East of the Mountains by: David Guterson
Hardcover | 304 pages | ISBN:0151002290
Year Published:1999 – Harcourt Brace | Tidewater Price: $36.00
David Guterson’s first book, Snow Falling on Cedars, was a haunting mystery and love story concerning a fishing community on the Puget Sound and its struggle with racism against the Japanese residents during WW2. His second book, East of the Mountains, also deals with the American West Coast, albeit this time the apple-growing region of Washington State. It is the tale of a retired heart surgeon, recently diagnosed with incurable colon cancer, who sets off on one last hike with his dogs, during which he plans to have a fatal hunting “accident” which will spare the feelings of his family and release him from the pain and indignity of a prolonged death. Or so he thinks. Life conspires against him in the form of a car accident, which complicates his plan for a quick death. He embarks, instead, on a complicated trip back to the landscape of his childhood during which he matures in his understanding of life, even as his own life is slipping through his fingers. David Guterson has, once again, written a very moving novel with poetic descriptions of the countryside, sympathetic characters, and a quietly told story, which nevertheless leaves the reader with lots to think about.