The Common Book PLUS
Some faculty recently suggested that the WAC Committee recommend an additional book that is thematically related to the Common Book, either for second or third semester classes where a majority of students have already read When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, for those faculty who wish to use multiple books in a course, or for students who independently wish to read additional books after reading the Common Book. The WAC Committee's recommendation for this additional, "Common Book PLUS" option for the 2008/2009 academic year is Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson.
Both this Common Book PLUS (Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson) and the Common Book (When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka) raise many issues that might be explored across the disciplines at MCC (Criminal Justice, History, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Humanities, Elementary Education, Nursing, etc.). These books may be read independently by students with very little additional time required in classes or might be used as a whole or in part by professors in various disciplines. There will also be several activities to supplement the book throughout the year. The WAC Committee hopes that you are stimulated, challenged, informed, entertained, and rewarded through your reading of both When the Emperor Was Divine and Snow Falling on Cedars.
Read an excerpt from Snow Falling on Cedars
Brief Book Description
Snow Falling on Cedars was an international bestseller and winner of the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award that the L.A. Times described as "Haunting.... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper." The novel is set in 1954 on isolated San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, where a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries--memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched. The New York Times Book Review described the novel as "Compelling...heartstopping. Finely wrought, flawlessly written."
Some Reviews of Snow Falling On Cedars
"Compelling . . . heart-stopping. Finely wrought, flawlessly written." --New York
Times Book Review
"Haunting.... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper."--Los Angeles Times
"Luminous...a beautifully assured and full-bodied novel [that] becomes a tender examination of fairness and forgiveness...Guterson has fashioned something haunting and true." – Time magazine
Citation by The New York Times as a Notable Book for 1994:
"A handsomely constructed, densely packed first novel whose characters are those who
suffered and those who profited from the internment of Japanese-Americans in World
War II, called upon by a criminal trial to act decently later on."
"This is the kind of book where you can smell and hear and see the fictional world the writer has created, so palpably does the atmosphere come through. Set on an island in the straits north of Puget Sound, in Washington, where everyone is either a fisherman or a berry farmer, the story is nominally about a murder trial. But since it's set in the 1950s, lingering memories of World War II, internment camps and racism helps fuel suspicion of a Japanese-American fisherman, a lifelong resident of the islands. It's a great story, but the primary pleasure of the book is Guterson's renderings of the people and the place." -- Amazon.com
"Old passions, prejudices, and grudges surface in a Washington State island town when a Japanese man stands trial for the murder of a fisherman in the 1950s. Guterson (The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind, 1989, etc.) has written a thoughtful, poetic first novel, a cleverly constructed courtroom drama with detailed, compelling characters. Many years earlier, Kabuo Miyamoto's family had made all but the last payment on seven acres of land they were in the process of buying from the Heine family. Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Kabuo's family was interned. Etta Heine, Carl's mother, called off the deal. Kabuo served in the war, returned, and wanted his land back. After changing hands a few times, the land ended up with Carl Heine. When Carl, a fisherman, is found drowned in his own net, all the circumstantial evidence, with the land dispute as a possible motive, points to Kabuo as the murderer. Meanwhile, Hatsue Miyamoto, Kabuo's wife, is the undying passion of Ishmael Chambers, the publisher and editor of the town newspaper. Ishmael, who returned from the war minus an arm, can't shake his obsession for Hatsue any more than he can ignore the ghost pains in his nonexistent arm. As a thick snowstorm whirls outside the courtroom, the story is unburied. The same incidents are recounted a number of times, with each telling revealing new facts. In the end, justice and morality are proven to be intimately woven with beauty--the kind of awe and wonder that children feel for the world. But Guterson communicates these truths through detail, not philosophical argument: Readers will come away with a surprising store of knowledge regarding gill-netting boats and other specifics of life in the Pacific Northwest. Packed with lovely moments and as compact as haiku--at the same time, a page-turner full of twists." – Kirkus Reviews. Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Availability
The Common Book (When the Emperor Was Divine) and Common Book "PLUS" Option (Snow Falling On Cedars) are available in paperback in both the Bedford and Lowell bookstores; they are also available for circulation at both MCC's Bedford and Lowell libraries and can also be purchased at most bookstores. Faculty Examination Copies & Desk Copies are also available through Random House at http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/requests/
Discussion Guide & Other Online resources
Snow Falling on Cedars Book Group Guide
(including Historical Background & Discussion Questions)
Japanese American National Museum
Oral History Videos
Short video clips of Japanese Americans talking about their experiences during WWII
– both in internment camps and serving in the war (scroll down for many sample videos
available without registration) Densho - The Japanese American Legacy Project
Faculty Blackboard Website to Support Common Book and Common Book PLUS (sign on and find this on your courses list; if not enrolled, please email Tom Laughlin at laughlint@middlesex.mass.edu)