Rating: 
Summary: The PERFECT cure for Insomnia!
Review: We just finished reading this book in my Honors English 11 Class and I would just like to say it is probally the most drawn out book I have ever read!! I think if I would read this book ten years from now I would appreciate it, but I think being forced to read it as a teenager ruined it! Every night when I would try to read it I would fall asleep!! And I think the ending is terrible! You go through reading three pages about digging one hole and you read for twelve hours about walking through the woods.....just to get to a disapointing ending!! I dunno, this book is probally good for older people but it is TERRIBLE for teenagers!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Literature
Review: This will be short and sweet. In the age of Grisham and Clancy, we have one book that defines the meaning of the word literature. That book is Cold Mountain.This book is easily in my top ten of all time.
Rating:
Summary: As Gripping as It Gets!
Review: I just finished this book while on vacation in Key West. It was one of the highlights of my trip. I love something different and this was it. Beautifully written but slightly unconventional. Very little dialoge, "old-timey" terms and style and incredibly detailed analogies and descriptions. Very nineteenth century in many ways. The story of a man returning home from war via a difficult journey and the woman who occupies his thoughts and with trials and difficulties of her own, it is sort of a romance but more a slice of life kind of story, albeit hard lives that we can only look upon with some anxiety right now. Yes, the ending is hard to deal with and ruined my outlook for days but it fit in with one of the story's main themes - the absolute randomness of life on this earth. Without the ending as it was, the thing would not hit so hard and I think that was Mr. Frazier's intention.
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Summary: Pristine!
Review: The men's reading group I belong to read this book. Overwhelming, it was met with approval and satisfaction from all parts of the discussion. One overriding opinion slated our discussion regarding Cold Mountain. The writing is pristine. A peaceful feeling overcame many readers when picking the book up to read the next section. Charles Frazier has outdone himself in writing something that is beautiful and pure in its lyrical prose. I have heard from some others that they were disappointed in the tragedy, but based upon the difficult time period in which the book is set, it appears to be laced with realism which makes the reader purchase Frazier's authenticity. As far as I am concerned, Cold Mountain is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. I am looking forward to picking it up again in a few years to experience reading it again.
Rating: 
Summary: 4 stars for a tragedy..
Review: This is one of the masterpieces of historical novel but if you don't like tragedy do not read it. I rated it 4 stars for the effort of the Mr. Frazier to lyrically wrote it. The missing 1 star is for the most unexpected tragic ending. I was very disappointed with the bitter and heartbreaking way this book ends. If you are sort of people who can't bear unhappy endings please don't purchase this book. I tell you true, the ending spoils everything beautiful in previous chapters. But if you are seeking a book with rich descriptive and expressive writing this book will do it.
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Summary: Related reading
Review: I think anyone who enjoyed "Cold Mountain" would also enjoy "The Year that Trembled," by Scott Lax, a beautifully-written Vietnam Era coming-of-age story. I was drawn into both books.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Historical Novel
Review: Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is an excellent historical novel. Frazier's great insight of man's relationship with nature and his fellow man make this a work that is very difficult to put down. This explicit detail in which Frazier uses to depict his characters and scenes from nature make this work different from most historical novels that I have read. There is not a great deal of detailed dialogue in this book and I find that pleasing as well. One feels the loneliness of the long trek that Inman has before him. The reader is placed within Inman and Ada's (the two main characters) mind throughout the story. Through them, we learn how a war has changed their lives forever and how they come to appreciate life, home and each other. This book to me (without going into too much detail of what the book is about) is about the struggle of two people facing difficult times and how the war has changed their lives so completely. However, hope for a peaceful future looms in both of their minds as they dream of how life will be when they are together when the war is over. Society has greatly affected the two main characters though the problems arising from the American Civil War. Inman of course was directly affected. He fought in many great battles. He saw many men get wounded and many more die. After three years of fighting he begins to wonder what the struggle is about and if it is still worth the effort. He sees many Confederate soldiers dessert because they are tired of the fighting. Everyone just wants to go home. Yet the "Cause" has not been officially declared over and the soldier's must fight on. Inman gets a break from the fighting when he is hit by a bullet in the neck. After a hospital stay, he begins his arduous trek back home to reunite with the girl he hopes to marry. The war made Inman more appreciative of his home on Cold Mountain. He longs to get away from the war and return to life as he knew it back home. Inman doesn't loose respect for his fellow man but he learns that he must not trust anyone that he doesn't know. Along his journey he meets many different people. He is friendly enough with them but he keeps a wary eye on them -- especially the men that he meets. The war has taught him to sleep with one eye open. He was most assuredly not raised that way on Cold Mountain. Everyone knew each other there -- they were all friends and neighbors. Ada had to face the reality of taking care of herself and the farm when her father died. Since the war was going on there were no men around to help her around the farm. Luckily for her, she found Ruby. Ruby taught her about nature and how to manipulate nature in order to live. Ada learned how to live through Ruby. Had the war not come along her life would have been spent entirely different. She would have had hired help or slaves take care of the farm. She would have stayed inside most of the time reading a book or dreaming about Charleston. As it turned out, she learned a great deal about her strengths and weakness and how she could affect and be affected by nature. The Civil War was arguably the beginning of the great industrial revolution in this country. As the war ended, every citizen knew that his life would be greatly affected. Not only because of the horrors of war -- death, mutilation, hard feelings toward the enemy, but because the way people were to make their