Cold Mountain

Rating:
Summary: Gentle Accents from the Hills Relate a Timeless Love Saga
Review: Cold Mountain is simply one of the most wonderful stories written in recent years. You will enjoy this book regardless of whether or not you usually like Civil War books or love stories.

The story begins near the end of the Civil War as Inman, a Confederate soldier, recuperates from his wounds and reflects on four years of ferocious fighting. Soon, he realizes that he will be sent back to fight some more. Overcome by that thought, he dreams of home instead. He sneaks out of the hospital through a window and begins a long, difficult trek home.

At the same time, Ada, his love from before the war, has just lost her father in the hill country in the Smokies. Brought up as an educated lady to her minister father in Charleston, she is unprepared to fend for herself. Soon befriended by Ruby, she begins the unremitting toil to get her farm working again without the proper help, resources and training. Those who have read Gone With the Wind will recognize many parallels to Scarlett O'Hara's situation at Tara after her father dies.

The novel interweaves Inman's and Ada's stories as they move towards a reunion on Cold Mountain. Inman is in constant danger as a deserter, and finds the going hard at a time when the local militia units are actively hunting down criminals and deserters. The losses in the war are also causing a general breakdown in civility among Southerners and through depredations from Federal troops. The episodes are reminiscent of the time on the raft in Huckleberry Finn for their raw display of the best and worst qualities of humanity. I was also reminded of Dante's Inferno.

One of the great strengths of the novel is that the ultimate reunion of Ada and Inman is handled in a thoughtful and in many ways, unexpected, manner. This brilliant sequence allows the book to ascend to a higher plane of meaning for the reader. In this context, all will recognize that this book is more about the primacy of human connection through family, friendship, and humane acts . . . than the love of a man and woman for each other.

I listened to the abridged tape of the book, and would like to single out Dylan Baker's reading for praise. He has a soft Southern hill country accent that is very malleable, and does well with the female voices as well as the male ones. Mr. Baker's cadences were those of tired, but determinedly resigned people and brought a wonderful reinforcement to the story.

I plan to also listen to the author's unabridged cassettes, and to read the hard cover version. I suspect that each will add to my enjoyment of this remarkable book. For this book is best savored repeatedly, like the memory of a wonderfully crisp fall afternoon as the vibrantly colored leaves are silhouetted by the azure sky as they gently drop to the dewy green grass.

Many readers will draw parallels from this book to Homer's Odyssey. I found Cold Mountain more compelling than The Odyssey because of its structure. Odysseus was returning from winning the Trojan Wars. Coming home early from the losing side puts a much different tone on the story for Inman. He has to worry about surviving in many dimensions, not just getting home for a joyous celebration. He also doesn't know what home holds for him. That structual difference is profound for the tone it sets for the long, difficult journey home. I found that such an odyssey has more meaning when one has fewer expectations, more problems, and greater heartache. Ada's story is also much more interesting than the home aspects of The Odyssey, where the main challenge was to keep the suitors away. Ada is in full survival mode, by comparison.

After you have listened to or read this wonderful story, let me suggest that you take another classic (you could even pick The Iliad) and consider how it could be restructered into a story that would move you more. Feel free to change the characters, the setting, and the action. Then, share your story with someone you love. Before the days of radio, that was a primary way that families drew closer. It still can be.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: One of the best Civil War novels ever. This book will surely become one of the classics. The characters, locations and situations are absolutely believable. I didn't want it to end.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning work
Review: Perhaps the finest book I have read in a dozen or more years. I'm not sure I've ever read a more poignant or elegant piece of writing. The imagery is extraordinary and the character development is as seamless as it is real. I've probably read 2,000 books in the past 25 years and this is the only one that ever compelled me to write a note of appreciation to the author. Frazier's writing is fluid, personal and effortlessly inventive. Don't borrow this book from the library; buy it. It will become a cherished favorite.

