Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm
Review: I think I was almost as glad as Inman when he finally reached the end of his journey. Especially after he shot the bear cub (motivation?). While the writing is beautiful, there is a lot of static description, so that one gets a clearer image of the landscape than of Inman himself. His relationship with Ada appears tepid and comes across as a device/excuse for Inman's odyssey; the author seems more concerned with describing the picturesque characters Inman encounters along the way. The references to the Civil War, however, are stirring in their apparent realism. As with "Doctor Zivago" and "The English Patient," perhaps the screen version will extrapolate more of a plot than was found in the novel? -- Sophie Simonet, ACT OF LOVE, romantic suspense novel (www.fictionwise.com)
Rating: 
Summary: A masterful piece of work.......but for serious readers only
Review: Charles Frazier's National Book Award winning first novel "Cold Mountain" isn't an easy read. It is definitely not for the fainthearted or the casual reader expecting simply a good plot and a decent storyline. You'll have to enjoy literature (written large) to appreciate the wordy but intricately spun prose that flows from the Frazier's pen because nothing very much happens between the novel's first and last pages. Disillusioned and wounded Confederate soldier Inman escapes from the hospital he is interned in and heads for Cold Mountain to reunite with his beloved Ada and that just about sums up the plot. On route to his final destination, Inman encounters a motley crew of personalities including a disgraced preacher, a young war widow and a goatswoman and narrowly escapes death at the bloody hands of Confederates who take the law into their own hands to bring their defectors to justice. As Inman battles the elements, he endures terrible physical deprivation as well as a desperate longing for his beloved. Meanwhile, Ada, brought up as a lady by her recently deceased missionary father finds herself totally at odds with the prospect of having to run a farm by herself. She is saved from this predicament by the sudden appearance of a brusque but practical girl Ruby, who has known nothing but hardship and survival since childhood and between the two of them, they make steady progress turning the farm around. In telling his tale, Frazier dispenses largely with dialogue, choosing to paint his landscape of a new country torn by a war nobody fighting it truly understands with long passages of descriptive prose that is dense and difficult yet eloquent for the sentiments they express. You don't have to be well versed with American Civil War history to understand the references. In fact, Frazier isn't as much interested in the facts of the war as in evoking the feeling of befuddlement that must strike those caught in it. There is no attempt to demonise either side of the North South divide. Evil is evil and its perpetrators are in both Confederate and Federalist camps. But so is goodness and there are little episodes in there that must bring a lump to your throat. There is also something allegorical and beautiful about the story of a fiddler with a tune that is his and isn't his but all of America's. Just like America's multiple perspective of the war. "Cold Mountain" may be slow but it is filmable. Let's see whether Anthony Mingella does justice to it. Hopefully, he doesn't commercialise and over dramatise the love story which is a low key but poignant and bitter sweet affair. "Cold Mountain" is Frazier's stunning debut. It is a masterful piece of work even if it won't be everybody's cup of tea.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: Firstly, I must say this isn't a book for everybody. It especially isn't for young people who cannot concentrate long enough nor do not have an interest in the civil war era. However, if you are looking for a novel that will require your full undivided attention, this is it. In other words, this is the one for very mature adults. The novel works because of its lush, evocative language. Frazier definitely understood the era he was writing about and he understood the period and the land of the time. This comes across perfectly in the way he wrote this novel. So what results is that it's not purely descriptive. It's a novel about the Civil war era, written in the style of that era. A rare achievement. The main character's perilous journey is one where you cannot help but feel involved in somehow. You will find yourself almost willing him on all the way through the novel. The fact that you know what is happening at home further encourages this. Finally, the ending made me cry. It didn't make cry straight away, it made cry after I thought about it days and days later. If you're looking for a novel that will make you cry many days later and in your memory for a long time, this one is it. Finally, I must reiterate, this isn't for younger readers who wants a story told quickly and efficiently. It's strictly for the mature-minded reader who has the patience and who wants to regain that "old consciousness" that we rarely find these days in novels.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm glad that's over with
