East of the Mountains [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

David Guterson (Author), Don Hastings (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 1999

It is mid-October, 1997, harvest time in the Columbia Basin of central Washington state, a rich apple- and pear-growing region. Ben Givens, recently widowed, is a retired heart surgeon, once admired for his steadiness of hand, his precision, his endurance. He has terminal colon cancer. While Ben does not readily accept defeat, he is determined to avoid suffering rather than engage it. And so, accompanied by his two hunting dogs, he sets out through the mythic American West-sage deserts, yawning canyons, dusty ranches, vast orchards-on his last hunt.

The main issues for Ben as a doctor had been tactical and so it would be with his death. But he hadn't considered the persuasiveness of memory-the promise he made to his wife Rachel, the love of his life, during World War II. Or life's mystery. On his journey he meets a young couple who are "forever," a drifter offering left-handed advice that might lessen the pain, a veterinarian with a touch only a heart surgeon would recognize, a rancher bent on destruction, a migrant worker who tests Ben's ability to understand. And just when he thinks there is no turning back, nothing to lose that wasn't lost, his power of interventions is called upon and his very identity tested.

Full of humanity, passion, and moral honesty, East of the Mountains is a bold and beautiful novel of personal discovery.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In fine tones of uncommon resonance, narrator Don Hastings imbues this beautiful story with a level of compassion and understanding rarely matched. His muscular voice and even delivery are especially well suited to the self-sufficient protagonist, a retired and recently widowed heart surgeon whose spreading cancer spurs him to face death on conditions of his own design. "He reminded himself that by dusk of that day, if everything went according to his plan, he would no longer be in this world." With hunting dogs and rifle, the doctor sets out to revisit the mountains of his youth and to finish his life story with the same tactical precision he had used in the operating room. But a series of chance encounters and unexpected relationships force the dying man to change course and embrace the ambiguities of life, which he normally eschewed. The story is extremely well written, and Hastings delivers an exceptionally strong performance, shading the drama with a weighty realism. (Running time: 9 hours, 6 cassettes) --George Laney

From Publishers Weekly

A good and decent man's passage through life as reflected in his memories and his experiences on what he intends to be his last day on earth is the burden of Guterson's (Snow Falling on Cedars) deeply felt, honest and quietly powerful new novel. Dr. Ben Givens, a 73-year-old retired thoracic surgeon in Seattle, has terminal colon cancer, a fact that he has kept from his daughter and grandson. Widowed recently after a loving marriage, he decides to forgo the ordeal of dying in stages, and instead to commit suicide in what will look like an accident during a day of quail hunting in the apple-growing country where he was born. But fate interferes with Ben's plan. His van is wrecked when he runs off a slick road, and he is rescued in the first of several encounters that turn into a two-day ordeal. During the cold October night in the sagebrush desert, the narrative rises to a harrowing crescendo when Ben's two dogs are the victims of a marauding pack of Irish wolfhounds. With subtle symmetry, Guterson uses Ben's darkly picaresque misadventure to provide graceful segues into the events of his past. A series of poignant memories occur in flashback?Ben's mother's death; his tender courting of Rachel, who became his wife; his soul-lacerating experiences in combat in WWII and his life-defining epiphany at an army field hospital in Italy?which chart the growth of a man with a strong sense of humanity and responsibility and a steadfast work ethic. The novel begins slowly, and at first one fears that Guterson's attempt to establish a sense of place will result in a dense recital of geographical names. But his unsparingly direct, beautifully observed and meticulously detailed prose creates an almost palpable atmospheric background. At the end of his journey, Ben achieves an understanding about the meaning of life and the continuity of commitment. Wise and compassionate about the human predicament, Guterson's second novel confirms his talent as a writer who delves into life's moral complexities to arrive at existential truths. Agent, Georges Borchardt. 500,000 first printing; $500,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; author tour; rights sold to U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Holland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark; simultaneous release by BDD audio. (Apr.) 1999.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Unabridged edition (April 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553502247
• ISBN-13: 978-0553502244
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.2 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (213 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,207,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Guterson, David

