A Change of Genre

If one looks at the back summary of David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars they learn of a mysterious murder trial, a betrayal of an entire people, a land dispute, and finally a romance. When I read this description I believed I was in for an In Cold Blood-esque novel with mystery and murder and betrayal. Instead I got sex. The sexual nature of this book doesn't unnerve me, but it surprised me more than anything else about the book. Guterson only hints at the romantic nature of the book in the description; it seems like an afterthought to the book's primary two focuses: Kabuo Miyamoto's trial, and Japanese Internment during World War II. The book is directly characterized as "a masterpiece of suspense", but the only suspense the reader gains comes from the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, and while this does take up a large portion of the novel; another large portion comes from the romance of Hatsue and Ishmael (back). The "Above all" most important aspect of the book, the Japanese Internment during the second World War, only receives minor attention at the first third of the novel, its only mention coming from implications and brief discussions about the war (back). The sexual scenes also feel quite awkward, whether Guterson does it purposefully or merely by accident. Now, I do not know how to write a sex scene in a novel, but I know one thing, David Guterson surely doesn't. The first scene between Kabuo and Hatsue in the early section of the book uses very explicit diction to create a parallel with the reader of the current narrator's, Hatsue's, awkwardness throughout the entire situation. Guterson indirectly characterizes her as nervous and awkward by repeating her fears that her '"sisters are listening'"; "' They're listening"' (89,90). This parallel helps to humanize Hatsue, and garner sympathy from the reader. It seems that Guterson either cannot write romanticlly, or he tries to make an assertion that the actions of sex are awkward and uncomfortable. This show particularly well when Nels Gundmundsson thinks about his inability to "achieve an erection" (300). While this section obviously does the same with Hatsue's, to create a sympathy for the character via drawing a parallel through awkward, explicit diction (it also continues the characterization of Nels as a man with a young spirit, but an old body), but Guterson takes it much too far. He writes that Gundmundsson believes that the jurors would see it "disgusting" if he approached Susan Marie too closely, not only does this parallel his own thoughts of the situation, but also it puts the idea into the reader's mind when it most likely would not have even come up. All in all, I believe that the excessive sexuality and romance in David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars just confuses readers, such as myself, who came into the novel looking for mystery and intrigue; it passes its self off as a murder mystery and social commentary, but it turns into a boring romantic drama about star crossed lovers and the sexual burdens of turning seventy-nine.