Rating: 
Summary: Absolutly amazing!You really feel everything thats going on!
Review: The author brings you into the world of a civil war surrvivor... the way he describes everything is just incredible. Every harship he goes through.. you go through in your head... you are really brought into a world where you are in his situation... and you are faced with many hardships... and other things. Although it takes awhile to get into, it was definitely by far the best book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Good language, good plot, good book
Review: I found this book to be an excellect primary source of what life was like during the Civil War era, as well as afterwards. I fully understood the already-established relationship between this and THE ODYSSEY, being as how I read that, too. I found this tale to be even more understandable, since the Civil War is one of the most important periods in American History even today. I really enjoyed getting someone's opinion of the war who was actually there.
Rating: 
Summary: A long-winded piece of trash
Review: This book came highly reccomended from many dependable book magazines but I thought this book was a complete disappointment. The writing is very long-winded and many of the supposedly-moving scenes appear inane and unrealistic. The use of unnecessarily big words does not help to ease the fatigue one gets from reading this book. 'Cold Mountain' takes itself all too seriously. The result-- a heavy-going piece of trash.
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Summary: Land of Oz for grown-ups
Review: Cold Mountain is an anti-war novel depicting the struggle of Carolina mountain folk to survive in the final days of the Civil War. The main character, Inman, deserts the Conferedate Army and must avoid the Conferedate "Home Guard" with as much care as he avoids the Union "federals" as he also struggles for survival on the long walk home. On the home front, Ada is a helpless, orphaned, erstwhile Southern belle, who must learn to fend for herself on a neglected farm with the help of a resourceful drifter, Ruby.Frazier's unhurried and affection attention to detail eventually induces a willing reader to completely suspend disbelief and see the characters and settings as entirely real. In this state, we are led through situations and characters so fantastic it is much like an adult version of the Land of Oz. If you do not resist, you are so moved by the unforgettable images that you will count the book among your favorites, and this reviewer is among that group. It is also possible to look at the piece critically. There are no characters likable enough to be engaging until the appearance of Ruby. Inman is never consistently developed as a character -- sometimes he is a superhero, other times helpless, sometimes a poet, other times a simpleton. There is little cause to understand why Inman is in love with Ada, or what Ada ultimately sees in Inman. And why is so Inman so clueless as to the way to his own house? That said, it is in the end a book to fall in love with. Read it slowly, and don't give up until you've seen how Ruby deals with Ada's pesty rooster.
Rating: 
Summary: An insightful work of literature
Review: Frazier invokes a lot of thought on love and the search for love. At times Ada and Inman seemed like very well rounded, three dimensional characters but at many points throughout the novel they seemed flat and boring. The same can be said for the plot. I think that if done right this story will make a better movie than novel.
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Summary: this is what's wrong with best-sellers
Review: One of the most boring and silly books I have ever read. Kept waiting for something to happen and for the plot to become clear, but it just went on and on and ended in a very disappointing way. The reader never really gets to know the main characters or why they are attracted to one another. This is what is wrong with best-sellers; they're usually bad books with good marketing behind them.
Rating: 
Summary: A 'local novel' or 'book-next-door'.
Review: From all the plaudits lauded onto this book my expectations were high. Not so my praise at the end of the trudge. Yes it has good historical perspective and characters but it does nothing for our region or its readers other than soak both in dullness. It is laboriously predictable throughout and the repetition of possibilities is sad. A great opportunity, well written but missing the chance. A book to remember for all the wrong reasons.
Rating:
Summary: a haunting, memorable book
Review: This is an exceptional book---not just the story, but the imagery, the scenic descriptions, and the strong sense of humanity which flows from Frazier's pages make it most memorable and haunting.
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Summary: Cold Mountain is an absolutely wonderful novel!
Review: This is not a book for the quick read community. This is a work of literature that is to be savored and contemplated like a fine, aged red wine. I cried because I had reached the end of the book, and thus the end of the journey that taught me more about the Civil War time period then I ever learned in any classroom. The incredible descriptions of nature and food and living conditions were so real that I felt I was there, and wished that I were. So often we read of the bravado and glory of war. This story tells the truth, from a man's point of view, that war (even this necessary one) brings with it the senseless killing and maiming of others, and that no battle is glorious. All wars are nothing short of despicable. Don't bother reading this book if your looking for some uplifting tales of Civil War battles. Thank you Charles Frazier for renewing my faith in the ability of a bestselling fiction writer to at least be able to write. Most of them cannot. S.Carrier Lake Forest, California
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, not typical Best seller trash
Review: Lord have mercy on your impatient souls! I don't understand the merit in the preceeding reviewers observations. Excuse me for being pedantic, but if you think "Cold Mountain" is slow and boring, you need to work on the attention span. Great southern literature in the vein of Faulkner, Foote, and the like. Not your typical Grisham action book with no literary depth. Wrenching detail, epic breadth, and a glorious use of shadowy images woven together to form a mystical journey-type tale. Definitely deserving of its awards. Maybe this will draw American readers away from the refuse called popular books....
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