Tuesday 14 June 2011

Guterson, David "East of the Mountains"


Guterson, David "East of the Mountains" - 1999

My first Guterson. NOT my last. I don't want to reveal too much but you will read this on the cover of the book, on any product description you find anywhere. What does a surgeon do who suffers from terminal illness and knows what is about to happen to him? Dr. Ben Givens decides to end his life where it begins and he goes from Washington state back East to the mountains of his childhood.

A wonderful story, quite philosophical really. I love Guterson's style, his writing is very descriptive, not necessarily wanting to please all the time but that is the beauty of it. With this book, David Guterson  definitely made it on my list of favourite authors.

I have read "Snow Falling on Cedars", "Our Lady of the Forest" and "The Other" since, all with a completely different subject and just as great as this one.

From the back cover:
"Following the death of his wife Rachel and diagnosis of his own medical condition, Dr Ben Givens left his home in Seattle – heading east with his Winchester and hunting dogs in tow – not intending to return. It was to be a journey to the verges of the Columbia River, where he had entered the world and had decided he would now take his leave of it. What transpired was anything but the journey he anticipated.
Instead, Ben’s perspective shifts as his intended exit transforms into an eye-opening, life-enhancing diversion, as David Guterson’s celebrated and involving prose unravels the mysteries and reveals the power of the human spirit even as it ebbs, in this moving and action-filled drama set against an unforgettable landscape."

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