Rating: 
Summary: Journeys
Review: Guterson uses the beautiful form of the journey -- the bildungsroman, the journey at the beginning of life, the foundation journey, is seen in retrospect-- while Dr. Givens is taking a journey at the end of life. As is seen in his own flashbacks to childhood, war years, marriage and family, Givens is confronted by the unexpected. It is said that late in life one gets a respect for those events in life that one couldn't control and the effects they had on what one could. I am among the few reviewers who respected this book more than Snow Falling on Cedars, but perhaps that is because I worked on a cattle ranch in eastern Oregon where the rancher was dying of cancer, my grandmother had an apple orchard, and my whole professional career has been about family adjustment to illness. Guterson talks movingly about where we live -- in landscapes, inside of larger historical events, and among surprising and varied fellow travellers with biographies as complex as our own.
Rating: 
Summary: Second Rate Second Effort
Review: If you are contemplating picking up East of the Mountains in an effort to experience the same type of magic that Guterson weaves in his debut novel, Snow Falling on Cedars, you will likely be disappointed. The beauty of Snow Falling on Cedars, which consisted of several richly drawn characters, multiple complex and absorbing story lines that intertwine, and dead-on description of the geography that provides the novel's settings is, for the most part, missing in Guterson's second novel. In East of the Mountains we have a single well drawn character, Ben Givens; a single, meandering plot line; and, on the bright side, another example of Guterson's considerable talent at bringing a location to life within the context of narrative. The main character has a terminal illness and decides that it is his preference to take his own life before he loses his health. He decides to make the suicide appear as a hunting accident in order to somehow alleviate the pain his family would feel over his suicide. The story is stretched out through a series of misadventures that occur when Ben travels over the mountains into eastern Washington in order to carry out his plans. Basically, this book is about an old guy's misadventures while he goes on a trip. It is difficult to determine whether his ultimate decision regarding the taking of his own life is powered by events (the misadventures during his road trip), people (the people he meets along the way as well as his family), or his own inability to go through with his suicide. A more generous reviewer might be talking about the author's brave use of ambiguity here, but I just didn't see it that way. Guterson draws Ben Givens as a competent, self-sufficient physician who has always know exactly who and what he was--the problem lies in the fact that a self-inflicted shotgun blast doesn't really seem to ring true as a method of suicide for Ben. There is no argument regarding Guterson's skills as a writer--they are considerable. Some judicious editing could have turned this novel into a really great 40-page short story, which is pretty much what it deserved to be.
Rating:
Summary: What A Ride!
Review: Deep emotions fill this book by Guterson. There is a part of the main character that each one of us can relate to. If you have ever had to face a situation that really presented no outs, then you will sympathize with this book. If you like excellent plots (who doesn't) and if you like great writing (who doesn't), then I highly recommend becoming familiar with Guterson.
Rating: 
Summary: Meaningful
Review: This is on the top of my favorites list. I found it richly descriptive, with deep meaning and a lovely message . What a eloquent but powerful reason for someone not to end their life; even if it is only to help our loved ones learn compassion. But this book gives much more.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, thought-provoking story
Review: East of the Mountains is a simple story. Ben Givens, a Seattle-area doctor in his 70s, learns he has terminal cancer. Knowing the horror of the disease's course, he decides to take his life but to make it look like a hunting accident so his family doesn't have to know about the disease or that he took his life. The book takes place over the next few days as he tries to carry out his plan but is foiled, first by a car accident that ironically nearly takes his life, and then by a series of quests to rescue his hunting dog and to aid some migrant farm workers. He treats these events as diversions that interrupt but don't deter his goal, and yet there is an odd incongruity in his concern about the daily details of life when one would expect him to be letting go. Like Guterson's earlier book, Snow Falling on Cedars, this book is beautifully written and a pleasure to read. The main character, Ben Givens, is very richly described. He comes to life both through a series of flashbacks that flesh out his history as well as through the detailed description of his matter-of-fact reactions to the events occurring in the present. The other characters in the book play only small roles, and yet most of them felt real, each one adding interest to the story. Givens has a gift for portraying characters succintly through choice details. Consider this introduction of the veterinarian who helps save the dog: "The veterinarian was a solid young woman with the sturdy hands and face of a farmgirl and thick, soda-bottle glasses. She spoke in the direct, firm way of the country, with the vigorous practicality and certainty that had remade the sage desert into fields. Kneeling in the parking lot, she examined Rex, and Ben guessed she was not yet thirty, even though her professional manner suggested years of experience. There was something irrepressibly young in her, some vague crack in her doctorly demeanor through which her private self seeped as she introduced herself as Dr. Peterson and made note of his blackened eye without commenting on it." Beyond enjoying the characters and the storytelling, I experienced this book as a reminder to appreciate the dailiness of life, the small interactions with strangers, the minor obstacles we overcome along the way. I especially appreciated Ben's inability to disconnect from these concerns, even when it all should have seemed trivial from the perspective of life and death. I took Guterson to be saying that those details *are* what matters when seen in the right perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Great read - but not as wonderful as I expected...
Review: After reading Snow Falling on Cedars (which I loved), I was very excited to read East of the Mountains. I felt that this book was good, but the story line was not as engrossing as his previous book. Many interesting (and distressing) things happen along the protagonist's journey. However, they are all just little "morsels" of stories that don't tie together into a larger picture. Therefore, I didn't feel as involved in this story. But, if you are looking for a quick-reading good book for the summer - this is definitely a good one. I enjoyed it and I'm sure that other Guterson fans will be pleased as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: This is a story of a retired surgeon dying of cancer who sets out to kill himself, and through a series of incidents goes down some unplanned paths (I will not spoil the story for you). It is a thoughtful and compassionate look through the eyes of a dying man and an engaging story that I loved reading and which reminded me of books by Wallace Stegner. I recommend it highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Threw this book away unfinished
Review: When in the first five pages there were three references to slaughtering birds for fun, I knew I was in trouble with this book. When I was told by page three the main character was going to die in the end, I had to ask myself why I should read a book to get depressed. I have never read a more negative opening to a book in my life. Maybe the ending was good, but if I have to wade through the mysery of animals being continually shot plus a man's suicide to get there, forget it. The primary function of a novel is to entertain and this one does the opposite. Yes, I want to learn something, too, but if I have to be sickened while doing it, it's not worth it.
Rating:
Summary: What's the point?
Review: I identified with David Guterson's East of the Mountains on several different levels. Namely, I live in Washington; I have a father who has had colon cancer; I hunt birds in eastern Washington, and I own two Brittanies, one of which is named Rex. I've also been to a lot of the places in the story, and I'm familiar with the landscape and terrain he describes. For these reasons alone the book was interesting to me, although I kept reading, waiting for Ben Givens to have some sort of epiphany, or for the story to have a point. Ben lives through a series of incidents which evoke chapter long memories of his past, and it appears that he finally just grows tired of the whole adventure as I did. The author obviously has an incredible talent for descriptive writing, but I found it overused at times, reading flowery descriptions of objects that could be described with ordinary prose, without taking away from the story.
Rating:
Summary: Eat the whole apple
Review: I read this flying from the east coast to the west. At first I, too, was disappointed at the spare, slow action; I missed the lush western shore of "Cedars" but as I kept reading it came together. The journey into cancer, the journey into the seemingly bare landscape of eastern Washington, the journey into life itself is hard and slow. It is the mundane, plodding details that keep us too busy in this life to leave it. Guterson may have disappointed the fans of his first book by not doing another one like it, but it is that difference that makes this special. I am buying another copy to pass around.
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