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26th out of 385 books
—
202 voters
East of the Mountains
From the author of Snow Falling on Cedars comes this bestselling novel about a dying man’s final journey through a landscape that has always sustained him and provided him with hope and challenges.
When he discovers that he has terminal cancer, retired heart surgeon Ben Givens refuses to simply sit back and wait. Instead he takes his two beloved dogs and goes on a last hunt...more
When he discovers that he has terminal cancer, retired heart surgeon Ben Givens refuses to simply sit back and wait. Instead he takes his two beloved dogs and goes on a last hunt...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
July 8th 2003
by Vintage
(first published January 1st 1999)
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Guterson is an extraordinary writer and storyteller. I read his first novel, Snow Falling on Cedars while spending one extremely snowy winter in Chicago with my dear Aunt Cassie as she fell ill with cancer and spent her last days in a hospice. The staff was nice enough to let me stay overnight anytime I wanted, so I often stayed up late watching the snow fall reading this book, keeping my Aunt company as she rested.
I'm in Chicago again this year, so I decided to mark the (eighth) anniversary of...more
I'm in Chicago again this year, so I decided to mark the (eighth) anniversary of...more
Story of an old man who is dying of colon cancer and his decisions over less than a week of time. The author seemed to know a lot about the place and work of the orchards east of the mountains in Washington state. The description was very interesting.
Here is a bit of text I particularly like to give you a flavor of the book. It was not all as good as this as his thoughts wandered widely over his life.
"And why couldn't he detach himself from this earthly, mad desire? Why did he go on wanting a wo...more
Here is a bit of text I particularly like to give you a flavor of the book. It was not all as good as this as his thoughts wandered widely over his life.
"And why couldn't he detach himself from this earthly, mad desire? Why did he go on wanting a wo...more
Similarly to Cold Mountain, this novel takes up the odyssey theme. Ben Givens, a retired surgeon is dying of cancer. He decides to kill himself, and decides to go to over the mountains and do it. However, along the way he'll meet other people who'll affect him more than he could ever have thought.
This is a pretty simple story, though through its simplicity it actually works. Guterson obviously knows his way around the areas he describes, and even though his dialogue is extremely wooden in places...more
This is a pretty simple story, though through its simplicity it actually works. Guterson obviously knows his way around the areas he describes, and even though his dialogue is extremely wooden in places...more
I found this book by the author of "Snow Falling on Cedars" to be an incredible story. I will have to admit that I started this book a number of years ago and found the opening quite depressing and put it down. Just recently, I decided to give it another shot and I am very glad I did.
The main character is a recently retired and widowed heart surgeon from Seattle who has just been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer (I think I mentioned this isn't a comedy). Being a physician, he is well aware o...more
The main character is a recently retired and widowed heart surgeon from Seattle who has just been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer (I think I mentioned this isn't a comedy). Being a physician, he is well aware o...more
I'm not sure it was a good idea to read a book about someone who was dying while I was feeling like death warmed up, but that's what I did. I have had this review fumigated and sterilised by Rentokil to make sure you don't catch flu from it.
In a sense, one of the major characters in this book was the landscape. It wasn't just there like a backdrop, it was in the forefront participating, influencing and often controlling everything that happened. If this had been a film, the mountains would have...more
In a sense, one of the major characters in this book was the landscape. It wasn't just there like a backdrop, it was in the forefront participating, influencing and often controlling everything that happened. If this had been a film, the mountains would have...more
Had a meeting with a potential financial planning client and the conversation moved from finance to books. He had this one in his car and was going to pass it on to a woman in hospice who, unfortunately, did not last long enough for him to do so. So, he laid it on me.
Interesting topic. How to kill yourself and make it look like an accident rather than putting your family through the months of steady decline and pain from colon cancer. (Interesting that I read a recent article on how doctors die...more
Interesting topic. How to kill yourself and make it look like an accident rather than putting your family through the months of steady decline and pain from colon cancer. (Interesting that I read a recent article on how doctors die...more
I was hesitant to start this book since it is about a man facing his mortality but I am oh so glad that I did. This book is beautifully written about a man facing death but also realizing what life is about. He is not an extraordinary man yet he is in the aspect that every person is and each person has their own unique experiences to make them so. I loved this book so much, it made me feel good about life and also helped me realize somehow that facing death doesn't have to be so terrible, and be...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This is the second book I've read by Guterson, and while it wasn't as well-written as Snow Falling on Cedars, I nonetheless found this book thought-provoking. The book largely reads as a meditation on death and how one should confront it.
The books strengths are as follows:
-Guterson writes some very vivid and disturbing war flashbacks which thematically feel appropriate.
-Guterson creates a very touching relationship between Ben and his two Brittany spaniels.
-As in Snow Falling on Cedars, Guterso...more
The books strengths are as follows:
-Guterson writes some very vivid and disturbing war flashbacks which thematically feel appropriate.
