Delia's Way Book

The premise of a man dying of cancer but deciding, so as to spare his family heartache of a long drawn out death, to commit suicide in such a way that it would appear like a hunting accident didn't augur well. I had loved 'Snow falling on cedars' so thouight to give this a go. Am I pleased I did?

Our hero's plans do not run smoothly and along the way he meets and interreacts with a whole horde of characters. It is not simply a straightforward cliche'd ' man-learns-the-value-of-life-through-his encounters' but its probably not far off. Some of these characters are bizarre and some unrealistic; I for one cannot believe any shop assistant would be so callous as the one who makes fun of his black eye so crassly. Her lack of compassion seemed to be there just so Ben could reflect on how her lack of compassion made him feel alone. This is what Guterson seems to do a good deal. He introduces us to naive innocence, saintly kindness and ridiculous small time cruelty in such a way that few of the characters ring true but it is so as to move his plot along to another 'incident'.

Whilst talking to his daughter on the phone he tells her what has happened to him over the last few days and on a number of occasions she remarks how it all sounds unbelieveable....I couldn't have said it better myself.

Guterson also thanks a number of people at the end of the book for their help regarding veterinary practices and army history and other things; as i read the book I just felt he had taken large excerpts from books as various as ' The insides of dogs after they've been bitten a lot ' , ' what to do when operating on bitten dogs ', ' What roads to drive along from Seattle to other places and what bridges you will cross on the way' and ' the many ways to describe orchards ' and then just inserted portions every now and again through the text. Maybe 'Snow falling on Cedars ' spoilt me but I have to admit to being rather disappointed.