book is also a bit slow-moving for a drama and sometimes you need to force yourself to read on. Sometimes I thought the falshbacks would slow the whole book down again, but I came to the conclusion that these flashbacks are truly necessary to get the entire background which you need to understand the book and get Guterson’s message.
Finally although I think the book is worth reading, I would not necessarily recommend it to other classes, if they looked for the perfect book. In my opinion the book becomes boring the more you analyse it. And I personally could not really share the enthusiasm our teacher had while finding out every hidden fact and the brilliance of Snow Falling on Cedars.
But I am still wondering if any book could satisfy my expectations for a "school-novel", and if "Snow..." is not a lot better than many other exhausting books we could have read.
So, read it, it is probably more modern and exciting than anything your teacher is able to offer you, it was a good choice, Mr. H. ...