-Guterson creates a very touching relationship between Ben and his two Brittany spaniels.
-As in Snow Falling on Cedars, Guterso...more
This novel has the strengths of an excellent premise and wonderful descriptive prose, but the plot feels contrived and the pace sluggish. Guterson has unquestionable ability in painting a landscape so adroitly that it can attain as much attention as the main characters. Moreover, the novel's intended focus is one which promised much, and which could blend with the setting seamlessly. Ben Givens, a retired surgeon and widow, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and decides to save himself fro...more
I have started to read this book after buying it at a sale at the library. The books were donated by a library member who I once attended Book Club with. She was an avid reader and had a penchant for crime novels, but her collection was varied. I have read Snow falling on Cedars when it was released many years ago and enjoyed it so thought I would give this one a try.
It's the story of a retired doctor/surgeon who discovers he has cancer. As his wife of 50 years had died 18 months prior, he think...more
It's the story of a retired doctor/surgeon who discovers he has cancer. As his wife of 50 years had died 18 months prior, he think...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
David Guterson, also author of Snow Falling on Cedars, is a wonderful, elegant writer. This is a far more personal story of one man, Dr. Ben Givens, a retired heart surgeon who, after learning he has colon cancer, decides to plan a hunting trip as a ruse to cover up his planned suicide. His wife had passed away 19 months earlier and he wanted to spare their daughter the pain of his decline and death. He is a man on a quest, facing his mortality, overcoming challenges, all while remembering his p...more
Loved this book, even though I suspect it was designed as a honeytrap for the marginally depressed middle-aged people anxious obsessing about the next stages of their decline. Ben Givens is a good man who has led a good life. Though his wife died several years before he has familyin the vicinity that loves him and he plays a key role in their lives. But he is dying of a particularly nasty cancer and, being a retired doctor, he knows exactly what the next months have in store for him.
So he decide...more
So he decide...more
Sometimes we must be reminded that we are more than just products with an expiration date stamped on the package. Assuming that living your life in the quality/healthy way you are accustomed to is the only way is a mistake. I never understood this until I became a parent and I remember statements I made before about not wishing to continue on in any reduced capacity. "I wouldn't want to be a burden to myself and others". Now I cherish each day that I am alive and get to see my daughter's face. I...more
I enjoyed and was moved by this book. I was hesitant about it at first, thinking it might be too depressing, but oddly I didn't find it to be so. A successful retired heart surgeon,with a recent diagnosis of terminal Colon Cancer,just a few years after losing his wife of 50 years. He embarks on one last journey through central Washington, hunting fowl with his dogs. Along the way, he has some significant encounters. We also learn more about his life as a teen growing up on an orchard, and the st...more
I'm definitely a Guterson fan--I like the slow layers of description on top of deeply moving life experiences. The last third of the book was the easiest part to read because things--momentous things--were happening continuously : Ben's remembered war experiences, the action-packed end of his journey, the resolution of his desire to end his life.
Occasionally, Guterson's readers have to wade through endless detail, and this book was no exception. There's a lot about apple-growing, the war in nor...more
Occasionally, Guterson's readers have to wade through endless detail, and this book was no exception. There's a lot about apple-growing, the war in nor...more
The story was good and Dr. Ben was given hope again from total strangers which is always an uplifting feeling but I first read "Snow Falling on Cedars" and there is no comparison. Snow is much better.