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars East of the Mountains can stand on its own merits, December 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: East of the Mountains (Audio Cassette)

I just finished listening to Don Hastings' reading of "East of the Mountains" and felt compelled to write an on-line review for the first time ever. Maybe it was the excellent reading skills of Mr. Hastings or maybe because it has been a while since I read "Snow Falling on Cedars" that I thoroughly enjoyed wandering and wondering through this thought-provoking tale of one man's search for meaning in his life and/or his imminent death. Or maybe it is because I listened to the bulk of the story while walking my dog in Western Washington that I felt the full significance of Ben Givens' quest, for surely this tale is a hero's quest. Ben may not be all that endearing at times, but neither was Odysseus. Guterson may have included graphic details to the point that many people were turned off by the images, but so did Hemingway. Did anyone else get the religious symbolism in Ben's venturing into "the wilderness" and in the group of "wanderers" that accompanied him as he "healed" those along the way? And what about the symbolism of "going over the mountain" from an area of lush life to a place more desolate and lonely? Those folks who read the book and were put off by the lack of "action" completely missed the point. The "action" should have occurred in the mind of the reader as he or she interpreted the meanings of Mr. Guterson's words. There is much here to consider, but it is a different kind of consideration than is required of "Snow Falling on Cedars." Give this book a try on its own merits, not as a follow-up to a major commercial success.

Special kudos to Don Hastings, who deserves mention for his compassionate reading of a difficult text.

I also recommend "the country ahead of us, the country behind" by Guterson for additional insight into the many themes that emerge in "East of the Mountains."

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An elegy for facing our mortality, February 16, 2000

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: East of the Mountains (Hardcover)

Like so many others, I bought this novel because of my captivation with "Snow Falling On Cedars", but delayed reading it when the air became filled with negative responses. There is a lesson here: if you relate to an author's way with a story, stay with him. Ben Givens, while a carefully drawn character in this novel, is really the creature that represents the spectre of mortality. By gradually letting us get to know this crusty old retired surgeon, revealing the pain of his loneliness, the agonies of his youthful experiences in war, his growing into the choice of Medicine, his lingering regrets for the tragedies of life that haunt him and make him choose to terminate his own cancer ridden body rather than burden his family with his dying...all these elements the author merges into a hero of compassionate understated nature. Guterson can describe a countryside, natural and unnatural vistas, draw passing characters with such clarity that we hate to see them depart at a chapter's end. But finish this book in an evening or two and you are rewarded with an understanding of why we exist on a planet populated with our own brethren.

After starting to read this book I thought about not finishing it: it didn't have near the atmosphere or universality of "Snow..". But thankfully I trusted the author and I grew into his far more personal journey. There is much food for pondering in this tender book.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another gift from Guterson, June 5, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: East of the Mountains (Hardcover)

It'd be hard to top Snow Falling on Cedars, and D. Guterson hasn't quite done it with East of the Mountains. But it's definitely a worthwhile read, a quiet exploration of the meaning of life set against the certainty of death, whether it comes naturally or by suicide, which is the crux of this book. At the beginning, the protagonist, Ben, a retired surgeon, has been diagnosed with cancer, knows it's terminal, and sets off toward his childhood home in the Cascade Mts for the purpose of committing suicide. Like most of us, he dreads a slow inevitable decline in which he becomes a burden to his family. As he moves forward toward what he expects will be his death, at the same time he moves back in time to his past. Like a film rolling backwards in a story that's moving forward, readers are treated to the history and analysis of his whole life, the choices he made, and how those choices continue to affect him. The odd people he meets along the way contribute to his saga with their own incomplete stories. He is yanked back and forth between life and death decisions, hard choices, philosophically faced, reasoned with, and decided upon.
Beautiful rhythm and flow to the quiet, low-keyed writing, as well.