Guterson, David "Ed King"

Guterson, David "Ed King" - 2011

Certainly not my favourite book by David Guterson but what a story! You only notice to the very end that you know it already and I am not going to reveal here what I mean but if you read any other description, even some of the book jackets, you probably will. I was glad I didn't before I read this and my copy didn't spoil anything for me, either.

This is the story of Ed King as well as his parents and foster parents, a child born out of wedlock at a time where this was definitely not possible to raise a child alone without the support of anybody. So, he ends up with foster parents who couldn't have loved him any more. They give him all the opportunities they can, both financially as well as in any other way. A dream life. Or is it?

There is always something unsettling in Ed's life, some shadow that follows him around, some foreboding that he might not end up where everyone sees him. In the meantime, there are a lot of sub-plots and twists that make reading this novel all the more pleasurable. It's a classic story with a modern setting.

Anyway, cleverly written, I do like David Guterson's style. As I said above, not my favourite (that would definitely be "East of the Mountains") but I am a huge fan of his writing and will carry on more of his novels.

One last remark: David Guterson received the "Literary Review's bad sex in fiction award" for this book and he totally deserved it. That still does not make the whole book bad, though.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"In 1962, when Walter Cousins sleeps with his British au pair, Diane Burroughs, he can have no sense of the magnitude of his error: this brief affair sets in motion a tragedy of epic proportions, upending Sophocles's immortal tale of fate, free will, and forbidden desire. At the centre is Ed King, an infant given up for adoption who becomes one of the world's most powerful men. But beneath the gripping story of Ed's seemingly inexorable rise to fame and fortune is a dark and unsettling destiny, one that approaches with ever-increasing suspense as the novel reaches its shattering conclusion."

Guterson, David "The Other"

Guterson, David "The Other" - 2008

The story of the prince and the pauper, two boys with completely different backgrounds, what is going to happen to them in their lives, the wealthy, elitist John, the working man's son Neil.

Another very interesting book by David Guterson after "Snow Falling on Cedars", "East of the Mountains" and "Our Lady of the Forest". Great writing, another, almost philosophical attempt to explain how our past can form our future but that our present shapes it even more. Fantastic.

Looking forward to his next story, it's been a while.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Seattle, 1972: two teenage boys are standing at the start line of an 800m race. Neil Countryman is from the public high school in the north of the city. He slumps at his desk all day and gets high in the park at lunchtime, and wears a moustache that makes him look like the guy in the Camel cigarette ads. John William Barry is from Lakeside, a private academy for the more privileged of Seattle's youth. He is an earnest, fiery young man, and his family background is one of material wealth and emotional deprivation. As John William wins the race by a hair's breadth, their lives collide for the very first time, and it is the beginning of a friendship that is both fraught and intimate. Both boys have a taste for the wilderness, and they explore together the most remote areas of the mountains, the places ignored by guidebooks, where tracks and roads fade to nothing and all that can be seen is an endless unbroken density of trees. But as they grow older, John William's intense intelligence and craving for isolation mark him out as an eccentric, and as Neil begins to accumulate the more conventional comforts - a wife, a steady job - their lives begin to take radically different paths. Eventually, John William is to retreat permanently into his own self-made wilderness, and in doing so presents his oldest friend with a gift which will change his life for ever, bringing them both a notoriety that Neil had neither dreamed of nor hoped for. A moving exploration of the mixed blessings that friendship can bring, and the choices we make about how to live our lives in the twenty-first century, The Other is an extraordinary novel from a masterful storyteller."

Guterson, David "Our Lady of the Forest"

Guterson, David "Our Lady of the Forest" - 2003

From all the David Guterson novels I read, this is my least favourite. A young girl has run away from home and settles in the woods where she claims she is visited by the Virgin Mary and ordered to build a church at that place. This leads to hundreds of people pilgriming to the forest in Washington state and a lot of confusion among the villagers and the people living nearby in caravans.

Not exactly what I had expected after reading "East of the Mountains" and "Snow Falling on Cedars" but still a brilliant account of human behaviour.

Next David Guterson book I read "The Other".

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"This is the story of a teenage girl who sees a vision of the Virgin Mary. Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. Her past has been hardscrabble. Then one November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Is this delusion, a product of her occasional drug use, or a true calling to God? Gradually word spreads, and thousands converge upon the already troubled town. For Tom Cross, an embittered logger who's been out of work since his son was paralyzed in a terrible accident, the possibility that Ann's visions are real offers a last chance for him and his son. As Father Collins searches both his own soul and Ann's; as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions; as Tom alternates between despair and hope. 'Our Lady of the Forest' combines suspense, grit and humour in a story of faith at a contemporary crossroad."

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.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

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."

Guterson, David "Snow Falling on Cedars"

Guterson, David "Snow Falling on Cedars" - 1994

David Guterson's first book, not my first Guterson. I read "East of the Mountains" first and absolutely loved it. So I had to read this one which was his first big success.

What can I say? Absolutely brilliant. Growing up in Germany, you hear everything about World War II, well, everything the Germans did and everywhere the Germans went and everyone who came to Germany etc. You hardly ever hear about the Pacific part of the war. What did the Japanese do? We all heard about Pearl Harbor but that's about it. They never tell us about what happened to the Japanese people who lived in the States before the war started and who had absolutely nothing to do with the situation. Wow! What a tale. What an amazing account of a tragic part of history.

I have also read "Our Lady of the Forest" and "The Other" in which Guterson carries on to be a great author.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"San Piedro Island in Puget Sound is a place so isolated that no-one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 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 one man's guilt. For on San Piedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries - memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and a 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 memories of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbours watched.

Gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric, 'Snow Falling On Cedars' is a masterpiece of suspense - but one that leaves us shaken and changed."