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Cold Mountain
One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished American in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor.
Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before. 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, Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learn 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 American Odyssey--hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.
Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before. 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, Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learn 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 American Odyssey--hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.
449 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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113374 people want to read
About the author
Charles Frazier
31 books2,327 followersCharles Frazier is an award-winning author of American historical fiction. His literary corpus, to date, is comprised of three New York Times best selling novels: Nightwoods (2011), Thirteen Moons (2006), and Cold Mountain (1997) - winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.
Librarian Note: There are multiple authors in the goodreads database with this name. more info here.
Librarian Note: There are multiple authors in the goodreads database with this name. more info here.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 7,145 reviews
January 16, 2019
Cold Mountain is quite possibly the most beautiful book that I've ever read. It's not for the faint of heart, however, as it's time consuming and requires a great deal of patience as Frazier takes his time with his descriptions of the landscape and the people as Inman, a soldier broken in spirit by the futility and waste of the Civil War, decides to walk home to Ada and his beloved Cold Mountain. That is not to say that Frazier wastes the reader's time or goes off on unnecessary tangents (although for those who like quick narratives, it may seem that way), but he is in no hurry to rush the novel to its conclusion. To have done so would have stripped the novel of its power as it examines the lives of both Inman and Ada, a Southern belle woefully unprepared to exist in the harsh mountain landscape of Cold Mountain when she finds herself all alone. What may seem like lengthy transcendentalist-like descriptions of nature actually serve to reveal the inner life of each character and enrich the narrative.
Of the two alternating narratives, I found Inman's the most compelling. His is a Dante-like journey through the "Inferno" of the American South (comparisons could also be made to Homer's The Odyssey). While he time and again encounters people wallowing in depravity and sin in a seemingly lawless world, he also encounters along this hellish journey acts of selflessness and kindness that serve as balm to his soul when he's on the cusp of losing all hope. Ironically, those offering the greatest kindnesses are those who are the most excluded from society (slaves and women). Inman is a man who is capable of violence, but only when necessary. After killing indiscriminately in war, he's determined to do no harm unless it's absolutely unavoidable. It may be because of the violence that is still latent within him that Inman struggles so with the world and his place in it.
Of the reviews I've read, most readers disliked the novel's ending. Without giving away any spoilers, I'll only state that I thought the ending was the only possible one offered in a world consumed by war.
Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder
Of the two alternating narratives, I found Inman's the most compelling. His is a Dante-like journey through the "Inferno" of the American South (comparisons could also be made to Homer's The Odyssey). While he time and again encounters people wallowing in depravity and sin in a seemingly lawless world, he also encounters along this hellish journey acts of selflessness and kindness that serve as balm to his soul when he's on the cusp of losing all hope. Ironically, those offering the greatest kindnesses are those who are the most excluded from society (slaves and women). Inman is a man who is capable of violence, but only when necessary. After killing indiscriminately in war, he's determined to do no harm unless it's absolutely unavoidable. It may be because of the violence that is still latent within him that Inman struggles so with the world and his place in it.
Of the reviews I've read, most readers disliked the novel's ending. Without giving away any spoilers, I'll only state that I thought the ending was the only possible one offered in a world consumed by war.
Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder
March 26, 2020
"Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this."
—Homer, The Odyssey
Having recently read The Odyssey, I was prompted by Goodreads friend, @JulieGrippo, to go on this journey - namely, Homer's epic voyage transposed to the terrain of 19th-century North America.
Inman (not as heroic as Odysseus), an army deserter wounded in the American Civil War, faces a treacherous, interminable journey home to his love, Ada (ergo Odysseus’s Penelope).
You can see from my five-star rating that I was captivated by this book, but it could just have easily been demoted to three stars as it was very nearly hoisted by a petard of its own poetic prose.
So I'll just get my two gripes out of the way, then we can all sit down and have a nice cup of tea…
Gripe #1
One of my pet peeves is seeing dialogue that isn't neatly nestled between some perfectly respectable speech marks.
Why, Charles Frazier? Why? They were evidently good enough for Dickens, Hugo and Dostoyevsky yet, for some artsy reason, you didn't feel the need.
Of course, the enlightened readers among us can get by without them but, applying the same logic, why bother with commas and full stops? In fact, let's go the whole hog and eliminate vowels as well! Huh! Bloody vowels, making words much longer than they need to be!
Gripe #2
More than most, I drool over a banquet of sumptuous prose. Frazier writes beautifully and songbirds landed on my shoulders while I read, rather like a dreamy scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. All, it seemed, was perfectly spiffing in my world.
But holy pretentiousness, Batman! Surely, he didn’t have to pack every blimmin' paragraph with eminence until each one burst at the seams! The high calibre prose, though meritorious, did quicksand the pace of my read and decelerated the narrative thrust of the story.
