Rating: 
Summary: A Great Story read with a Great Voice
Review: Most authors who chose to read their own work end up doing a poor job of it. Charles Frazier reads this excellent story with perfection. I am listening to it for the third time.
Rating: 
Summary: I wasted my time
Review: I never did get a feel for the main male character. He goes through many trials. At one point he encounters a mother bear with a cub, the mother bear goes over the cliff as it tries to protect her little one. I found myself wishing that the character had gone over the cliff. Then I wouldn't have to read about him anymore. You can figure out the end before it happens. It's just too drawn out... The female characters are interesting, and more developed, but not very realistic.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow Moving, Too Much Detail, Inadequate Character Depth
Review: This book came highly recommended to me. Initially I was drawn to the detailed writing which has lot of in-depth descriptions of places and events. After a few chapters though, it became clear that the writing was too oriented towards detailed explanations of what is happening and various environments, but not enough towards giving the characters depth, interest, and emotion. The story also lacks a compelling plot. Even the civil war setting isn't given much discussion.Part of the problems are due to there being too little direct dialogue between the characters, with Frazier choosing a more narrative style. This style exacerbates a tedious, dry, and somewhat depressing tale that seems very two dimensional, without getting enough into the feelings of the characters. The ending made sense in terms of the how the characters were described, but it also made me realize that I didn't really like these characters very much. Ada grows towards self sufficiency, while Inman continues in his low key manner without any clear direction other than desertion and finding Ada. Not a very compelling or romantic saga. It made for slow reading, aside from a few of the action sections. A fair book, but not a great book, and not worth wading through over 400 pages of detail overload, even though some of the writing is of very high quality.
Rating: 
Summary: I could have been reading a classic
Review: Cold Mountain is pretty good. It's a great first novel for this Charles Frazier guy. It's a lot better than I or any of my friends could write. Basically, it's OK, but considering that it's going to take you a few days or weeks to read it, why not spend that time reading a much, much better book? You can get as much literary pleasure and nutrition out of 10 pages from either Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. The similarities of this book to these, along with The Odyssey, reminded me of the goofy fiberglass body work that kids put on their Honda Civics to make them look faster parked in front of the bowling alley. If you want a great book, don't waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Cold Mountain
Review: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier has a story line that parallels that of the Odyssey. The main character, Inman, travels home from the Civil War hospital to his love, Ada. The book changes from chapter to chapter, one being written from the view of Inman and the next chapter is in the view of Ada. This makes the story very interesting as the reader gets to see how the actual soldiers felt during times of war and also how their loved ones felt as well. This book causes suspense because the Home Guard is out to catch soldiers who have left the war. I would strongly recommend this book as it is extremely well written and the novel contains many adventures that Inman and Ada must overcome in order to see each other once again.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, Beautifully Written, Engrossing - A Great Read!
Review: This is one of those rare books that ages well in the memory - it's even better upon later reflection than it is when you first read it. The book deals with timeless themes - the resiliency of the human sprit, the sustaining power of faith, the strength of human love - and does so in the context of one of the most important events in America's history, the Civil War. Great historical fiction has the power to educate you, to move you deeply, to create a wonderful escape - and this book accomplished all of this. The historical context of the book serves as more of a backdrop for what is a very rich and enjoyable human story, creating a very satisfying read even if don't have a great interest in this historical period. If, on the other hand, you do hold an interest in the Civil War, this book will give you a feel for what it must have been like to live through the waning days of the war. The depth of feeling and understanding you'll experience is one that few nonfiction books produce.
Rating:
Summary: An odyssey of courage
Review: Cold Mountain is the elegiac odyssey of one man who has fought for the South in the Civil War, after he is nearly mortally wounded. During a long convalescence, his mind attends carefully to the reasoning and waste of war, and the dehumanization of its participants. At some point in his musings, Inman makes a decision and begins his fateful journey home to Cold Mountain and the young woman he hopes is still waiting. At no point on his journey will he be safe, as the roads are patrolled by soldiers searching for such as he, deserters. An uncommon man, Inman would not call himself so, but rather be driven to humility and a need for a simple life after the nightmarish memories of war and death on the battlefield. He goes on foot, fearing that a horse will attract too much unwanted attention, although his wounds have scarcely healed. But he sets out with purpose and determination, set on that one goal, a return to the brutal but beloved Cold Mountain. The woman he walks toward is Ada Monroe, a Charleston minister's daughter, who has lived alone on her father's small farm on Cold Mountain after her father's death, refusing to return to Charleston. Ada knows nothing of farming or survival, although it is her intention to keep the farm and learn to run it. A young woman comes into Ada's hapless life, Ruby, who strikes a bargain for their mutual survival: Ruby has the knowledge and Ada has the land. They form a strong partnership that slowly grows into a respectful friendship, determined, each in her way, to survive the war and the approaching winter. Ruby is an able teacher, and Ada a willing pupil. Together they prepare the farm for the rigors of planting grain, caught up in the rhythm of daily life that depends on itself for sustenance, and they realize that their bargain was well made. Each tedious day of his endless journey, Inman finds himself changing in unexpected ways, mentally tougher, spiritually stronger, although his body is decimated by long bouts of hunger. Ada has become a different person herself, a woman able to provide food and work the land with her hands, no longer the daughter of privilege. As they draw closer to each other, they are more suited, hardship honing their characters, sharpening their perceptions of what is meaningful. Like life, the truest road is in the journey, not the destination. And this journey is filled with wisdom and the appreciation of nature in all its forms, the simple-gratification of a day well lived.
