Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
|
|
Cold Mountain |
List Price: $44.95
Your Price: $28.32 |
|
|
|
Product Info |
Reviews |
Rating: Summary: Lots of action, great description, page-turning story Review: I liked this book very much. I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen next, but I had to slow down to enjoy the detailed description, setting, history, nature, and interesting vocabulary.
Here's a sample quote that I think reflects the quality of the writing:
"Ada and Ruby hoed and pulled weeds among the rows of young cabbages and turnips, collards and onions, the kind of coarse food they would mostly live on for the winter. Some weeks earlier they had prepared the garden carefully, plowing and sweetening the dirt with fireplace ashes and manure from the barn and then harrowing the cloddy ground, Ruby driving the horse while Ada rode the drag to add weight."
The author's use of verbs and specific description was an inspiration. This first time novelist was consistently great.
Some people may object to the vocabulary of the 1860's that was interspersed through out. I liked it very much.
John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
Rating: Summary: Boring Review: When I picked up this book I was really looking forward to a good read. Boy--was I fooled. I kept reading hoping that it would get better and it didn't. The author makes up words and describes stupid stuff--like an in-depth description of the food being eaten. The plot sucked and by the end of the book I really could care less if Inman ever got home! Let alone to his "true love." There was nothing going in that direction. First book I ever threw into the trash after I read it. I was so disappointed in it that I won't even see the movie.
Rating: Summary: buy a dictionary with it Review: I loved this book. I loved the story, loved the images, just *loved* this book. I also learned these new words: harl, malander, cullions, sputcheon. I took to keeping a dictionary next to me as I read. This is less onerous that it may sound.
Rating: Summary: My view on Cold Mountain Review: Cold Mountain is a book that gets the reader deeply involved with the actions and feelings of several characters. Frazier's long, thorough explanations of events really capture the mood of the different people and settings in this novel. He has a unique use of imagery, and a pure knowledge of the American landscape during the Civil War time period. Frazier plunges deep into the lives of everyday individuals that have real struggles to deal with.
The main character in this book is Inman, a Confederate soldier whose neck is wounded during the fighting outside of Petersburg. He decides that he doesn't want to go back to the war once the wound has healed, so he packs his things and simply walks away from the hospital. Inman feels that he has a lot of life still to live and he wants to go and find it. This action really represents the courage and will of Inman, who quickly becomes the hero of the book. He begins his journey to find his old love, Ada, who is living alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The focus of the story continuously changes from Inman to Ada throughout the rest of the book.
Inman embarks on his long journey past dangerous weather and even more dangerous bounty hunters. His willingness to keep going shows his determination to continue the life he once loved. He meets countless interesting characters, some helpful and some brutal. The physical and mental tests that he is put through are enough to make a man want to die.
Ada, however, holds out hope that Inman will one day return. She desperately tends to her farm, and even gets a lot of help from an unlikely source. She is just as determined as Inman to make her life better. Ada never gives up her dreams to live a happy life full of love. Her desire to take her wasted life through a complete u-turn is remarkable, and Frazier's ability to capture her struggle is really a tribute to the hardships that many faced in that time period. Ada's and Inman's devotion to eachother, and passion to get past their obstacles, really show that love conquers all. Will these two former lovers ever be reunited?!
Rating: Summary: great book Review: The strength of this book for me was in Frazier's description of the natural world and the details of daily life for rural people in the Civil War days. He obviously did his research. In the hands of some writers, all that detail could be tiresome, but Frazier does it well. It was a bit grim at times, but realistic, and also unconventional as far as civil war novels go- you know, novels where the jacket or back cover says something like "a sweeping saga of a family torn apart by war" with one brother fighting for each side, etc.
Rating: Summary: A Literary delight Review: A friend kept encouraging me to read "Cold Mountain" and I put her off. Kept hearing about it, so I picked up a copy. Since reading it, I have encouraged others to read it and given it as a gift. Frazier is an amazing literary author with a style that reminds me of Cormac McCarthy or Faulkner. If your looking for a "light" read as some must have that gave it low ratings; it isn't. It's a fine retelling of the Odyssey shining with some excellent prose. I look forward to reading his next book.
Rating: Summary: Cold Mountain Review: Cold Mountain is a riveting tale that contains two main characters: Inman and Ada. Set during the Civil War, Inman who is a confederate soldier gets injured at the battle of Petersburg. He will then decide to leave the war and all the bad memories that came with it and go home to see Ada, the woman who he once loved before the war had started. Throughout the book Ada has to cope with the loss of her father and will receive help from her friend, Ruby, on how to survive on her own. On his journey, Inman has to travel a great distance on foot to arrive home at the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
Cold Mountain relates to the essential question: Do you shape the times, or do the times shape you? For this book, the times shape you because of its setting during the Civil War. The war turned Inman into a hard as nails kind of guy and Ada as a self-reliant woman instead of a spoiled brat. The things Inman saw during the war probably changed his attitude and his outlook on life, which perhaps made him abandon the southern army. The war has also changed Ada because with her, she use to have everything handed to her, but now she has to maintain her home and the responsibilities that come with it. Inman and Ada both go through changes as the Civil War shapes their lives for the good and the bad.
Rating: Summary: An enjoyable Journey Review: Despite the sad ending, reading this book was an enjoyable journey.
I read the book before I saw the movie, and I liked both.
Rating: Summary: Frustratingly Beautiful Review: I am one of those readers who do enjoy a large amount of descriptive narrative. I like to learn even when I read for entertainment, and I found MOST of the descriptions of nature, botany, animals etc. to be interesting. Regarding the "slow" pace of the book, I think the author intended to be meditative, not slap-dash-happy for the 30-second commercial attention deficit disorder crowd. However, toward the end when Inman/Ada are finally reunited, I did get irritated at the nonstop details of what they were eating/cooking/preparing/fixing. "Who cares?" I cried, with quotation marks.
That said, it also seems the author fell prey to the "kitchen sink" writing style, where he felt compelled to throw something in if he'd studied and researched it. "Oh no, apparently he now researched the mating rituals of salamanders." I haven't seen anyone else also mention that the highly educated, well-mannered and bookish speaking styles of Inman, Ruby, and Stobro don't seem to accurately reflect their mountaineer upbringings. Especially Ruby, a hill country woman who uses nary an "ain't." Ruby says "We've got hats here." Wouldn't she say "We got hats here"? Well, maybe there's a reason everyone's always saying "They God" when they seem to mean "Thank God."
This is NOT a love story--and certainly NOT a Harlequin as one reviewer suggested, where the primary rule is for a happy ending between the hero and heroine, and for no long separations between the two. I found all of the action believable aside from Inman's constant penchant for stopping to help every Tom, Dick and Harry when his supposed main mission is to get to Cold Mountain. Like, he hated Veasey, why did he keep allowing the moron to lead him astray?
Wow, now it sounds like I should lower my rating to three stars! But I really did appreciate the beautiful writing and the things I learned along the way.
|
|
|
|