Rating: 
Summary: The best novel I have ever read.
Review: Cold Mountain is the story of a confederate infantryman, Inman, and Aida, an unlikely farmer. These two initially incomplete people meet and fall in love just at the dawn of the American Civil War. Just the nation's adolescence is threatened, so is the budding passion of these two young lovers. The story opens with Inman waking up in a hospital room set up as a temporary infirmary for the "sure to die soon". Thought to be mortally wounded in the neck by a stray ball acquired during the battle of Fredericksburg, his wound is literally spitting out bits and pieces of battle shrapnel. Straddling a fence of survival and expiration, Inman watches as misery takes on new manifestations with a mirrored terminus. Death, or redeployment to the front lines. Now with his own survival becoming a viable notion, Inman decides that he has had enough of a war he no longer believes in and makes a remorseless decision to go home. Four years have passed since one of Inman's five senses has affirmed Aida's existence. With torturously vivid memories of battle shredding away at his disposition, he is worried that a cynicism has overcome his heart and he has lost the ability to be happy, and thereby offer happiness to the girl he loves and hopes is still home waiting for his return. Inman is a literate man who rations unambiguous words. From a vantage point that Dante himself could not have imagined, Inman's heart has turned non-partisan while remaining amazingly moral. The juxtaposition works well here and serves to strengthen Inman's appeal to the reader. After a quick, but well thought out day's preparation, Inman embarks on foot into the interiors of North Carolina, toward his home and life's well spring. Traveling through the wintering landscapes of mountain and plain pits Inman against obstacles both human and inhumane. His formable instincts for survival and his un-denying capacity to be compassionate are in constant state of conflict, knowing that like a hang man's noose dangling inches from his face, an act of kindness has the potential of turning into an irrevocable death sentence. Aida, our heroine begins her odyssey of survival and rebirth from an opposite station in life that has left her with a toddler's competence to deal with life's unforeseen turns. Following the advice of a physician, Aida and her father, Monroe moved from Charleston to Cold Mountain before the outbreak of war for the benefit of curtailing his advancing consumption. Monroe's thriving import business and steady flow of cash rendered the purchased farm as a mere amusement, having a resident couple do the work, while he and his daughter continue their life of comfort and culture. Brought up among the southern gentry of 19th century society, Aida is left unrehearsed in the skills of domestic life, let alone producing sustenance from the farm she now inadvertently occupies alone since her father's unexpected death. To make matters worse, Monroe's trade business has ceased its viability and the help that tended the farm has deserted her. With her father dead for four months, and the war raging for better than four years, we find Aida in the throws of starvation, having eaten through any stores of food that were around upon his death. Despondent and disparate, Aida enters into a pact of survival with a local mountain girl named Ruby. They agree to work the farm together and equally, share evenly in all that is produced, but by Ruby's own insistence, Aida will live in the main house, Ruby in the worker's dwelling. Even though Ruby makes it clear that she is no servant, she seems to revel in the irony of appearing as one. Over time, Aida grows to admire and love Ruby as a sister. From Ruby she acquires the skills of self-sufficiency and learns to draw a lasting satisfaction from her daily routine of physical labor. As the story progresses, Aida is transformed into a woman of self-sufficiency and independence. A rare female quality in that day. Ruby's hardened persona is gradually worn away by Aida's kind and accommodative nature, eventually learning to forgive her long delinquent father, Stobbard. The story shifts back and forth between Aida's relationship with Ruby as they work and master the Monroe's farm, and Inman's peregrination back to Aida, the beacon he has set his life's sextant on. By the time they come together both are far more complex than when they last saw each other. Their understanding of the world has become grayer, but more realistic, and their appreciation for matters of sharing ones life with another serves to increase and deepen the gravity that initially drew them together four years prior. This is the finest piece of literature I have ever read and I give it my highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK. INTERESTING REACTIONS FROM READERS.
Review: I logged on to read the reviews out of curiosity and am bewildered by what I find. Seems like it's either love or hate for the book. I'm in the "love it" camp, although I am only half-way through the story and haven't had the chance to experience the much discussed ending. I have, however, enjoyed EVERY PAGE so far. It seems very reasonable to me. The descriptions of the surroundings are so crisp that one feels as if one were truly present. Secondly, the stories are told in the best classical tradition that is as entertaining as a story by the campfire. Thirdly, the characters are interesting. To boot, there are many ideas in the book which I personally found to be thought-provoking. It's been a comfort to my spirit to read Inman and Ada's journeys. I am amazed at the negative comments some readers have. Too boring to finish? Too violent? Unnecessary vulgarity? I guess people really expect different things from a book.
