Rating: 
Summary: ugh ugh ugh
Review: Both the movie and the book were contrived, boring, and just plain stupid! Who on earth would wait years for someone to come home that they only kissed ONCE??!! Get real. This book is a bore-fest and I went to see the movie to see if it was any different....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Rating: 
Summary: Liked it better when it was over. . .
Review: I loved this book but at the same time had trouble getting through it. I would not describe it as a page-turner. Frazier does an incredible job of painting a picture of the pent-up desire and longing that characterize the love story. The heartache resulting from separation from a new love at the peak of anticipation is palpable. His style of writing is graceful and intelligent, yet I was not really compelled to keep reading. The book took me considerably longer than it should have to finish. At the same time, though, I relished the prose and vivid descriptions of scenery, events, and characters. I swear I could actually hear Stobrod's mesmerizing fiddle music. The ending was fulfilling if somewhat predictable. Aida and Inman are high on my list of favorite couples in literature. I happened to see the movie recently, two years after reading the book. I have to say, I was impressed. I generally don't bother to see the film version of books that I particularly enjoyed, but this one was pretty true to the book. And I have to say, I hardly recognized Rene Zelweger!
Rating:
Summary: I wish I can give it a ZERO
Review: I HATE HATE HATE HATE THIS BOOK! It's awful. I was about 20 pages into the book and I already hated it. I don't understand how Frazier got awards for writing this crap of a book. I don't understand how people can AWARD such a book as this. Maybe it was the writing I don't like for I think Frazier's writing sounds way too contrieved and TRYING TOO HARD (with the dashes and all that. I've seen it before therefore it's not original). And then this story isn't at all a LOVE story as people say it is. The whole "Love" thing didn't even come to play until the very last chapters. I think the movie played up the love story a little more than the book ever did. Grant it, Inman like the movie, escapes the war just to go back to Ada but their eventual "love" is basically like 30 pages long out of 400+ pages. This book is more rambling than anything else. The war stories would be about 100 pages. Actual interesting stuff would be around another hundred pages. So 230 pages of useful things in this book while the other 170+ pages are crap. The only reason why this book wasn't a total waste of my time were the interesting characters that Inman met on his way home to Ada. There was that old woman with the goats, Veasey, the girl named Sara, and the guy from the south who was to inherit this big plantation but was willing to give it all up for a slave he fell in love with. There's also the character of Ruby that befriended Ada. THOSE were the only damn story lines that were interesting and I wished Cold Mountain was about those characters rather than the two characters I was supposed to care about. Most of the book Fraizer just desrcibes every stupid detail. I guess he just wants to prove to us all that he knows the Civil War. I mean he would describe gun handles, dresses, things in the woods, like tree sap for example. If he wrote more pages to this novel I wouldn't be surprised if he maticulously described nail fugus from a patriot's corpse. I swear. I couldn't stand it anymore. It was just awful. Maybe he's "accurate" in his ways but it's an awful book.
Rating: 
Summary: OK Civil War Journeys of the Spirit and Legs
Review: I came away with mixed feelings about Cold Mountain. The basic story had great possibility and is at times interesting. The author painted what seemed to be a realistic description of hard scrabble farm life for those left behind to survive while the men folk fought for slavery and state's rights. Many descriptions of how ordinary people used nature to make a working farm in an age without many conveniences seemed true to form and tested the mettle of the characters. The hospital experiences of Inman and trials encountered during his long desertion from Lee's embattled 1864 army toward home (Cold Mountain, along the western North Carolinian border) were also interesting and realistic. This is basically a story of journey's on two levels. First is the physical journey of Inman as he makes his way home. He must dodge hunger and the Home Guard, a posse band hunting down the what had become a horde of army deserters at that time. The other journey is inward and occurs among four major characters. Inman has become a pacifist an turns toward his own interests and an imagined better life without war and with his true love, Ada. Ada, a Charleston belle left kept without any practical skills by a doting father, must fend for herself after he dies. She is first shocked by real life and then learns to work with the aid of Ruby, who has a seemingly endless store of knowledge to address every situation. Ruby was, I found, the most interesting character. A self-raised waif, she is sent to Ada's farm by a neighbor woman who knows Ruby's great skills at survival and Ada's need for someone with a clue about how to milk cows, pick apples, raise chickens and generally make a productive farm run. The chapters alternate between Inman's long migration west and Ada's coming to grips with her new and harder life (but one in which she learns to take great pride) as a mountain farmer. The pacing is somewhat slow and languid. The author almost never fails to detail scenery and much of the book is taken up with the color of the sky, rising of various constellations, glistening of leaves in rainy weather or qualities of various snowfalls when the story moves to the late months. The book is very heavy on description, which is a plus if that's what you like in a novel. It is somewhat short on action, although there are interesting situations and characters met along the way (primarily by Inman, though Ruby's ne'er-do-well father makes an welcome diversion). This is a love story as well as a story of journeys, although the love story angle was perhaps the weakest part (save at the ending, which by the way will be unsatisfying to some). During the first hundred pages while Ada is either milling about the farm on her way to death by starvation or learning to adjust to her harsh reality in the early Ruby part of the book, her thoughts turn not once to Inman, the great love of her life. In fact, during the first half of the book, the reader is wondering if Ada even knew (or remembered) Inman. I did find it odd that Ada, in her despair and mentally wishing for a life-line thinks only of her father or her Charleston youth and not of the one man who we later learn touched her soul before he donned the rebel grey. I think readers who like a more literary approach to fiction and enjoy nuanced descriptive writing will probably enjoy this book a lot. Those looking for a good yarn and a gripping escape may feel under-nourished by the end.
