Rating: 
Summary: TO BE READ
Review: i picked up this book because i had heard of the movie-and i fell in love with it. somehow in my mind i compared it to gwtw--and this book seemed more beautiful than GWTW. alternating between ada's and inman's journeys-it gave us a view of the south-in way so different fromt the other book.
IT WAS NOT JUSAT A SIMPLE ROMANCE-or a tiring realtionship drama--it was more. i recommend it to all who love a good book
Rating:
Summary: Cold Mountain
Review: Charles Frazier's COLD MOUNTAIN is a success, not because of the screenplay that adapted to it to film, but because it sets a standard on par with the great American novel. It does not compel the reader to toss pages like coins, nor does it use suspense or erotica to entice the reader into delving for more. It simply does what great literature does: leads your mind and heart on an odyssey into the lives of simple characters with complex issues that are universal. There is no simpler story line than that of love and devotion between parent and child, between two hearts melded together at first glance, or of friendship. Cold Mountain brings this recognizable plot into an environment, cultivated by war and bloodshed, compassion, trust, and forgiveness. It is Frazier's ability to bring it forward in these new clothes, and his poetic sense of description and structure that lures us into a poignant
deja vu we recognize as the chapters pass. We all have loved and have lost; we all have been touched by the handiwork of God. Cold Mountain should be set down from time to time while being read. It was never meant to peruse and scan idly. This book will provoke thought and recollection. It echoes timeless lessons from the Heavens by reminding one of the ties between deity and nature, and opposing forces of the good and the evil, which battle not only around us but within the darkest canyons of our hearts. The beauty with which Frazier narrates this Appalachian journey is as if falling headlong into a poem, Frost perhaps, and then leveling off somewhere along side a stream to ponder for a season its significance. It is the standard by which all future literature will be judged by anyone who has the ability to grasp the genius of its composition. May it be ravished by romantics, enjoyed by historians, studied by writers, and treasured for what it truly is: gifted storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Forget the Movie, read the book
Review: A literary feast of great sensory dimensions. The experiences of the characters are feathered with words such that the reader is obliged to feel them very deeply - from something as ordinary as a bird call to the horrors of being hunted. The historical references are stark and troubling. A human journey for both the characters and the reader. Forget the movie, read the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Comparison between Book and Movie- Cold Mountian (Part II)
Review: "When three crows harried a hawk across the sky, Ruby expressed her great respect for the normally reviled crow, finding much worthy of emulation in their outlook on life. She noted with disapproval that many a bird would die rather than eat any but food it relishes. Crows will relish what presents itself. She admired their keenness of wit, lack of pridefulness, love of practical jokes, slyness in a fight. All of these she saw, as making up the genius of crow, which was a kind of willed mastery over what she assumed was a natural inclination toward bile and melancholy, as evidenced by its drear plumage.
--We might all take instruction from crow, Ruby said..."
Ruby clearly can relate the trials she and Ada are going through to the crow. Of course, both of them, epically Ada, would enjoy being able to relax and lie around lazily doing only what they please, but they must now resort to the less pleasurable tasks in order to stay alive.
Inman also encounters crows on his journey, and has the same opinion of them. In the film, the black crows simply represent death. While black crows were minor symbolism in the book, they become major symbolism in the movie. They represent Inman's death, though this is really not apparent until the end of the movie. When Ada finds herself looking for her future in the images down Sally Swagner's well, she sees Inman walking surrounded by black crows. She believes this to be Inman waking home, but it is actually Inman immediately before his death, right before he stumbles and falls into the snow. At the end of the movie, right after Inman falls from his horse, Ada hears a crow call out and runs, knowing that it must have to do with Inman. She then sees the vision she saw down the well, the black crows surrounding Inman as he struggles to walk toward her. Later, when she is holding his head in her arms, the crow once again calls out as Inman takes his last breath. The way the crow connects with Inman's death really impressed me when watching this movie, it acted as a guide through the entire scene and was an excellent decision on Minghella's part.