living had changed forever. Slavery was no longer an option for plantation owners. They had to rely on sharecroppers or hired hands. Labor was no longer free. The South before the war had virtually no industry; they relied on the North for manufactured goods or went without. This was all about to change forever. Industry in the North had picked out in order to outfit the Federal Army. Mass production was starting to catch on in the factories. More and more jobs became available in order to facilitate the need for more goods. These jobs became attractive to people living on the farm. Many sons and daughters wanted to strike out on their own and earn their own money. Therefore, farms began to diminish in numbers and the cities began to grow. Life as it was known in the antebellum era was over forever. Inman would not think of doing anything but returning to Cold Mountain, even if it meant that he were to live alone in a hermit shack. The mountain was his life. It was his place to escape from the evil horrors of society and the war. He had traveled and seen big cities, men from other places, how other people lived and wanted none of it. He wanted the mountain and he wanted Ada. Was he just a country boy wanting to return to familiar surroundings or was he hiding from the evils of society? I believe both answers are true. He knew that he came from the most beautiful place on Earth and that it was peaceful and he could forget about the war there. Ada on the other hand came to appreciate what she had. She had her farm on Cold Mountain far from the Charleston socialites that she had once dreamt of becoming. A life that she could mold instead of becoming someone who was molded by society. She was free to live how she wanted on Cold Mountain -- free, happy and hard working. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys nature, the Civil War, or just plain adventure. From a sociological perspective, there are many angles that it could be studied. I choose to look at how the war affected the two main characters. Many of the other characters in the book also have interesting relationships with society as many of them lived hard lives. This book can easily be read more than once and studied from different perspectives. I recommend for those that enjoy this book to read Black Flower by Howard Bahr as it also relays the war from a wounded Confederate soldier's perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional
Review: Cold Mountain is a story that seems to bring about strong emotions from readers. Overwhelmingly positive if you get it, scathingly negative if you don't. This book is not meant to be a quick, contemporary read. It is best read while not in a hurry and one can take his or her time and savor the words, descriptions, and everything in between. I can imagine type A personalities or John Grisham readers going absolutely insane reading this book and waiting for the 'action' scenes or the catchy dialog. In that regard it would be rather disappointing. In order to fully appreciate this book you must put aside the sensibilities of the modern world and allow your self to be placed into the world of Inman, Ada, Ruby, and the Civil War era. In that context it is not difficult to imagine the determination of Inman to return to Ada with the hopes of marrying her even though their love was never spoken of outright. In those times of American life people were much closer to the land and the natural world and the ties were of a stronger nature in many ways. Cold Mountain is a wonderful, appreciated break from todays MTV edited entertainment, fast food, quick marts, everyone wears a watch, world in which we live. Frazier presents us with the transformations of Inman, Ada, Ruby, and Stobrod in a subtle way. Readers will have to actually form their own points of character growth rather than have the author slap them in the face with it. The metaphors are also subtle and plentiful. Some pages or passages will have to be read a time or two to get the full impact of what you are reading. Yes, you will have to put forth some effort while reading this book as it is not spoon fed to you and you will have to appreciate good literature and the written word, but because of that this story will transcend mere entertainment or passage of time and will give you something to ponder and appreciate. One gripe I do have though: The first two paragraphs of the epilog do leave me a bit confused.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: 136 years after it ended it is hard to imagine the hell that was the American Civil War. Set against the backdrop of this horrible time in history is this beautifully written masterpiece about one man's great journey. A Confederate Soldier wounded in combat walks out of the hospital he is recuperating in and starts a long, long walk home. This is the the story of that perilous journey. Charles Frazier's writing is so beautiful, poetic and descriptive that you walk right along with the protagonist, Inman. You can see, hear and almost smell this world. It is true that at times it is very graphic and gruesome but so then was the real world in which this tale is based. The characters are so intricately created and brought to life that when it finally ends we feel as if we know them personally. Especially in the case of Inman we come to know a good and kind man who has been forever damaged by the atrocities he's seen and committed in the name of the fight. I found this novel to be a story about the hope and incredible resilience of the human spirit. It is destined to join the ranks of American masterpieces that came before it.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing and disturbing
Review: I cannot argue that Frazier has a wonderful command of language, and writes beautifully. However, the poetic language serves only to make his novel all the more jarring. The content is grotesque, bloody, disturbing, morbid, and simply depressing, and left me exhausted and unhappy when I finished it. I felt literally sick. One might say, then, that Frazier is a very effective writer, since his words engendered such an effect in me, but I felt no pathos for the characters, and so the novel failed in that respect. Inman would have been more aptly named Inhuman, and Ada was snobby and selfish. Both main characters lacked all worth and merit, other than the fact that their bodies were able to withstand hard work and physical punishment. The final blow didn't bother me in the least, because I never cared for the miserable characters to begin with. I only felt numb. Other parts of the story offended me outright; they seemed ludicrous. Ruby was the one character I liked, simply because she was stubborn and knew her way around. But then Frazier causes her to commit an act in the epilogue that is simply unforgivable. In addition, the ending was easily predicted: what could be more natural in Frazier's world of despair than for the strivings of these characters, and all Frazier's poetic words, to come to naught? I suffered through this novel to be betrayed in the end by an author who won't give the reader an atom of hope.
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