Rating: 
Summary: waste of my time
Review: author's use of computer thesauras was a tiresome chore for any reader who clears words. story was just another unrequited love tale ala Forest Gump, Bridges and Braveheart. Book's fans all need to get a love life. a civil war harleguin at best.
Rating:
Summary: Draggy
Review: After all the hype, I eagerly sat down to read this book. I kept thinking it will get going soon. It never did. Dragging on ad nauseum to an ambiguous ending, I wouldn't recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great long read
Review: With much anticipation I began Cold Mountain several weeks a go. It's a wonderful story of two peoples struggles to survive during trying times. Inman surviving the war and his trip back to Cold Mountain and Ada surviving after losing her father and her high society life style. Thank goodness for Ruby. The descriptions of battle were frightening and drove home the point that war is destructive on so many fronts, the people, the land, the resources and the survivors. Inman was a survivor and regardless of what other reviewers have said about him, I thought his character was great. He seemed very much like what someone might be like in that time period who lived through the carnage he witnessed and participated in. Cold, unhappy, depressed and no problem with taking someones life. Wanting to separate himself from the war but still being very efficient at survival. Ada was wonderful as well. Scratching out an existence with the help of Ruby and surviving through soemthing none of us would ever have to deal with. That's why I think some people have a hard time with this book. They have no basis to compare. No matter how hellacious your life has been it can't compare to what Ada and Inman experience. Gov't assistance didn't exist and all war is hell but anyone that knows the historical fact and the carnage that was experienced knows that every american conflict before and after can't compare. If you add up all the americans killed in every war we fought before or after the Civil War it still doesn't equal the amount killed during the Civil war. Some veterans may have some basis to compare it to based on action they may have seen but still not on the scale of a Gettysburg or SHilo or Antietam. I don't mean to down play the struggles people have faced in the 20th century or the terrible battles fought in the Ardennes, D-day, Kasserene Pass, the Bulge, Iwo Jima, SaiPan, The Coral Sea, Pork Chop Hill, Khe San, Ya Drang Valley, Iraq, etc. But the destruction of American lives was so enormous during the Civil War and when you think about the % of the population that was fighting it really makes you understand the impact to families. Non of us have ever experienced what people that survived during the Civil War did. Can you just imagine what Georgians must of felt like when Sherman made his march to the sea. No where in this country has their every been anything man made more devastating then what Sherman did. By devestation I mean what his army did to the land and every thing on it. In actuallity very few people were killed during his march but every resource that his army didn't need to survive was destroyed. He bought war to a new level by waging it not against another army but the people and resources that support that army. I make all these points only to give readers a perspective and I believe that is what was lacking for many of the people who gave this book a poor rating. They lacked perspective and were looking for something else. The Civil War arguably was one of our countires darkest moments their was nothing pleasant about it. And any good story around this period in our history should never lose sight of this. Cold Mountain didn't.
Rating:
Summary: A Window into the past
Review: This book is just full of poetry! As I was reading, I appreciated that Frazier had chosen just the right phrase from each chapter as the title for that chapter. I learned that one can be familiar with the "landscape of violence" and not let it destroy your heart. In response to one of the other reader-reviewer's comments about the evil that pervades this book and that men are shown to be bad, and women are good: not all the women were good (remember the scene where Inman is drugged and given to the Guard). My sense is that violence was just a normal part of living at that time and not thought of as evil. For example paddling in school or beatings or whippings as conventional punishment were acceptable and widely practiced, so I would suggest we judge "good and bad" behavior within the context of the times. For example, I recall watching some of the same harshness of attitude in the film "Dances With Wolves." I know it wasn't right, but it was considered to be "normal and usual." Life was tough back then, and I think it was because society expected it to be tough. My step-grandmother's maiden name was "Inman." Maybe they were related.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tragic Story of War
Review: 'Cold Mountain' suprised me in a couple of ways. First of all, it was the first publication that I've read about the Civil War that was from the Confederate point of view. It importantly reminded me that the only individuals that could have possibly benefited from the continuation of slavery were the very few, wealthy land owners. Most soldiers, like Inmann, were poor and had been swept up in the propaganda of the glory of war. Secondly, I was frequently shocked by the brutal descriptions of battles, torture and death. Finally, although I was hoping that the story would end happily -- it did not, which was appropriate, because, afterall, war is hell.