Review: Reading has taken up more of my time as I continue my life as an educated unemployed american. I had the misfortune of taking up my time reading this "novel". I can't say that I am educated enought to care what the difference between a novel and a good story is, but I can say this book was not well. I don't really care how much Frazier knows about the civil war era, his use of their vernacular, however that's spelled, is annoying at best. The conclusion is trite and very un-surprising. If you liked 20000 leagues under the Sea, you'll like Cold Mountain; a bunch of meaningless events occur and then it ends. No one learns anything - that is unless you didn't know war is bad - and the characters have serious flaws. Unless you are a 12-year-old girl, take my advice, don't read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely but overpraised -- a dour backwoods 'Odyssey'
Review: I'm really ambivalent about this book, so feel free to throw things, since I know I'm in the minority in my complaints. But for those of you still thinking of reading this, here's my semi-worthless 2 cents. ;-) First off, the good: Frazier's prose style takes some getting used to, but it's often lovely and immersive nevertheless, as thick as the tangled forests of Cold Mountain. The book definitely deserves praise for Frazier's gorgeous writing -- at best, he is definitely a major talent. The finest passages of the book (which fell most often for me in the first half) breathe life into a solitary journey 140 years ago -- it can feel utterly real to the reader, and did give me a new window into this period of history. But at worst (and increasingly so as the story goes on), Frazier is also pretentious and showy, often at the very obvious expense of his characters and story. Too often as the story moves forward, It's All. About. The Writing. As evidenced (for instance) by his decision to use dashes, not quotes for the dialogue. This awkward style choice threw me out of the action every time he used it, and also means that all comments have to be overcarefully attributed, etc. The dialogue for so many of these characters should crackle with life but because of the lifeless stylistic choices Frazier makes when employing dialogue, the characters, like their words, stay flat and sparkless. Frazier also makes some peculiar choices in pacing and action -- he spends more time in describing a piece of underbrush than a death, a device he employs time and again. Stomach-churning moments of violence occur constantly and almost matter-of-factly, and are described (and viewed by the characters) with a detachment that to me, at least, ultimately became off-putting. I began the book with excitement but by the middle was dreading the turn of every page. The three main human characters never came into focus for me -- while their secrets are tantalizing, the fact that they keep us at a distance is ultimately frustrating. This is offset, ironically, by some very richly detailed animal characterizations but again, be warned -- even these interludes are almost all about sadness and death, every encounter unbelievably depressing. Far more interesting than the leads for me were the incidental characters -- Sara, the young pioneer mother, or the old goat woman, or Stobrod the fiddler. And it's all just grim, grim, grim. While I'm sure times and struggles during this period were indeed, awful, depressing, horrible, etc., the unrelenting desolation ultimately left me feeling very little for anyone. And it doesn't help that Frazier caps off all of this sound and fury with a melodramatic Hollywood-style ending he telegraphs painfully over and over again throughout the last 60 pages or so (when I finally got there, I was furious at such a prosaic and melodramatic -- not to mention unrealistic -- outcome). In addition, while the prose for the majority of the book is lush and evocative, the last two chapters are jarringly, almost hastily written in a "summing up" fashion that distanced me even further. I truly couldn't have cared less by the end, and I wanted to. (I honestly envy those here who say they were incredibly moved, or who comment that it was the "best ending ever!" etc, as I just didn't see the beauty of what they saw. Not remotely.) While I understand those who praise it -- yes, it's a lovely piece of writing -- I'm with the minority that feels this book is far more flash than substance. Frazier's is a truly unique voice who brings to life with some breathtaking moments, but to me, most of Cold Mountain is ultimately an artsy, dour backwoods Odyssey that sometimes feels like a writing exercise -- a grey journey of sadness in a dim brutal world.
Rating:
Summary: A Grand Classic!
Review: I've read this book 4 times. It's an absolutely wonderful piece of writing, the equivalent of Moby Dick, and a book destined to become an American Classic. It is a "dark" book but with beams of light all through it. I've read some of the negative comments in the reviews,,,and all I can say is that I'm mystified. They're either jealous of Frazer's writing, or are judging the book by it's dark subject. I suggest they read the "Chicken Soup" books if they judge a book by the smiley face quotient.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable characters!
