Cold Mountain

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing, emotional, and a thoroughly good read
Review: I had my nose in this book until I read the last page. It is outstanding! Besides the wonderful character development, Cold Mountain offers a compelling vision of life in the rural south during the Civil War. I was struck by how people were so connected and dependent upon nature in those days, and it made me realize how utterly disconnected we have become in our day and age! This is a beautiful, enchanting, and soul-searing book. READ IT!!!

Rating:
Summary: This haunting story follows you long after you finish it.
Review: This novel is one which requires one's full attention as she reads. Frazier awakens all the senses with his writing and one can picture, smell, hear, touch, and taste the areas through which Inman passes, and the events in Ada's life. I had a little trouble getting into it and at times staying with it as it required my full attention. But this concentration rewarded me with one of the finest "reads" I've had in a long time. Frazier is able to teach us about a difficult part of the Civil War, one that avoids battle scenes for the most part. He has taken us into the mind and heart of the soldier in a way I won't forget.

Rating:
Summary: felt disappointed slow paced too much description not meaty
Review: I was excited to purchase this book because of all the rave reviews however I was very let down. I found the book slow moveing and it described too much stuff that had no importance to the story line or maybe i am just too simple minded but a butterfly landing on his p**s what relevance did that have ??? Any how the end was so so the gore was gore and very descriptive but once you get the picture don't beat the dead horse with more flowery description of how dead it is DEAD is DEAD. I forced myself to finish reading the book because i payed full hardcover price otherwise i would not have wasted my time. Did have some good points but I can't recall any off hand. SORRY CHARLIE!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting journey; unsatisfying ending
Review: I enjoyed Inman's journey and the descriptions of his life before the war but expected more when he and his love were finally united. I suppose the point of the book was the journey, but the romantic in me wanted him to have more when he finally got to where he was going!

Rating:
Summary: Disapponting
Review: After all the hype about this novel, I expected some thing more. It was an interesting read, but nothing spectacular.

Rating:
Summary: A complete waste of my time.
Review: This book took forever to get to the point. Once, it got there, I was amazed by the excuriating effort it took to get to such a stupid ending. The ending romanticised premarital sex and a child growing up without a father. What a waste!

Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: The ending still haunts me after finishing the book a couple of weeks ago. I compare it to the movie "Titanic" in the way that the images continued to flow through my mind days and weeks after the experience. I keep trying to re-read the ending to see if I am missing something--some clue that will lead me to believe that the obvious conclusion is wrong. I desparately need to find this.

Rating:
Summary: (not so simply) magnificent
Review: I haven't seen more complete character development in any fiction in memory. Those disappointed at the ending should examine the real meaning of character: what the character does when put to the real test. Inman did what Inman's compassionate nature forced him to do, just as the brigands' true emptiness of soul drove them inevitably to their deeds. A slow, rich exposition in often agonizingly beautiful prose. If Frazier has another book in him, I hope he gets to it forthwith!

Rating:
Summary: A Striking novel that I loved.
Review: This story should be included in any library of books on the civil war. The story is one of the best accounts of life in those distressing times. It rings closer for me since one of my own ancestors, on the Fedral side, did the same thing as Inman for the same reasons.

Rating:
Summary: All Quiet on the Western Front cum 1865
Review: A classic...wonderfully funny, heartwrenching, stunning, educational, tragic....it's "All Quiet on the Western Front" set in 1865....I highly recommend it