Although I preferred the film to the book, one of the few things in the movie that bothered me was casting Nicole Kidman as Ada. Now don't get me wrong, Ms. Kidman is an incredibly talented and beautiful actress, but she simply was not right for the part. There were several times in the movie when she was standing next to Rene Zellweger's Ruby, who was appropriately all scuffed up and dirty from farm work, and there is Nicole looking like she walked off the cover of Vanity Fair-The Civil War Issue. I understood from the book that Ada was supposed to be pretty, but I thought that the film's costume and make-up might have taken that too far. Indeed, in one of the last scenes, Ada is out in the woods in "rugged old britches of Monroe's" where she is starving and cold, helping Ruby to bury a dead man. But Ada looks as if she just stepped off a fashionable street in Manhattan. I had pictured Ada as pretty, yet a little rough around the edges from all of her war-years work with Ruby on the farm. I had also pictured her as she is described in the book, with curly brown hair, slightly tanned skin from her work outside, and not-so-brilliant blue eyes. The movie's decision to glamorize Ada definitely took away from the storyline; she was without a smudge of dirt on her face the entire movie.
Aside from this one casting mishap, I was impressed with every single character in the entire movie. My favorite actress in the movie was Rene Zellweger. When she was on the screen, all I could think of was, "wow, she is incredibly talented." It seemed to me that she had jumped inside my head, stolen the character of Ruby, and developed her even more than I had imagined while reading the book.
I also liked the character of the "blind man" in the beginning of the film. The blind man has a very small part in the book/movie, but pulled through to be one of my favorite characters. His eyes were constantly peering of into the distance, or so they seemed, as if he was looking into the wise tellings of some ancient proverb as he talked to Inman, giving him wise advice in the film. That was a scene my mind had imagined when reading the book, and I was very happy to see it on the screen. The blind man had just a few lines, but he still stole the scene away from Jude Law, a hard thing to do.
So, in conclusion, I must say that both movie and book are amazing, but the movie pulls off something that the book does not. It permanently stamped images into my memory, and I found myself rethinking them often during the day when my mind starts to wander. The film did more did more than just breathe life into the book, which now seems dull without it. So, I beg of you, grab the popcorn and watch Cold Mountain-it is definitely an experience you won't soon forget.
Rating:
Summary: Compaison between the Book and Movie- Cold Mountain (Part 1)
Review: Slowly at first, but accelerating a little bit each time, the camera began to circle around the dying soldier. Inman began coughing. His coughing increased as the camera made its circles. Blood started eking out of the corners of his mouth as the coughing turned into choking. At last, the circling stopped as Inman fell from his horse. A loud "caw!" from a black crow underscored a recurring symbolism the film had displayed throughout the movie. But this time I could clearly understand what the symbolism was trying to say. It was foretelling our hero's death.
When faced with the decision to choose a preference between the book and the movie version of Cold Mountain, I found it to be a difficult choice. At times, author Charles Frazier would narrowly win me over with his novel, but then I would lean towards the powerful imagery and symbolism in the film by Anthony Minghella. To solve my problem, I asked myself a simple question: if I had to see/read one version again, which would I choose? I then realized that I had, in fact, already planned to see to the movie again with my father, but I hadn't at all thought about rereading the book, even though I often reread my favorite novels.
It is rare for a movie version to surpass a book. But, if just one within millions of book-based movies deserves the praise, it is Cold Mountain. The entire picture was beautiful. It is one of the best films I have ever seen.
I felt that a good majority of the changes made from book to movie were for the better. Let us observe this through the character of Inman. At the end of the story, Inman states, in both the book and movie, that the war has changed him through its violence and horrors. He says he is now a lesser person then he was four years before, when he and Ada first met. This holds true in the book, but in the movie it is slightly altered. I imagine that perhaps Minghella made changes in order to create a clear hero for the audience to root for.
In the book, there were times when I didn't know whether to root for or against Inman. For example, in one scene of the book, Inman stays overnight in the cottage of a widowed woman, Sara (Natalie Portman), and her young, sickly baby. In the morning, three Yankee soldiers arrive and, luckily, Inman escapes into some nearby woods, but still watches Sara's cottage from his hiding place. He sees the Yankees hold Sara down and lay the baby on the cold winter ground. They try to convince Sara to tell them where her money is hidden, and they don't believe her when she tells them that she has none. In the book, the Yankees take what goods she has and leave her and the baby alone. Inman stalks the Yankees and shoots them all, eventually returning all of the stolen goods to Sara. The question here is: do we praise Inman for shooting the bad guys and bringing back goods to Sara, or do we shake our heads at him for the stalking and murder of three Yankees who, just like him and Sara, were trying to survive?