Rating:
Summary: INACCURATE! bottomline!
Review: This book, as well as the movie, are downright historically inaccurate! Of all the great histories of the Civil War that i have read, first and foremost are Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton, not once did i ever come across the term or concept of the Confederate "Home Guard" much less of any entity within the Confederacy that would torture and execute civilians to obtain the names and locations of deserters!!! By the time of the war that the book takes place in, any organized "home guard" that, if even existed, would have long before been drafted into the army, and would not have even been able to roam the countryside looking for deserters without being deserters themselves! That aside, the book and movie roll along without ever really establishing a plot or point. When the ending finally arrives, the only emotional response is a resounding "thank god" its finished! Dont waste your time with this story, its a politically correct, historically inaccurate and pointless war melodrama, just like "The Thin Red Line". The book and movie paint a picture of the Civil War that is not correct.
Rating: 
Summary: Hearfelt characters and a hauntingly magical tale
Review: I simply cannot understand how some reviewers find Inman "dull" Here is a man with a penchant for wanting to understand his world, to learn how to live a soulful and good life despite the madness of war. I adore his subtlety of character, and how that plays off Ada's more outspoken, and yet strangely constrained facade. Reading dialogue between these characters, you come to understand that they are kindred spirits ... a glance, a word ... and they *know* Lose yourself in this book and you won't regret it. It is an intelligent, heartfelt story. It is a tale that has haunted me with visions of courage, determination and love, long after turning the last page.
Rating:
Summary: A Reading Experience.......
Review: If you enjoy reading a book that seems the writer used a paint brush as well as a pen.....then you'll love Cold Mountain.The writing style fills the senses; provides clear detail and description inspiring the reader's imagination. Wonderfully written, great characters and antidotes blend together in a fashion that the reader is captive throughout the story. It's hard to believe that this is a first novel for Frazier. It's the kind of book I think many will want to read and re-read; I plan to. I'm looking forward to the author's next book. I highly recommend this one. It's a book that leaves the reader with a sense that he has not only read a book, but has experienced it.
Rating:
Summary: Cold Mountain
Review: It is hard to beleive that this book has such aclaim. It was a difficult read, very slow, too wordy and parts of it were improbable. It might be better to read the last 20 pages of the book. Others reading this book have made the same comments.
Rating:
Summary: Cold mountain, cold characters, cold plot
Review: While this book does have some interesting characters, you never get inside the main character. You met him recovering from injuries from the civil war. You never learn where he came from, anything about his family, his beliefs, his feelings. He meets several difficulties as he tries to get home, and I found myself routing for his end. The female characters are more vibrant although its hard to understand how one of them loves Mr. Dullness from nowhere.
Rating:
Summary: A Near-Modern Odyssey
Review: I struggled with whether to rate this book a 4 or a 5. I really feel like it's a 4.5 but that wasn't an option. The nagative factors with this book is that it starts off unnecessarrily slow and finishes quite awkwardly. If you've tried to read this book before and gave up after 50 or so pages, try it again. The problem rests with the introduction of two essentially dysfunctional main characters. They take some time to "warm up to". The book soon picks up speed and will hold your attention the rest of the way; especially for the last half. Conversely, after becoming totally engrossed with the novel, the author ends the book too abruptly and tosses in a confusing epilogue. I can only speak for myself, but I read the epilogue twice and I still don't know how the book turns out. I guess I'll have to see the movie to find out for sure. Now for the good stuff. This book is a not-quite-modern day version of Homer's Odyssey. It is the story of a soldier named Inman attempting to come home to his woman and her difficulties in his absence. The soldier encounters many serious obstacles and through them we meet a variety of interesting characters. His woman, Ada, is not pestered by suitors at home ala Penelope (although see if you think that there actually WAS a suitor in her midst as I thought I detected). Her challenges lie in suddenly finding herself alone in the world and short on survivor skills. Her dilemnas eventually capture our interest as well. The author alternates chapters between the trials of Inman and the tribulations of Ada in a way that makes us anxious to keep up on both of them. This is a book that takes place during the Civil War although little is said of any of the battles themselves. It is, however, an excellent glimpse into the life at home in a South that had already lost but was still fighting. Some books run 100 pages too long. This one was at least 25 pages too short. Maybe it's just me but I just can't believe the abrupt ending to the book and the confusing and/or pointless epilogue. After doing so well for 300 pages, the author, Charles Frazier, definitely comes up short in my book.
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