Review: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
National Book Award
(soon to be movie Dec 03 starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee)
Lost in the last year of the Civil War, Inman is wounded and decides he's had enough of a war that began with good intentions and bravery. Those things that ushered a war into reality slowly seeped into the ground at Fredericksburg and Petersburg as he watched men being slain in ways to horrific to imagine. He skips out of the Confederate hospital and embarks on a journey home to the only thing he holds true in his heart; the love of a woman he barely knew only 4 years previous. The book takes you on an odyssey through the south as Inman makes his way home and runs from the home guard--a band of men who's job it is to find deserters. Other than starving for food and human sustenance we are introduced to some very memorable characters; most notably the goat woman in the mountains and greasy Veasy. His journey is as livable and arduous as one could imagine during that time as Inman was a real person yet colored with the pen of Mr. Frazier and journeying through the real and captivating mountains of western North Carolina. This is truly a good man--this Inman--this lost soul who captivated my heart for some 400+ pages. Inman is true to his character and a believer in the good of life yet becomes practically lost in the inhumanity of war. He does the right thing no matter what--a trait few have but many respect. One would question as to whether is decision to desert was the right thing--but that's a whole other story.
Ada Monroe, the love in question, is poised for her journey as well as she must muster the strength and courage to surpass the protective and sheltering life that her clergyman father had provided throughout the genteel life. During the war there just aren't enough men to complete the practically insurmountable tasks viewed by those who've never attempted to complete them--namely war widows. Seemingly doomed for the farm to fall apart around her after her father dies an indigent girl by the name of Ruby comes to her aid. Ruby shares the laws of nature, land and animal with Ada as she in return share the stories that Ruby could never have read. The two create a deep bond and thus are saved from certain doom that a family farm would and did consume the unprepared women of those days. As Ruby put it so eloquently, "You are no better than me and each empties her own night jar." -- or something there like it. My most favored character in the book--she sees things as seasons, feelings and moments in time when things are most favorable for something to occur. Numbers, calculations, need and chain of events make no sense and even the sound of fall's winds can mean the perfect time for some odd task. If historical fiction captivates you as it does me; pick this book up for the memorable characters alone. Perhaps loosely based on Homer's Odyssey as O, Brother Where Art thou was as well-- but I don't see weighting this work down with some reference to ancient stories. I find that Frazier himself spending time in the western NC mountains finding 2 Civil War grave sites--one with two men in it--started with puzzlement.
Rating: 
Summary: What talent...wasted
Review: My first impression was, "Wow, this guy can really write...this book will be a treasure." I set out to devour it, as I have some of the great historical novels of the Civil War. In fairness, I must praise the author's ability to transport the reader back in time...it almost seemed that the book was written in the 1800's. His prose can be beautiful. The problem is not with the writing, but with the story. It is a remarkably gloomy tale of endless negativity and vile people. The parts which are not disgusting or just incredibly sad are instead boring. Several times I thought to put it aside, but hung in there to see what would finally be the end of all the misery. The protagonist, Inman, summed up the book pretty well toward the end, when he thought to himself, "Even my best intentions come to naught, and hope itself is but an obstacle." Couldn't even the ending have had a speck of happiness in it? No chance. It's ironic that the REAL Civil War novels with battles and gore are not nearly so depressing as this long, drawn out saga of negativism. To leave this on a positive note, if you want writing that is even better coupled with a great story, read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara...then go on to read his son Jeff Shaara's novels.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Beautiful
Review: Very delicately written, this is a book to be savored. Wonderful details about the country and the people and the romance between Inman and Ada. This is not a book to rush through. The best thing I have read in a long time. Highly recommended for anyone who can appreciate the hardship, toils and beauty of life in the southern mountains during the civil war.
Rating:
Summary: Loved the book
Review: Great book - Great story - can't wait to see the movie.
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