Ahhh, now isn't it just grand to get things off one's chest? So, how about that nice cup of tea ... do you take milk and sugar?
The story, despite my two gripes, is a towering epic worthy of the utmost praise. Evocative and monumental, it carries weighty themes of love, resilience, honour and devotion with great aplomb.
Granted, it doesn't flow like a cold mountain stream, but you won't often see writing as good as this in our modern age.
—Homer, The Odyssey
Having recently read The Odyssey, I was prompted by Goodreads friend, @JulieGrippo, to go on this journey - namely, Homer's epic voyage transposed to the terrain of 19th-century North America.
Inman (not as heroic as Odysseus), an army deserter wounded in the American Civil War, faces a treacherous, interminable journey home to his love, Ada (ergo Odysseus’s Penelope).
You can see from my five-star rating that I was captivated by this book, but it could just have easily been demoted to three stars as it was very nearly hoisted by a petard of its own poetic prose.
So I'll just get my two gripes out of the way, then we can all sit down and have a nice cup of tea…
Gripe #1
One of my pet peeves is seeing dialogue that isn't neatly nestled between some perfectly respectable speech marks.
Why, Charles Frazier? Why? They were evidently good enough for Dickens, Hugo and Dostoyevsky yet, for some artsy reason, you didn't feel the need.
Of course, the enlightened readers among us can get by without them but, applying the same logic, why bother with commas and full stops? In fact, let's go the whole hog and eliminate vowels as well! Huh! Bloody vowels, making words much longer than they need to be!
Gripe #2
More than most, I drool over a banquet of sumptuous prose. Frazier writes beautifully and songbirds landed on my shoulders while I read, rather like a dreamy scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. All, it seemed, was perfectly spiffing in my world.
But holy pretentiousness, Batman! Surely, he didn’t have to pack every blimmin' paragraph with eminence until each one burst at the seams! The high calibre prose, though meritorious, did quicksand the pace of my read and decelerated the narrative thrust of the story.
Ahhh, now isn't it just grand to get things off one's chest? So, how about that nice cup of tea ... do you take milk and sugar?
The story, despite my two gripes, is a towering epic worthy of the utmost praise. Evocative and monumental, it carries weighty themes of love, resilience, honour and devotion with great aplomb.
Granted, it doesn't flow like a cold mountain stream, but you won't often see writing as good as this in our modern age.
March 4, 2021
Journey
A sweeping and tumultuous story of an injured American civil war soldier who goes AWOL and makes a relentless and dangerous journey back home to Cold Mountain, and to the woman he intends spending the rest of his life with. As poetic as Homer’s Odyssey, Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain is an outstanding literary masterpiece. He tells the story of Inman and Ada, their past, people they meet on their travels, the challenges they face and the dreams they hold dear. A physical journey home and a journey of personal development, equally captivating, equally precarious and equally drawing the story to a climactic ending. With a magician’s hand, Frazier keeps us spellbound with the central story, while conjuring wisps of literary tales from Greek, Roman and English literature and weaving them into the narrative with the effortless hand of an illusionist.
Frazier is never obvious with the content of his story, even though Odysseus’ journey back from the Trojan War to his wife Penelope in Ithaca, reverberates throughout this novel. This is not about a modern retelling of the Odyssey but rather enticing us to explore how the ancient folklore has been reshaped to provide a unique, clever and agonising alternative. Within the narrative, we catch faded echoes of exotic characters such as Witches, Sirens, Cyclopes, Persephone, Calypso, Cerberus, Narcissus but their behaviour may or may not follow an expected path but it will always be imaginatively realised.
Inman battles elements of nature as he travels through the winter – cold, wet, hungry and at times disorientated. He is an honest man and often reflects “... the wrong a man does flies back at him.” As a soldier he has seen horrors and been part of those horrors, but he approaches every situation with a positive intent that fairness will be done. Sometimes kindness is repaid and sometimes it is manipulated against him. Regardless, Inman must face all his trials as he descends through the levels of hell – who knows maybe there are nine of them and Dante makes an appearance as well?
Ada is joined by Ruby as she now tries to make her farm operational following the death of her father. A lady of leisure, Ada must now face a harsh reality and journey through the challenges of hard work, growing crops, raising livestock, fixing fences and trading for goods. Ruby is accomplished at this type of work and bluntly forces Ada to play her part in this endeavour. Ada now goes to bed tired and physically exhausted and her outward appearance changes to sun-drenched skin, rough-skinned hands and practical work clothes.
Frazier places nature as a constant reference point and uses it with distinguished ardour. Elements of birds and trees add deeper appreciation of the signs nature is constantly presenting to us. Nature with its mythical connections gives Frazier another wand to magically enthral us.
