Rating: 
Summary: The "Odessey" meets "All Quiet on the Western Front."
Review: In this novel set in the Smoky Mountains, a disillusioned Confederate deserter is journeying home to a beautiful woman he hopes may still harbor feelings for him after four years of absence in the wars. The author has a gift for describing the various sad and melancholy mountain people we meet along the way, all of whom, unlike the main charactor, who helplessly rebounds from one doleful scene to another like an out-of-control pinball, seem to have both purpose and surety for their actions. These amazingly life-like personal descriptions, along with a fair gift for describing the austere natural beauty of the Smoky mountains, are sufficient to carry the reader briskly through the plot (and are by themselves worth the price of the novel) almost until the last three dozen pages. Then, suddenly, the author seemingly tires of his main charactor, arranges a well-telegraphed if abrupt plot twist and gives us a most unsatisfying finish.
Rating:
Summary: Chick Magnet
Review: Cold Mountain is The Bridges of Madison County meets the Odyssey with a little Gone With The Wind and Fried Green Tomatoes thrown in. It's another one of those "she only has to sleep with the guy once" books that follows in the foot steps of The Horse Whisperer. While I was reading this book on a plane trip no less than four women came up to me and each one not only wanted to discuss the book but gave me lists of some of their other personal favorites. The stewardess even interrupted her beverage service for twenty minutes to discuss this book with me. I must have had "sensitive guy" written on my forehead. The writing isn't bad but some of the narrative needs a good disimpaction. The whole Ruby/Ada thing is also a bit kinky. Just what are they doing when they're not in the field picking produce? You don't need a doctorate in comp lit to pick up the message when Ruby beheads the rooster that pecked at Ada's leg. Maybe I just didn't get it.
Rating: 
Summary: What's with the critics? Are they out of their minds?
Review: Fraizer MIGHT HAVE done better had he written a cook book on road kill.
Rating:
Summary: Adds a New Dimension to the word BORING
Review: By the time I got two-thirds of the way through this book, I couldn't have cared less what happened to Inman and Ada. The story just goes nowhere. After each chapter, I'd put the book down and ask myself, "How on earth did this guy get this thing published?" It's an embarrassment what some publishers will stoop to. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Not "Killer Angels."
Review: Not a bad book - it just wasn't "Killer Angels," nor was it at all similar. No Civil War history. A disapointment to me. To it's credit - it did appear to capture the period though and the struggle for civilians.
Rating:
Summary: The lame epilogue spoiled the book for me.
Review: Cold Mountain fell apart at the end. The epilogue was sentimental twaddle, bathed in a "Waltons" family glow that didn't match anything Frazier had written up until then. Also, it is not wise to turn minor characters into major ones in the last 3 pages of a 356-page book. Up until the epilogue, I'd been happy enough with Cold Mountain; its slow pace didn't bother me, and Frazier seemed to have a real feeling for his subject. My only pre-epilogue objection was mild: I found myself thinking, as yet another character was cured of disease by an herbal treatment, of the Pauline Kael line about how she personally believed in the efficacy of some herbal treatments, but that she wished just once a movie character treated with them would kick off. (I think she was writing about "Witness.")
Rating: 
Summary: A beautifully crafted book
Review: This novel is not written. It is crafted. The images it provokes become so real that the reader can taste them. It is a story of simple honesty and decency in a world gone mad.
Rating: 
Summary: an odyssey worthy of Homer
Review: Although I had heard both good and bad about this book, I was determined to read it and am glad I did. It was two books for the price of one--Ada's story and Inman's. Frazier is quite the wordsmith--the sentence on page 175 about the stars gathering in congress and agreeing to flee is a very provocative way of saying just how desperate and cruel the times were.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the reading, even factoring in the hype.
Review: Apparently I missed all the hype about Cold Mountain. It just seemed like a good read; it was excellent. The author clearly wrote what he knew, and the result is a transporting novel that brought to life the ravages of the Civil War. He wrote with a beautiful eye for detail, the poetic phrase, and a subtlety rarely seen today. I especially appreciated the author's refusal to put a 20th century gloss on last century's events and his using understatement to phenomenal effect. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: I guess UofM did not prepare me for fine lit
Review: This book is slow and boring. The characters are not interesting and the story is slow. I wouldn't have finished it if I wouldn't have started skimming.
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