Snow Falling on Cedars

"Yes. I think it’s a terrific novel. It’s about a trial, and about prejudice about Asian-Americans in a small town in Washington State – again, a particular time and place. Again, there’s a surprise at the end. Odd things happen to books when they become movies, and a great movie was not made from this great novel, and it clearly diminished the reputation of the book. But it’s just a superb novel, full of really beautiful characterizations – the reporter who’s covering this trial, and his elderly lawyer who’s defending the case is quite a remarkable character. He’s old, he’s impotent and thinks of sex wistfully, yet his wisdom captures the courtroom. Guterson grew up in that milieu – his father was a lawyer so he knows whereof he speaks. The sense of what goes on in the courtroom is extremely realistic – it’s very good on the law, but it’s very good at recognising the larger political and emotional context in which any important trial necessarily sets itself. I think they’re a pretty round portrait of the problems of the law, the kind of human mess that it tries unsuccessfully to make sense of. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed."