Rating: 
Summary: Wow.
Review: Cold Mountain is quite simply the best book I've ever read. I looked into it recently because I found out it was being made into a film. I am so glad I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Quickly to Cold Mountain - the abridged cassette
Review: I hadnt read the book by Charles Frazier when I bought the "abridged" cassette and listened to it on one long and lonely drive through outback Australia - so far from Cold Mountain. My Dad had worked in Wilmington NC, and like many people around the world, I had very little idea of the Civil War from the side of the south, with its horrors, upheavals and dislocations. While darkly written, at its core is a basic story of how war changes people and in this case brings Inman and Ada closer. When I finished listening to the casette I wanted to read the book, and wanted Frazier to write another, and another.....
Rating: 
Summary: The Star Wars I of novels? Despite hype, this book sucks.
Review: Maybe being a writer myself, and seeing all his terrible, terrible tricks made it harder for me, but still, I could find nothing good in this novel. Fraser's over-flowry praise borders very close to god-awful. I had to read this book as part of my Senior Year Contemporary Lit class, and to paraphrase Kurtz, 'the tedium! the tedium!' I have waited so long to write this review only because I required time to relearn how to appreciate literature after I read this book. Fraser tries way, way to hard to show us 'depth' and 'meaning' in this trite, repetitive novel. And Ada's self-discovery, never mind being a total cliche, added a completely unnecessary, unwanted one or two hundred pages to this worthless tome.
Upon reflection, Fraser probably only put her in there to make some banal statement about the upper class not living a full and meaningful life. Inman's journey, also meant to convey some anti-war message, got to be so over-the top in a very short while that to read the book was dangerous to my health and sanity. The symbolism--Fraser's main trick-- was so obvious so as to be practically hitting the reader over the head and the ending left me totally unsatisfied. After Inman's--and the reader's-- tedious, plodding walk through the evident horrors of the Civil-War era south, I hoped that Fraser would have had the kindness to satisfy with a decent ending.
Rating:
Summary: A matter of discovery--
Review: Charles Frazier has penned a book which reminds me why I like to read--it all comes down to a matter of discovery. Innumerable realizations--often major truths--abound. Page by page, line by line, a keen, honest observation of nature and humanity emerges, shimmering, dark, immense. Frazier's command of precise language--with economy when best serving his purpose, with expanse when most needed--reacquaints the reader with the beauty of words in the right hands. I offer Mr. Frazier what I consider the supreme compliment: his work enlightens.
Rating:
Summary: For Those who Have Problems Sleeping
Review: Boring, tedious, disjointed, contrived, silly---poorly fleshed out characters evoke neither sympathy or empathy. There are much better "reads" out there and more salubrious ways to spend your time.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbound
Review: This dark novel attached itself to me like the tenacles of an octopus! It unfolded so slowly (though not boring) and mysteriously that I felt I had to dig deeper and deeper all the time to get to know the two characters. The answer to the question, "What will happen next," always loomed like a dark ghost just out of visible range. This drew me and the book together like an invisible force. It left my head spinning!
Rating:
Summary: A Grand Work of Art
Review: I need to add a few words to the thousands that have been written in praise of this impressive novel. One reviewer captured it well when s/he commented it's the journey that counts. Indeed, that is the essence of life, journeying forth against obstacles and adversity. And that's what this book delivers, a journey unlike any I have read in literature. Oh, sure, the motif of the odyssey or quest is apparent as a literary device, but Frazier invests it with such intimate detail, such vivid description, that he refines the vehicle. There is an inexorably haunting quality to his rendering (which he also captures in his reading of the work, well worth the hearing), echoing the unspeakable horror of the civil battle that has so defined our American psyche, that still pulses with meaning today, favorably and not-so-favorably (hear the echoes of "Yankee" when in the South and one cannot mistake the resonance of that bloody division). What a rich reading experience this book provides, requiring a diligence many readers cannot muster (I must confess to initial difficulty, more a reflection of me than the work, but I fixed it by listening to Fazier's reading on tape, which got me going and got me reading). The force of his writing will literally blow you away, time and again ... a dazzling, dizzying display. The writing demands that we slow down and savor the feeling of the time, the torment and loss of a ravaged nation ... of war-torn and wounded families ... of dreams dashed and destroyed. To read this novel is to remember, once again, why we live: to follow yearnings, to overcome adversity, and to remain forever hopeful.
Rating: 
Summary: Moderately entertaing work
Review: I read this book following the massive amount of hype that errupted after its publication. While the book was a moderately entertaining Civil War yarn filled with believable characters, it doesn't deserve all of the praise it received. One glaring reason why is because I correctly guessed half-way through the book how it would end. A truly good novel should keep one guessing. This one didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Cold Mountain is a great anti-war book
Review: Charles Frazier understands war. This book is about a young man (Iman) who joins the ranks of the Confederate Army only to find that war is both savage and senseless. In time...surrounded by death he rejects the war and seeks the love of a young woman he left back home in the peaceful region of "Cold Mountain." Ordinarilly I read nonfiction. A friend insisted I read this book. I'm not disappointed. This novel deserves all the fanfare. It is a richly detailed story that highlights the anquish of war.
Rating:
Summary: the best novel I've ever read
Review: This is truly the best novel I have ever read. I could not put it down and was grieved to finish it. Frazier was brilliant with his ability to describe the roads, countryside, rivers, people, etc.
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