Rating: 
Summary: A Bartram for us
Review: It has been a long, long time since I've read every word of a book. The beauty of this book is that Frazier paints his story with full, lush strokes and creates an atmosphere, that although you long for the reunion between the two lovers, you will not rush it. Readers shouldn't read this book simply to see the two reunite. If you do that then you will feel bored and will feel anxious and skip over the many gorgeous passages that the author has carefully, generously given us. Readers should read the book to uncover the mystery behind their meeting and their beginning love. What I liked most amount the book is that it has become my "Bartram" the book which Inman carries with him on his journey back home. Whenever he has a quiet moment, or a tumultuous one, he takes out the Bartram, turns to any page, and reads one of its long, page-length sentences, and feels at peace. Frazier has given us an equally panacetic novel, where, after you finish the story, you can go back, over and over again, anywhere in the book and fall in love again with the re-discovered passage. These chapters are really like self-enclosed stories, linked in an overarcing story of two people's love and search for one another. Although the flap copy and much of the reviews concentrate on this being Inman's story, I believe it becomes really Ada's story. She becomes our voice, reflecting our thoughts, our waiting for the story to come through, as well as the voice which we want to follow. People have written that the ending "sucked" but I believe Frazier has given us a beautiful last one hundred pages: never rushing the reunion and letting us smile a little at the couple's awkwardness toward one another. I remember Ada's line especially about she thought of how she and Inman were back then and how different she sees themselves now and says she likes them better the way they are. Ada wrote to her cousin Lucy: "[Ada] wondered if literature might lose some of its interest when she reached an age or state of mind where her life was set on such a sure course that the things she read might stop seeming so powerfully like alternate directions for her being." Frazier writes not to divert us from our lives but to wonder at it.
Rating:
Summary: They God, chew that fatback
Review: For anyone about to read this book, I can only say don't gobble it up. Like one reviewer wrote, it has the feeling of an old photograph. The meat on this story's bare bones is mood, and readers who are going to be moved by Cold Mountain are going to have to take their time with it. What's the big rush, anyway?
Rating: 
Summary: Devastating and dark
Review: This book is beautifully written with wonderful descriptive passages and flowing language. From that perspective it is a novel not to be missed. However the portrayal of the human condition and "man's inhumanity to man" is devastating and difficult. It is a tribute to the author that a sense of loss and sadness persists in the reader during the book, and is reinforced by the ending (which to me seemed inevitable). However that sense of darkness is not a comfortable one, and leads me to have trouble enthusiastically recommending the work. I feel compelled to warn those considering it that reading the book will not be an easy experience. I felt much the same way about Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses", and have not been able to bring myself to read his other books. However if Charles Frazier ever publishes again (and it would seem to me that this one book must have been such a monumental psychological effort that I would not be surprised if there is not another one) I would read his work if only for the evocative language.
Rating: 
Summary: An average reading experience, sometimes quite bored
Review: Comparing my after-thought to all other readers' comments, I think this one is just lukewarm not hot boiling. This book actually is very thin, yet I found out that the audio copy was already abridged, that only told me something that some of the keener readers did find it somewhat quizzically bored and impatient during their reading and the question of a better editing requirement did arise often. To judge a book's editing goodness is to check out the page numbers and whether its audio copy is already abridged, no matter what. Because it only means that the narrator had already found it difficult and unbearable to continue reading through or reading along with the whole script if not abridged at some parts(the parts that need to be deleted or omitted prior to official printing). This one, as some of us felt, might indeed need a face-lift editing in its 2nd printing?
Rating:
Summary: It's a mountain thing--you wouldn't understand
Review: You cannot fully appreciate this book without knowing something about the mountain people, their culture, and their world view. Every single shortcoming mentioned in these reviews comes from a mindset which cannot imagine how someone elses' world could be so different from their own. The ending was as painfull for me as it was for anyone else, but I accept it because I understand how it was. I think it was written as beautifully as humanly possible.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not sure what to think, really...
Review: Where do I start? I just finished the book, not ten minutes ago, and I just feel sort of sad and empty. I brought the book to the gym about a week ago, and a guy in the hall stopped me and asked me how I liked it. I told him I was about halfway through, and was enjoying it. He said he loved the book on the whole, but the ending stunk. And then he apologized for telling me that. Well, let me say here, withoug apology, the ending (meaning the last three pages) pretty much did stink. I think that's really coloring my whole opinion right now. The rest of the book--well, some I thought was good, other parts I was muttering, "Yeah, yeah, get on with it, I'm so tired of description." But when Inman's and Ada's paths finally crossed, I thought a quiet, peaceful, sort of glowing aura took over. It made me happy, it made me feel like maybe there would be some kind of world they could carve out of all the harsh reality around them. I thought those were some of the best-written passages. BTW, many have commented that everything was sort of cold about Ada and Inman, but I felt the author almost intended it that way--like a stranger witnessing what was going on from afar. Really, the whole writing style, and the fact that it is written in the third person, serves to distance th reader, and I think that was intentional, a sort of cold, hard way to deal with a cold, hard time. So, it was good, but I won't rave. And, to quote a stranger, the ending stunk.
Rating:
Summary: Cold Mountains words warms the heart
Review: We are inundated each day with written word and visual images. Our training is to tune out the tedium, the image of more than 6 words, the subject which demands attention. Then there is Cold Mountain. The adventure is the means to Fraziers written word, to his colors, his feelings. They wrap you up and draw you slowly and constantly to the next vision. This book could have been 1000 pages - I found it each evening at my bedside and reveled in the telling of the tale.
Rating: 
Summary: A master painter with words...
Review: I have just finished the epiloque, after having read the last three pages three times. The first time I read those three pages I was shocked and confused by what just happened. The second time reading them I could not believe that my trust had been misplaced. The third time merely confirmed that the writer/reader relationship had been shattered. I love writers that can draw me into a world and allow me to see, touch and smell the world of the people that I am reading about. I savored the rich discriptions of the country around him as Inman traveled home. I grew with Ada as she was stretched and found a part of her she had never known. I rejoiced with them as they were re-united and it was a walk through their lives I had relished slowly. But that all came to an end with the last few pages. I cannot remember ever feeling that my journey through a book was ever a waste, until now. It seems that Charles Frazier is a gifted writer of discription. For the ability to convey a scene to the reader Mr. Frazier gets a 10. For violating a readers trust Mr. Frazier gets a 0. To leave one with a sense of emptiness as this book has left me only makes my everyday life seem so much more perfect. To sum up my feelings I would have to say that Mr. Frazier has lost my trust and I doubt I will ever extend to him that most precious of gifts again.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Enriching Story
Review: This is one of the very few current books that I will savor for months to come - and then reread over and over ! I am especially interested in the Civil War period of our country's history. It's almost as though the author was from that era. A wonderful, warm, sensual story. A book that needs to be savored and slowly digested. A true winner !
Rating: 
Summary: An over-hyped book
Review: After reading all the great reviews of this book and its author I was looking forward to reading this author's first novel. I was rather disappointed. The story is poor and says much to do about nothing. I was at times wondering what the author was trying to say about Iman's journey or experiences. I really feel as if the author should have included a description of him prior to his experiences in the war, so the reader could have have a better idea where he was coming from. I did find Ada's saga more interesting, but a spoiled girl being forced to grow up in harsh times is not unique and I did not find myself that interested in her evolution either. The love story between the two characters was also poorly described and the ending was as predictable as it gets. All in all this was one book and author I was disappointed with and doublt I will read his next book.
|
