Rating: 
Summary: More than a war love story
Review: As if daily life and basic survival weren't hard enough in the mid 19th century, Charles Frazier adds to it the impact of war , solitude, and separation in "Cold Mountain". The reader first meets Inman as he lies in a hospital bed, recovering from a battle wound and contemplating his continued service in the ongoing Civil War. After a fellow soldier dies without completing his life's work, Inamn makes the decision to live life for himself, and thus begins a journey on foot back to his hometown (located at the base of Cold Mountain) and to his love Ada. I've always enjoyed a novel that encompasses adventure, travel, and journeying. "Cold Mountain" has it all, while at the same time rising to the level of great literature. Frazier uses country dialects and varied descriptive elements to bring the Confederate South alive. Ada is a shining light in the novel, being transformed from a delicate Charleston society lady to a self-sufficient farm propietress by Ruby, who has a survival story of her own.Although the novel is filled with tragedy, despair, and suffering, this helps to add strength to the characters and depth to the work. If you can make it through a few slow parts, you'll find this to be a fully enjoyable reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Contemporary Literary Classic
Review: This book will be required reading for my grandchildren in school. Very well written! Step into the life of a Civil War soldier searching for purpose in life above basic survival. As he journeys home to the woman he loves you'll get a glimpse of the Amercian people who lived in the midst and aftermath of civil war.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Frazier has an interesting style of writing which takes some getting used to, but it makes for a very visual novel. Don't read this one just once!
Rating:
Summary: COLD MOUNTAIN DEPICTS SENSELESSNESS OF WAR
Review: Cold Mountain was a very well written novel about a conderderate soldiers walk home from a field hospital. This book is very descriptive and has a very interesting format. I would Highly recommend this book to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: JUST MISSES BEING A CLASSIC
Review: My curiousity was piqued when I saw this book in the number 1 position on the bestseller lists. I almost NEVER read the newer bestsellers--there's too many of them and most of them are mysteries or romance. But the blurb about this book made it sound interesting. Something about a wounded soldier trying to get back to his girl during the Civil War. I'd tried reading the Red Badge of Courage--and failed. But I figured that I had to read at least one Civil War book so I may as well read this one. I was grabbed by the beginning--especially the part where the gunner left the ram-rod in his gun and fired anyway! That was just one of MANY surprises in this book. Not all were good, in my opinion, hence the 4 stars. This book is serious, funny, raunchy, you name it. I especially remember the part where Inman faces the firing squad--but I'm stopping there. If you want to know more, read this book for yourself. One last point, I don't care how accurately the author portrays the Civil War era. All I (usually) look for in a book is ENTERTAINMENT. This book delivers.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: I read this book over 3 years ago, and I am still enthralled with its memory. An excellent page-turner that will be perfect for the summer for those who prefer some depth to their reading. Cold Mountain is an extraordinary first novel by Fraser, who shows incredible promise as an author, and his writing in this extraordinary novel deserves all of the accolades it has received.
Rating: 
Summary: A National Book Award? Not many participants then
Review: Yes, you have to use the dictionary with certain frequency, since a lot of the words used by the author are not part of your every day conversations (Not even if you are feeling deep). But I find that effort to be fun, if the language is there, we better make use of its full extension. However, it is true that many of the descriptions used by the author seem to lack a purpose and that they are being used solely to build pages into the novel. The author also needs to master the techniques of suspense and momentum building, because you hardly feel immersed in the sufferings of the characters. Except for Ruby all of them are so plain that is difficult either, to reject or support them. This lack of resources is so sad, that even when Inman can finally undress Ada, after four years of being thinking of her every moment, the author describes such episode with the same lack of intensity that a couple of 37th years of marriage have when they go to bed after arriving from work. I guess this novel won the National Book Award because the juries felt impressed by being forced to used the Oxford's Dictionary.
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Summary: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Review: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier / Fiction; The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997: The notion that a person can be driven by love to do nearly anything is eloquently conveyed in Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier. A stunning, popular, and critically acclaimed success, Cold Mountain, Frazier's first novel, earned the number one bestselling spot in the New York Times. The novel, set during the final months of the Civil War, tells the story of a confederate soldier named Inman. Inman, who was wounded during the war, has one aim: to walk across the landscape of North Carolina to return to his love, Ada, and to Cold Mountain. Ada, the woman he had to leave behind for the war, was brought back to Cold Mountain by her father, a preacher. Ada remains in Cold Mountain to wait for her love, Inman, to return. Frazier lucidly weaves two stories together. The first, Inman's journey home to Ada and Cold Mountain, where he encounters good samaritan and vigilante alike; and the second, Ada's struggle to find herself and to tend her father's farm with the help of a young woman named Ruby. Cold Mountain is a profoundly moving novel, reminiscent of Heminghway's A Farewell to Arms. The conclusion is one of the most powerful in American literature. The way the two main stories are woven together is stunning. It is no wonder how the book not only received the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list, but also received enormous critical acclaim. You will remember the gripping, poignant ending long after you have finished the novel. To conclude, an example of Frazier's powerful, descriptive style: " Ada heard the gunshots in the distance, dry and thin as sticks breaking. She did not say anything to Ruby. She just turned and ran. When she reached the place, the boy had already gathered up the horses and gone. She went to the men on the ground, then she found Inman apart from them. She sat and held him in her lap. He drifted in and out and dreamed a bright dream of home."
Rating:
Summary: Southern Romance
Review: It's a lovely story. It really is. Poor Inman has suffered physical wounds that are mere shadows of the psychological wounds he currently sports. This is the Civil War as it unhinges the country and not merely as it divides a nation. The story is fascinating and the picaresque style serves the author well. For the extremely picky (and somewhat snooty) reader the overt refereces to the Odyssey might be irksome but Cold Mountain is its own novel and a gorgeous one it is. One simple warning: Prepare to have your heart broken.
Rating:
Summary: A great story, better heard than read
Review: I bought the book, started to read it, and bogged down in Ada's immobilizing self-pity. Elegant langauge, well-used; just, couldn't get past the mire she was in. I travel about 36,000 miles a year by car here in Montana, and so listen to audio books on an addictive basis. Not wanting to give up on this book, I bought the unabridged, audio version. Absolutely brillant book. I still love these two people, and can see his trip vividly even now as I write this...By the way, Frazier reads his book, with a voice that enriches the story immeasurably!
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