Rating:
Summary: I don't get it.
Review: Well, it certainly won an award and according to numerous reviews on this site that seemed to be justified. But I certainly couldn't get into it. I tried on numerous occasions and in the end I got about half way through it and then finally gave up for good. I could not get used to the authors style of writing at all. The story itself, from what I managed to get out of only reading half the book, was very depressing and not very interesting in the slightest. But to me the way that it was written will stand out in my memory as completely uncaptivating and a style of writing that, personally, I will always endeavour to avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Two Journeys Through Time and Space
Review: This is a Civil War book, but if you expect stories of regiments and battles, leaders and campaigns, stop right here. This is a story of a man walking away from the senseless destruction and the crude killing of the Virginia battlefields. This is a man with an eye on the future, and all the way through the story we learn more and more of what his aims and ambitions are. Inman doesn't shrink from killing, but neither does he want to be part of it. He just wants to walk home to Cold Mountain and if people put themselves between him and his mountain, well that's too bad. Along the way we meet some truly memorable characters, thieves, priests, boors, hermits and heroes, all struggling to keep themselves alive in the final days of the Civil War, when food is scarce, winter is coming on and a shadow lies over the land. The other side of the story is Ada, a Charleston lady somehow marooned in the backblocks of North Carolina with no clear idea of her future. She barely goes more than a mile or two from her hardscrabble farm, but her own journey of learning is somehow more epic than Inman's. Their final meeting is satisfying, glorious and tragic. Well worth the slow journey to get there. There is action enough to keep the story alive, but the spirit of this book lies in the detailed background of the environment, the people, places and things of the time. This book oozes realism. Contrasting with the gritty, greasy taste of the times, we experience the dreams and memories of the characters as they think about other days, other people, other travellers, from the vanished Indians to half-mad botanists. There is a blending, a melding, a weaving together of many strands in this book. Almost without dialogue, it is nothing so much as a long lyrical poem, speaking on several levels, and delving deep to link man with man, man with woman, woman with woman and all of them with the land and the creatures and plants they share it with. In these few poor words I've barely scraped the surface of the richness of this book. Set aside a week and read it, enjoying it a few chapters per day. And then read it again to see what you've missed the first time around. It's a book worth coming back to - read it once a year for the rest of your life, and you'll still find new insights.
Rating:
Summary: I can almost smell the American wilderness
Review: A sad, sweet, moving tale of yearning. Set in the American Civil War period, it recounts the struggles of Inman, a soldier returning to the love of his life Ada, embarking on an incredible walk along a vast, rugged landscape. The story of Ada is told in alternating chapters. With the death of her father, she now has to live off the farm on her own. But help arrives in the form of a girl who is finely attuned to the rythms of nature. This book contains some of the finest writing I've encounterd anywhere. Frazier might well be a mountain-man himself, so convincing are his descriptions of the American wilderness. His prose flows like a song of longing and hope. A great deal of research must have into the ransacking of the vocabulary of the 19th century wilderness of the south, but Frazier carries it off effortlessly. The novel is peopled with many loners, rendered lonesome by the vagaries of war. Along Inman's journey, he meets with kindness and cruelty in equal measure, and he cannot decide if all this randomness means anything. His journey itself provides an answer, for he is determined to meet the woman he's loved long-distance, no matter what the odds. It's the only thing that makes him endure thirst, starvation, cold and near-certain death. Frazier's characterisations are superb: the people in the novel become your friends, and you are sorry to leave them at the end. You become familiar with the landscape, the passing of the seasons, the critters that scrabble in the soil and burrow into the ground.
|