An achingly sad but ultimately life-affirming story by the author of Snow Falling On Cedars. Ben Givens, a retired surgeon and widower at 72, is dying of colon cancer. He sets out with his two hunting dogs on a final hunting trip with the intention of ending his life before the pain and infirmity of his disease make it unbearable. But, as we all know, life has a way of rearranging our plans, and Ben's final journey is not what he expected. A car accident, an encounter with another hunter with a...more
Guterson, David. 1999. East of the mountains. Harcourt Brace & Company, New York. ISBN: 0-15-100229-0. Purchased from Abe Books, Internet.($5 including mail)
Anacortes Public Library Book Club choice for Oct. 27 meeting
The theme of the book centers on the meaning of life ~ more specifically on life vs. suicide when a painful, agonizing death lies aheadThe author definitely knew the geography, economics, and history of the books setting in eastern Washington state, making it comfortable and...more
Anacortes Public Library Book Club choice for Oct. 27 meeting
The theme of the book centers on the meaning of life ~ more specifically on life vs. suicide when a painful, agonizing death lies aheadThe author definitely knew the geography, economics, and history of the books setting in eastern Washington state, making it comfortable and...more
I was a little disappointed by this book because I really like the author. I felt that the characters were lacking some development, and it never fully explained what happened to the main character's wife. I was maybe supposed to put together some difficult clues to figure out that he killed her during surgery, but if I was supposed to actually figure that out the book wasn't much help. And doctors are not supposed to operate on family, right? It was a sad story, and I think I was also supposed...more
Dr. Ben Givens is a retired heart surgeon living in Seattle. He knows that he has colon cancer and does not want to be a burden to his family. He is a widow living alone with his two hunting dogs. He was originally from east of the mountains in apple country and decides to go back there and stage an accident with his hunting rifle as if he tangled cross barbed wire while hunting birds and end his life. He leaves Seattle with his dogs in the pouring rain and here begins a journey that he could no...more
Ben Givens is a retired surgeon with a terminal diagnosis of colon cancer. He decides to leave this earth on his own terms and skip the final months of pain. So he sets out across the Cascades in Washington state for a hunting trip, planning to take his own life once he reaches the high desert. A car crash en route puts an initial crimp in this suicide mission. But he presses onward--and begins a simultaneous journey into the past. Between present-tense episodes, which demonstrate Ben's cranky c...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I loved this book for so many reasons. Since I know the geographical area, I had a certian affintiy that others might not. But it seemed like I read some books about death and dying right before my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I had no idea how much insight they would give me. The protag in this book is going to kill himself because he doesn't want to be a burden to his daughter and family. I can relate to that in so many ways. But the reality is...we want to stick together as l...more
The story of a 70-year-old doctor who's dying of cancer, decides to go off to the hunting grounds of his growing-up years to commit suicide, thus sparing his family the trauma of dealing with his suffering, but on the journey he leanrs to appreciate life & gives up his plan & goes home. There are some mildly interesting events that happen along the way, and he recalls others from his past. In addition, the landscape of central Washington is lovingly described. And Guterson deserves credi...more
After having read Snow Falling on Cedars by the same author, this book was a huge disappointment. Even though the subject matter, a man dying of cancer, was decidedly tragic, East of the Mountains lacked the beauty and the poetry of the first novel. It read like a first draft college essay - the very sad facts were there, but none of the creative energy that Guterson gave us in Snow Falling on Cedars. I think of The Bucket List, Tuesdays with Morrie, and other such novels of someone dying of can...more
I really enjoyed this book; perhaps my knowledge of the area in which it is set helped - as a native Seatlleite I understand how different it is "east of the mountains". Someone from the east coast, plopped on the eastside, would never guess they were in Washington state. Loved all of the descriptions, especially the orchards, they're spot on
- my granddad grew cherries/peaches in the Tri-cities, down-river from Wenatchee.
Ben's travels/travails and interactions were interesting and thought provok...more
- my granddad grew cherries/peaches in the Tri-cities, down-river from Wenatchee.
Ben's travels/travails and interactions were interesting and thought provok...more
I enjoyed reading this book. Here's a quote from page 34 that struck me:
... Ben mistrusted his memories. Everything in memory achieved a truth that was only a brand of falsehood. He remembered what was beautiful -- a torture unto itself, really -- while all else receded and blurred, dwindling into insignificance. It pained him to think that with his death the narrative of his time with Rachel would disappear, the story of their love expire. He could not explain it to anyone. It would leave the e...more
... Ben mistrusted his memories. Everything in memory achieved a truth that was only a brand of falsehood. He remembered what was beautiful -- a torture unto itself, really -- while all else receded and blurred, dwindling into insignificance. It pained him to think that with his death the narrative of his time with Rachel would disappear, the story of their love expire. He could not explain it to anyone. It would leave the e...more
This book was yet another stellar bookclub read. It is the story of retired doctor, Ben Givens and his plans to kill himself while making it look like an accident in an attempt to save his family the pain of enduring a slow death at the hands of advanced colon cancer. He sets out on a hunting trip with his two beloved Brittany dogs but his trip does not go as planned leaving him to live very much outside his comfort zone, meeting rich and colourful characters along the way while reflecting on hi...more
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David Guterson is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist.
He is best known as the author of the novel Snow Falling on Cedars (1994), which won the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award. To date it has sold nearly four million copies. It was adapted for a 1999 film of the same title, directed by Scott Hicks and starring Ethan Hawke. The film received an Academy Award nomination f...more
More about David Guterson...
He is best known as the author of the novel Snow Falling on Cedars (1994), which won the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award. To date it has sold nearly four million copies. It was adapted for a 1999 film of the same title, directed by Scott Hicks and starring Ethan Hawke. The film received an Academy Award nomination f...more
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“The rain fell with such fervor that the world disappeared.”
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4 people liked it
“Ben remembered that in Italy, he and Rachel had slipped down between rows of apple trees on the plain of the Po, deep into the cool and dark of orchards, and there they had kissed with the sadness of newlyweds who know that their kisses are too poignantly tender and that their good fortune is subject, like all things, to the crush of time, which remorselessly obliterates what is most desired and pervades all that is beautiful. ”
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2 people liked it
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Nov 19, 2011 08:36pm