Charles Frazier

Cold Mountain

Sarah Sammis

The descriptions are wonderful but the punctuation -- especially in the dialogue is ghastly. I guess he's trying for a Joseph Conrad / Heart of Darkness meets Gone with the Wind. I don't like Conrad's style of writing either. I wanted to mark quotation marks for all the dialogue (I didn't, of course).

Will Vunderink

There are lots of things I'd like to discuss about this disappointing National Book Award-winning novel, like:
 
- is it a successful "Civil War novel" if it somehow manages to ignore the issue of race almost entirely? 
- no, it is not a successful "Civil War novel," because it uses the Civil War merely as the starting point for its plot, but -- let's face it -- this is an adventure story and a romance above all else.
- speaking of adventure stories, a great one in the realist vein gives the reader the sense that its events progress and motivate each other in a meaningful way. A lackluster one gives the reader the sense that the author sat there thinking, "Hmmm... what improbable character will confront my hero next? And what tangential story will they insert into the narrative before I move on with the plot?"
- every single transition to a story of the past -- whether a character's memory or a story told by a character -- is about as graceful as a flashback in a sitcom, when characters stare thoughtfully into the middle distance as the screen begins to wobble and spin.
- let's not overdo the comparisons to The Odyssey, guys.
- etc.

But, to keep it brief:
(view spoiler)[At least he dies in the end. (hide spoiler)]

Like Inman’s long trek home, traversing mountains and valleys, my experience with this book had its ups and downs. 

I did enjoy the humor of this book. And the writing and language was beautiful, almost as breathtaking as the landscapes described throughout the book. But you have to keep a dictionary or thesaurus handy because Frazier doesn't hold back with some unfamiliar--and long, rarely utilized--words. Also, even as a native Appalachian and West Virginian (which some people would consider Southern), there were quite a few terms and phrases unfamiliar to me that I also had to look up. It's no big deal, but sometimes I just think it slows down the reading process when you have to stop every so often to look up the definition of something because not enough context is provided. It helps to widen your vocabulary but also slows down a book that wasn't moving too fast for me to begin with. 

I did see the movie adaptation first, before reading the book, which helped me make it through this book and complimented my reading experience. However, this might be one of those rare instances when the movie is better in the book. At least in some aspects. Ada and Inman are also awkward in the movie, but it seems more so in the book. They have only a handful of interactions throughout the entire book, and I just don't consider this to be a romance at all, like it's claimed to be. And I still don't understand why Inman had to die. The movie handles it a little better, lessening the blow, though it's still just as tragic. And what purpose did it serve? 

Cold Mountain was slow for me at first and had some more slow spots throughout. This is an atmospheric read more than anything, with slow pacing and not a whole lot of plot. Are the characters even likeable? Is something I've been asking myself. To an extent, but I think they're developed better in the movie. Overall I'm glad I read this book. It's definitely a little outside my normal realm of historical fiction and that could be why I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping. I think from now on I will stick with the movie.

Amanda

Like Inman’s long trek home, traversing mountains and valleys, my experience with this book had its ups and downs. 

I did enjoy the humor of this book. And the writing and language was beautiful, almost as breathtaking as the landscapes described throughout the book. But you have to keep a dictionary or thesaurus handy because Frazier doesn't hold back with some unfamiliar--and long, rarely utilized--words. Also, even as a native Appalachian and West Virginian (which some people would consider Southern), there were quite a few terms and phrases unfamiliar to me that I also had to look up. It's no big deal, but sometimes I just think it slows down the reading process when you have to stop every so often to look up the definition of something because not enough context is provided. It helps to widen your vocabulary but also slows down a book that wasn't moving too fast for me to begin with. 

(Minor spoilers below) 

I did see the movie adaptation first, before reading the book, which helped me make it through this book and complimented my reading experience. However, this might be one of those rare instances when the movie is better in the book. At least in some aspects. Ada and Inman are also awkward in the movie, but it seems more so in the book. They have only a handful of interactions throughout the entire book, and I just don't consider this to be a romance at all, like it's claimed to be. And I still don't understand why Inman had to die. The movie handles it a little better, lessening the blow, though it's still just as tragic. And what purpose did it serve? 

Cold Mountain was slow for me at first and had some more slow spots throughout. This is an atmospheric read more than anything, with slow pacing and not a whole lot of plot. Are the characters even likeable? Is something I've been asking myself. To an extent, but I think they're developed better in the movie. Overall I'm glad I read this book. It's definitely a little outside my normal realm of historical fiction and that could be why I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping. I think from now on I will stick with the movie.

Fran Lewis

It was an interesting book. Sometimes a bit too much description but a lovely read. I think I will watch the movie soon and compare the two.

Kerri McDonald

The end of this book made me want to punch someone in the throat XP Other than that, though, it was a good read.

Janet Doré

It was slow going, but I could appreciate the excellent writing and a different angle of the Civil War.

Francine Corry

In 1997, Charles Frazier’s debut novel Cold Mountain made publishing history when it sailed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier’s eagerly-anticipated second novel, Thirteen Moons. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father’s derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.

Cold Mountain

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