Rating:
Summary: Excuse me...what/where's your point?
Review: I guess you had to have been there. No pot of gold at the end of this one.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful story well told!
Review: I was bemused by some of the criticisms wriiten about this novel. "overwritten, the wrong ending,overdone,underdone, unsatisfying". Well to those who found this fine piece of work unrewarding, too bad, after all literature is all about taste and preferences. Some like silk and others cotton and believe me this book is all silk. I for one was amazed that this was the Author's first effort and I eagerly await his next effort.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderfully moving, rich, rewarding read...
Review: I felt, very soon after settling into this book, that I had stumbled upon not just a great "read," but upon what history will prove to be a true work of literature--something I never feel tempted to say about any book! I had just finished reading Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt,-- and having been immensely moved by that work of non-fiction, I wasn't sure what to read next,or--more precisely, what book I might find that would measure up to that book's stature. Since I now live in Cary, NC, and one of our area bookstores was touting a "local, new author," Charles Frazier, I decided to go to a book reading to hear what all the hoopla over Cold Mountain was about! Typically, I'm not attracted to the "latest and greatest" on the NY Times bestseller lists--here and there one or two appeal to me, but I have definitely learned, over the years, that what appeals to the masses doesn't necessarily appeal to me! Frazier had just finished writing his book, and when he first started to speak, I was immediately drawn to his unassuming, self-effacing attitude. He had a quiet, yet commanding air about him that I found very refreshing. It was then and there that I decided to read his book, and I am so grateful that I did. (I'd honestly been somewhat turned off by all the resounding praise I'd heard: I feared that the book would not be as good as its critics claimed.) Cold Mountain is not an "in-your-face, loud, announce-to-the-world-that-it's-here" kind of book! Rather, it's an insightful story that's not so much an exciting plotline as it is a story of characters' discoveries of their own inner strength through the hardships life doles out. It will appeal to people who are sensitive, empathetic, and who value our strong "interior" lives because that's truly what the story is about. The "journey" is not so much a physical one, but it is really an internal journey towards self-discovery for the characters Inman and Ada. Frazier created such rich characters throughout the book, and they represent all of us--somehow "out there" on the fringes of life, struggling, in our respective ways, to survive. Some of them are more appealing than others, just as we find throughout life. The book is not really about the Civil War--the war is really just representative of the obstacles and difficulties we all face in multifarious ways in our lives. Ruby, whose start on life was crueller than anyone else's, struck me as the "fulcrum" upon whom Ada and Inman's characters balance. She was dealt the worst hand, but grew up with the strongest sense of "self," and instinctively knew what to do in order to survive. I was intrigued by this character. She was a leader in the truest sense of the word, and I had the utmost admiration for her. I intuitively knew that either Inman or Ada would die at the novel's close. I didn't want that to happen, but even though I felt sad at the novel's conclusion, I was overcome by a sense that it had ended the way it had to end. And Ada's child allowed Inman to live on in a whole new generation. This book is one that will find its place among the Faulkners and Weltys and O'Connors of Southern Literature (with a capitol "S.") I am richer for having read it.
Rating:
Summary: This book lives up to the hype
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Its one of those books that while you're reading you nervously note how few pages there are left -- and wish there were more. I enjoyed how Mr. Frazier wove Ruby's charcter into a Zen sage (compare page 192 to Tao Te Ching #80). Nicely done!
Rating:
Summary: A Struggle to Define One's Place in the World
Review: An exceptional narrative, Cold Mountain proved to be an exhausting tale of Inman's physical struggle to return home and Ada's emotional struggle to accept the pains of real life in the 1860's. At the same time, Cold Mountain proves to be somewhat of a social commentary on Civil War life: while Inman realizes how barbaric his stint in the war was, Ada must realize that she must accept responsibility for her own survival, and not depend on the high society she knows so well. Frazier's descriptive style and straight forward approach allow the reader to believe this, but this same style fails to reward the reader with the hard-earned happiness that both Ada and Inman are searching for. Unfortunately, I found the ending to be of no surprise, in today's world of Hollywood-style writing, and would not be any more surprised to see this novel remade as a Hollywood blockbuster, a la Titanic. Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to readers, if not only for the vivid descriptions, but for the perhaps unintentional historical social commentary it supports.
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