It is at times like this when the book becomes confusing and I wasn't sure for whom to root. Minghella has solved this problem for us in the movie by turning the whole scene around. Let's revisit the time when the baby is laying on the ground while Inman watches from the trees and Sara is held down by a Yankee to keep her from helping her crying baby. In the movie, a Yankee takes Sara into the cottage and attempts to rape her. However, Inman sneaks into the cabin and kills the solider, which portrays him as a hero who helps those in need. A second solider enters and (after lunging at Sara) is also killed by Inman. Then Inman and Sara run outside where the last Union solider is kindly putting his jacket over the cold baby. Inman tells him to get lost-notice here that Inman is portrayed as only resorting to violence in order to save someone else-and lets the solider go free. Unfortunately for the solider, Sara is not so kindly and she shoots the solider down as he runs towards the trees. This scene is significant because it illustrates how in the book, Inman's first resort in times of danger is his treasured LeMat's (gun), but in the movie he prefers the peaceful, heroic route.
The use of symbolism in the movie left me speechless. In fact, it was probably one of the deciding factors for me when choosing between the novel and the motion picture. Each version uses different symbolism, with the exception of the black crows. However the crows symbolized different things in the book than in the movie. In the book, the crows represented hard work and doing what you had to in order to stay alive, rather than giving up and dying. The character of Ruby explains this use of symbolism to Ada,
Rating:
Summary: Why Must Life Be So Cold?
Review: This was an excellent read. It quickly made its way up to my number two spot for favourite books (Just behing Gabrel Garcia Marquez's divine prose: One Hundred Years of Solitude). As we all know, the story takes place towards the end of the Civil War. Inman who lived in Cold Mountain (and was in love with the Ada) is injured in war and sent to a hospital. He eventually deserts and takes the dangerous trek back to Cold Mountain on foot. Many adventures await both Inman, and the emotionally scarred and lonly Ada. The book is a lot more indepth and somewhat different than the movie (which I loved). The only problem I had with the book was the lack of quotation marks. It was sort of awkward dividing quotes with either a hyphen or nothing but a comma. More awkward than an inconvience. But it's not that difficult and I got used to it. I would also recommend Homer's Odyssey, which Frazer loosley based this on (as well as a relative of his who fought in the civil war). This is an excellent book and will make you think a lot about love and war.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: I thought this book was great. It did take me a bit longer to read than most other books of similar length (and I'm a fairly fast reader), but it was worth it. The book was beautifully and poetically written; those who thought it was bad probably don't appreciate the fine hand with which Frazier wrote the book. However, there are no quotation marks in the dialogue, but I got used to that pretty quickly. I admit, the ending could have been a lot better, but overall, the book deserves five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Please Jesus, not another one-novel writer
Review: This is a book worth anyone's time. If you've seen the movie, it was largely faithful to the novel. Faithful would be the operative word for the story. Although I bought this for my husband when it came out, it was not for me then. However, I regret my years of lapse. It is beautifully and carefully written, and well represents the North Carolina of the time.
The detail, the eccentrics, the suffering, the privations, the period and the divided allegiances are all here. I hope Charles Frazier writes another, but if he doesn't, this is enough. Lisa Ashmore
Rating: 
Summary: Long and boring
Review: I know this book received lots of critical accolades, and I consider myself a learned, well-read person - but I could not get through this story. I have owned the book since 1997, tried to read it 3 or 4 times, and never got past the first chapter. I finally forced myself to read it prior to the movie coming out, and I could barely finish it. Nothing happens! A guy walks away from a hospital and heads home, while a woman he barely knows tries to scrape together an existence during the Civil War. It is inconceivable to me that, even during a more innocent time, anyone could or would sustain enough passion for 4 years to have him make the long trek home based on a total of "100 words" spoken to each other (actually, the "100 words" comment may be from the movie, not the book.) I really wanted to like this (and actually liked the movie), but, unfortunately I thought the book was awful.
Rating:
Summary: PASS THE PROZAC!
Review: Why are books about life in the Southern USA almost always so depressing? Are they still in a funk about losing the war? They need to get over it!Reading this book is like wading through a vat of taffy--slow, and laborious, with no point. If I want to be depressed reading about the south, I'll read Faulkner's LIGHT IN AUGUST. At least it's a classic.
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