Rating:
Summary: A special Bonding
Review: I think this is a wonderful book. What was so enjoyable about and also held your interest was the different people and different lives that Inman came in touch with. They were fascinating people and so diverse. How would your life ever be the same again, you would think of these people almost everyday. The relaionship that Ada and Ruby had was just beautiful. They helped one other so much. Ada would have never existed if it wasn't for Ruby's wise wise and creative ways. Loved it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent tale, solid characters, great prose, good pacing
Review: I don't know why, but this book reminded me a lot of Dan Simmons' sci-fi classic Hyperion. Like Hyperion (though to a much smaller scale), the book is populated with interesting people that the two main characters meet, and most of these people have their own short stories to tell, many which are unforgettable. I found that each story drew me deeper into the story, helping me to understand what it was like to live in North Carolina during the Civil War era.

And like Simmons, Frazier's prose is outstanding. I enjoyed reading the book not just for the story, but also to admire his descriptions of people, places, events...and to see where his imagination would lead me next.

To compare it to other books may be unfair, but I also think the book has a romanticism similar to that of The Bridges of Madison County and A Very Long Engagement.

This book ranks up there amongst some of the best books I've read.

Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and Beautifully Written
Review: This is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. Charles Frazier builds a story that takes you in totally. Cold Mountain allows you to feel deeply without telling you how to feel. This book is not for people who want immediate gratification with saturated obvious dialog or spelled out love scenes. I am left speechless, but filled with satisfaction. I will read this book again and again.

Rating:
Summary: I would compare Frazier with Pancake
Review: You probably haven't read "The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake", but you should.--Especially if you've enjoyed "Cold Mountain" half as much as I have. Pancake (don't be turned off by his ridiculous name--he was born with it) killed himself in 1979 at age 26, but not before leaving behind some of the best (it IS the best, I think) American short fiction of the later 20th century.

I'm getting to the point. Pancake came from the same generation as Charles Frazier, although Frazier didn't start writing until much later in life, and the two also write from similar environments: Frazier from the mountains of North Carolina, Pancake from West Virginia. Maybe this is just my own personal taste, but there is definitely something similar in each of these writers that appeals to me . . . a kind of asthetic perfection in the images, a lovely kind of balance in just about every wording. There are things in "Cold Mountain" and in Pancake's stories that floored me with a conbination of shock, pleasure, and envy that I had not written them first; and these are two writers whose work embodies much of that which is great in contemporary American prose.

I feel that I may be rambling. If I haven't lost you yet, it's a good sign, and just maybe I'll have found one more reader for Pancake--or for "Cold Mountain." Don't let my talk of asthetics frighten you if you haven't yet read the novel--you can enjoy it on so many levels (as an adventure, a love story, a historical novel, and on), it really is staggering. This is a book that I think deserves to last.

Rating:
Summary: Still singing of arms and the man
Review: The links between this novel and Homer's Oddysey are striking, but Charles Frazier has worked a wonder here. He has taken the well-rehearsed tale of a war-weary soldier returning home to his wife and made from it something new, original and a great myth in its own right. The pain, the waiting, the homesickness, the longing and the tragedy are all made tangible by Frazier's beautifully sparse prose. His evocation of the Civil War and of Cold Mountain are masterful. I read this at the same time as my father. We kept phoning one another up to discuss it. One of my most enjoyable reads in a long while.

Rating:
Summary: Another view of the Civil War
Review: As you journey with Inman through the hills of North Carolina, you begin to understand what most people thought of the Civil War. Instead of seeing all of the fighting, you start to comprehend, not so much what the soldiers thought of the war, but of what the families felt. You are introduced to Ada, the daughter of a wealthy priest, Ruby the daughter of a drunk and Stobrod, the drunk himself. The reader views the whole spectrum as he/she peers through the looking glass that is "Cold Mountain."

Rating:
Summary: Scarlett O'Hara come back!
Review: Don't waste your time with this book. The author writes reasonably well, and the story has potential, but it fails to evoke much emotion except disgust and depression. This is fiction, supposedly based on oral tradition, that advances the notion that the population of the Old South consisted entirely of drunken, filthy, ignorant men who filled their days with sex and thoughts of the same. The women, almost always good looking, seem only too glad to accomodate these drunken fools. As I read, I continued to hope that Inman would encounter at least one person who was not drunk, deranged, dirty, or disgusting, but it was not to be. By the end of the book, I was only too glad to leave Cold Mountain behind.