Cold Mountain

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Summary: An environmental book?
Review: Few have mentioned that Cold Mountain is also a book about the appreciation of Nature and the value of learning to live in accord with Nature. The life and thoughts of the character Ruby attest to a profound awareness that she has about the environment. She knows how to listen to the seasons and even understands Darwinism, without knowing the exact words. There is also something in this book that few critics have captured or even mentioned, and that is that at the moment of time in which this novel takes place (near the end of the Civil War) there is an awareness that Nature will change--a point in our environment that we'll never really know, because it was a time before our country exploded in industry, and no one, except in their thoughts, took the time to chronicle what Nature was like at that juncture. Charles Frazier not only has captured the destruction of the South, as a way of life for a people, but the destruction of an environment for all plants and animals that we can only guess at today. Choices, Inman knew, were going to be made about how the environment was going to be treated once the war was won, and the world, his environment, he knew would be gone forever.

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Summary: Sometimes I scratch my head over what books win awards
Review: This author writes beautifully, and the book has a very interesting structure, moving back & forth between the two main subplots. But there is a problem or two. First, the structure is obvious as an intellectual construct (something like watching a simpleminded movie in which you know the entire plot line in the first 5 minutes). Second, it is pretty tough to care about the characters, since you can see these stick figures moving through the author's imagination toward some end beforehand. This is not a bad book, it just doesn't seem deserving of the National Book Award to me.

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Summary: This book is "well worth it!"
Review: I would highly recommend Cold Mountain. It affected me like no other book I've ever read. Compelling, deeply moving and very thought-provoking.

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Summary: not worth it
Review: a mediocre novel that i would not recommend. i kept hoping it would get better, but it didn't.

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Summary: Don't Be Sucked In by the Hype for This Downer
Review: The winner of the National Book Award for fiction, Cold Mountain left me cold. If the story were set to music, it would be nothing more than a percussive "trudge, trudge, trudge" with an occasional banjo and broken violin dragging along. Upon reading the reviews and the initial chapters, Frazier's story of an outlier (deserter) during the Civil War evokes vivid images of pain, suffering, hardship, filth, and all the other accoutrements of battle. The long walk home to his conjured-up sweetheart, a girl he barely knew before trudging off to enlist, is more interesting than the actual reunion. The story is told from the soldier's experiences and then from those of the "sweetheart". Both suffer, both change in appearance and ideals. It was a terrible time, of course, and Mr. Frazier's award-winning downer employs Murphy's Law to its full extent .

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Summary: Yes, Cold Mountain is slow, but give it a chance!!
Review: I have to agree with a lot of people when they say Cold Mountain is a slow read. It took me two weeks to read, and I consider myself a fast reader. However, let yourself slow down and just read it. There is beautiful language in the book. At least read up to the part when Inman is mesmerized by Ada in her father's church. After that, you will be hooked.

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Summary: Worth the Walk
Review: At times I felt as if I was trudging through the pages as Inman was making his way home. But just when I was tempted to put Cold Mountain down, it pulled me back with an unexpected twist -- a chilling or heartbreaking encounter. I cried when it was over. The last few chapters are some of the best. I loved this book.

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Summary: Frazier is no Cormac McCarthy THANK GOODNESS!
Review: No story is perfect but Frazier conveys in what I measure at enjoyable descriptory proportions. I enjoyed this book immensely and will read it again. Too many readers of today have the movie mentality...give it to me and give it to me now. This is a book to be savored and enjoyed and requires you to listen and watch the characters closer than you would in a comparable piece of literature. This book is not for everyone.....

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Summary: A good read, not a great read.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Cold Mountain. Being from a long line of Southerners, I found the dialogue and scenery very authentic. I felt though that Frazier had seen one too many movies before writing this book; it seems he's keeping an eye towards the screen rather than concentrating solely on creating a great novel. One reviewer on the back of the book jacket wrote that it seemed possible never to want to read another book. Get real. If you want to read truly outstanding Southern historical literature, pick up some of Wendell Berry's fiction.

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Summary: The goat women is a must read!
Review: This book is a must read if only for the chapter where Inman meets the goat women. The women's preparation for the next goat to be slaughtered is one of the most haunting portrayals of life's various symbiotic and parasitic relationships that I have ever read. This image will stay with me for the rest of my life.