" 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 cancer and this one, well, it does not measure up. It is depressing, and does not offer the reader much else. "
— Stacy, 2/12/2014