Cold Mountain

Rating:
Summary: Cheated
Review: As someone else wrote, I've never felt this way about a book before. If you haven't read the book, don't read this review.

I resolved several years ago to walk through life, not run. Cold Mountain is for the walkers of life. In that respect, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Its evocative power was gravitational. With each crack of the covers, I could feel myself slipping under an afghan by a bay window on a fall day. No matter how fast my life might have been moving at the time, its overcast style and languid pace was molasses for my mind, catching me, forcing me to slow down to experience the journey.

People have complained Inman was one-dimensional. In a sense he was, but only because his existence had been pared down to its most basic form. "He had seen the metal face of the age," and had been stripped to his spiritual essentials. Little was driving him but his will to survive, to overcome. And it was with the characters that I became most enamored. I share with all of them a deep

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but uneven first novel
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Cold Mountain, but then again, I enjoy most reasonably well written historical novels. Frazier has a knack for storytelling, but he is in great need of an editor and more writing experience. Cold Mountain was, as another citizen reviewer put it, a "lush" novel, but about the sparsest of times, both for America and for Inman himself. This strange and poorly executed contradiction at times led me to believe that I was reading a Bronte novel -- Frazier's voice seemed to come more from Romanticism than from either the grit and sorrow of the Civil War or the quiet strength of Cold Mountain itself. I only hope that Frazier has more to tell about the history and people of a poor and poorly understood region, so that his stories can be told (or retold) with the experience and eye of an accomplished writer. The book warrants a read because of an engaging story and well rendered characters, but not the National Book Award, because of an uneven voice, a sometimes florid verbosity and an ending that wraps up more quickly than a Saturday night sitcom, though even less appropriately.

Rating:
Summary: Slow moving, and impressive
Review: This novel, draws one in slowly, and keeps drawing one in. It is impressive in that all is not made clear quickly, that there is a process of getting to know each character. In this novel there is a vivid depiction of dirt, fatigue and the desire for home. The violence is disturbing, but seems apropriate to the context of the novel. Well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Where to see Cold Mountain
Review: I found the physical setting of Cold Mountain to be the story. So for the readers interested in experiencing the mountain go to the Blue Ridge Parkway at its intersection with North Car. highway 276.The overlook points the view to Cold Mountain at an elevation of more than 6000 feet.The scene at the overlook and the terrain leading to Cold Mountain will let you feel the experiences of Inman, Ruby, Ada and the mountain folk.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and educational
Review: A Civil War buff recommended this to me, and though I myself am not so historically inclined, I felt the effort to pay attention was worth the trouble. Frazier certainly did his homework, and it seems like it is paying off for him. If you have the time, this novel is both a good story and a good history of the period.

Rating:
Summary: The best novel I have read in years...
Review: I was taken with the characters and the descriptions... I only wish it was longer... I shall miss Ada, Ruby and Inman..

Rating:
Summary: A good--not great--beginning
Review: Look, folks, this is a good book, but it's not a great book. It's no National Book Award winner, either. "Underworld" is far superior to this entertaining, but often awkward and highly imitative work. What distresses me the most about reading reviews of this work is the debt Frazier owes, which he readily acknowledges, to Cormac McCarthy. I mean, come on. Cold Mountain is picaresque, meditative and full of lush language. Did you guys read "All the Pretty Horses."? How about "The Crossing"? Ring a bell? Both of them are...picaresque, meditative, and full of lush language. As Lloyd Bentsen said in another context, I know Cormac McCarthy's works. I've read Cormac McCarthy. And Charles Frazier is no Cormac McCarthy.

Rating:
Summary: Grabbed and thrust me into the 1860s!
Review: This may be Charles Frazier's one and best shot at novel writing because he used old family stores and lore exhaustively, but I hope not. If there is more where this came from, I will be in line to buy his next novel. I took two weeks to read it...but only because I wanted to ration myself the enjoyment of this rare literary treat. I believe Mr. Frazier captured the true climate of the times...the uncertainty of life with Inman's one day at a time journey...the rich knowlede of the land Ruby shared with Ada...the ruthless Home Guard and the outliers...all of it was priceless.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD NATURE, AVERAGE PEOPLE, NO ISSUES
Review: I love his description of nature - the somber woods, the mud and rain, the lowering cloud-wrack. People (the characters) ... well, maybe a bit ordinary, maybe even a little too ordinary. Common people in an uncommon war - but none to really live on in the reader. And no issues really addressed - the issues that mattered then or matter now. I knew I was reading about Inman and Ada, but I was never quite there; they were never quite real. I didn't like it as much as I did Clyde Ray's ACROSS THE DARK RIVER. Now that's one novel that you come out of the American Civil War with the powder on your sleeve; the mud on the shoe; and the shattering realization that it is no longer the 1860's, but 1997. That's the kind of realism and craft COLD MOUNTAIN needed, and yet somehow did not quite have.

Rating:
Summary: Cold Mountain: Love and War
Review: Cold Mountain is one the best love stories ever written. It compares with Bridges of Madison County and The English Patient. It is also a war story and brings to light tragedy and death as we will never know. I highly recommend this book. It is not an easy read, yet very worthwhile.