Rating:
Summary: overwhelming
Review: I finished this book last evening. It was not an easy read, but my efforts were amptly rewarded. I've never been as touched by a story as I was by this one. This book is more poetry than prose, and it deserves to be read and read again. Today when I think back to the story I am overcome with sadness. My view of war has been forever changed.
Rating:
Summary: A cross between a mauldin Twain and the verbosity of Dickens
Review: Being an avid reader of Clancy, Ludlum, Grisham and other writers of such genre, I begin reading Cold Mountain with some apprehension. I suspected that it was a "womans-book". However, from its poignant beginning to the ironic end, I found it a "page turner", not from the action, not from the basic premise of the story-line, but from the writing and the imagery of Frazier's prose. It reminded me of Dickens type of narrative with its vivid description of society during the Civil War years yet coupled with a Twain type of tale. The travails of Innman (the hero, as it were) as he sought refuge away from the fray and futility of the Civil War kept my interest at a high level. The struggle and growth of Ada (the heroine) were interesting, if, for nothing more, you learned of the painful existence of people during those hard times. Although one hoped that there would be a "happy ending", I was not disappointed in the actual ending. Frazier has captured through imagery and prose a style long lost in American literature.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best novels of the 20th century!
Review: This novel is so outstanding that it defies description. Every paragraph is a love song to the English language. The story is mesmerizing, original, and beautiful. As for the ending, I thought it was superb. I can't guarantee that you'll love it, but I guarantee that I did, and I've read thousands of novels. A++++
Rating: 
Summary: A tired, insipid, bore - don't waste your time
Review: The hype surrounding this novel makes me wonder if Frazier is owed many favors by the community of critics. Cold Mountain was a huge disappointment. It appears that the author couldn't decide between a narrative-driven novel and a descriptive one. He ends up failing at both endeavours. The story is long, painful, and liberally scattered with side plots each of which has no apparent purpose. The descriptions are not especially vivid. They are, in fact, not especially anything. Just boring. Don't waste your time on this book unless you are a very serious Civil war buff.
Rating: 
Summary: A lovely novel
Review: I hesitated for over a year, belieiving that the hype surrounding Frazier's book had to be a set-up for disappointment, and I'm very happy to have been wrong. While I agree with other reviewers' comments here that the editing is a bit sloppy and the plot at points uneven, this is a novel that accomplishes what fiction promises and rarely delivers: a new crucible, characters so fully and finely drawn that it is possible to compare one's own life and world to their's, an altered perspective when the last page has been turned. To read Cold Mountain is to be frustrated and annoyed and astonished and hopeful by turns; to read this book is to take a long walk oneself. I'm immensely heartened that this is a first novel, and look forward to a long relationship with Frazier's future work.
Rating:
Summary: Dark and Obvious Piece of Junk Disguised as Literature
Review: This book is a cliched piece of garbage and the author should be drawn and quartered. Not only is it unrelenting in its depravity, it passes itself off as a romance. Most women I know would be instantly turned off by the vulgar and disgusting details in this work. DO NOT BUY IT. If this saves one person $20, good. Give the money to a charity instead. Sometimes it isn't better to go and read a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious and Disappointing
Review: I struggled to reach the end of this book, stopping several times to pick up more interesting reads. Perhaps this book is historically accurate and the problem is that the period of time in which it is set was, for lack of a better word, tedious, but I did grow tired of the daily and detailed recounting of the hero's difficult journey home. I didn't think he was ever going to be reunited with Ada and after finishing the book, I wish he hadn't been.
Rating:
Summary: TOO DESCRIPTIVE,WITHOUT ENOUGH ACTION
Review: i STILL HAVEN'T FIGURED ALL THE HYPE ABOUT this book! I must have started it 4 times until I decided i was going to read it completely, so I could understand what everybody was talking about. One question: Did Inman die in the end after all he had endured? Maybe this is what really disappointed me. Ironically, I just finished Uncle tom's Cabin by Stowe and really enjoyed it. Would someone please explain what I obviously missed during "Cold Mountain"? I read constantly and I really missed something in this book according to the popularity on the Best Sellers list! I would appreciate hearing from anyone!!!!
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