This was a first buddy read with Julie and it was a joy to take our time and discuss the links and decipher the meaning of various scenes. I am full of admiration for Charles Frazier after devouring his epic piece of work and I would highly recommend reading the book. Another addition to my Top 10 books of all time.
A sweeping and tumultuous story of an injured American civil war soldier who goes AWOL and makes a relentless and dangerous journey back home to Cold Mountain, and to the woman he intends spending the rest of his life with. As poetic as Homer’s Odyssey, Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain is an outstanding literary masterpiece. He tells the story of Inman and Ada, their past, people they meet on their travels, the challenges they face and the dreams they hold dear. A physical journey home and a journey of personal development, equally captivating, equally precarious and equally drawing the story to a climactic ending. With a magician’s hand, Frazier keeps us spellbound with the central story, while conjuring wisps of literary tales from Greek, Roman and English literature and weaving them into the narrative with the effortless hand of an illusionist.
Frazier is never obvious with the content of his story, even though Odysseus’ journey back from the Trojan War to his wife Penelope in Ithaca, reverberates throughout this novel. This is not about a modern retelling of the Odyssey but rather enticing us to explore how the ancient folklore has been reshaped to provide a unique, clever and agonising alternative. Within the narrative, we catch faded echoes of exotic characters such as Witches, Sirens, Cyclopes, Persephone, Calypso, Cerberus, Narcissus but their behaviour may or may not follow an expected path but it will always be imaginatively realised.
Inman battles elements of nature as he travels through the winter – cold, wet, hungry and at times disorientated. He is an honest man and often reflects “... the wrong a man does flies back at him.” As a soldier he has seen horrors and been part of those horrors, but he approaches every situation with a positive intent that fairness will be done. Sometimes kindness is repaid and sometimes it is manipulated against him. Regardless, Inman must face all his trials as he descends through the levels of hell – who knows maybe there are nine of them and Dante makes an appearance as well?
Ada is joined by Ruby as she now tries to make her farm operational following the death of her father. A lady of leisure, Ada must now face a harsh reality and journey through the challenges of hard work, growing crops, raising livestock, fixing fences and trading for goods. Ruby is accomplished at this type of work and bluntly forces Ada to play her part in this endeavour. Ada now goes to bed tired and physically exhausted and her outward appearance changes to sun-drenched skin, rough-skinned hands and practical work clothes.
Frazier places nature as a constant reference point and uses it with distinguished ardour. Elements of birds and trees add deeper appreciation of the signs nature is constantly presenting to us. Nature with its mythical connections gives Frazier another wand to magically enthral us.
This was a first buddy read with Julie and it was a joy to take our time and discuss the links and decipher the meaning of various scenes. I am full of admiration for Charles Frazier after devouring his epic piece of work and I would highly recommend reading the book. Another addition to my Top 10 books of all time.
April 10, 2020
Reading Road Trip 2020
Current location: North Carolina
. . . he held to the idea of another world, a better place, and he figured he might as well consider Cold Mountain to be the location of it as anywhere.
Like Inman, I have been trying to get to Cold Mountain for years now. My original inspiration came from a family of beloved Tar Heel next-door neighbors who introduced me to sweet tea, red velvet cake and unhurried speech. They made homemade ice cream in the summers while standing on the patio in bare feet and they produced vegetables from soil the color of coffee grounds while the rest of us stared down at the Florida sand, knowing that nothing would grow there.
The Tar Heel husband of this family would alternately love on his wife in a demonstrative way I had never witnessed before, then occasionally produce a gun after too much moonshine and wave it menacingly in the air, terrifying his wife and all three daughters. Somehow, order would always be restored the next day.
I have always known that these were my people.
I have flirted with a move to North Carolina at several different junctures of my adult life, but the closest I have come to making that move is now. Now, or more accurately, this summer. And now. . . well, you know. The damned pandemic. The thing that is upsetting the natural course of our daily lives, our dreams, our plans, our equilibrium, too.
But, though it is true that every age considers the world to be in a precarious state, at the very edge of dark, we are being threatened with something that so many others who have walked before us have faced: pandemics, wars, depressions, recessions, tyrannical leaders, natural disasters.
So, my plans are on hold. Like Inman's. Like Ada's. Like Ruby's. Like Stobrod's.
But, we keep on planning and we keep on dreaming, even if we do look up, as Inman does, and think sometimes, God, if I could sprout wings and fly. . . I would be gone from this place, my great wings bearing me up and out, long feathers hissing in the wind.
One foot after the other foot after the other foot after the other foot.
It hurts. So much of it hurts, and you'd be hard pressed to say which hurts more, the physical or emotional pain, but pain goes eventually, and when it's gone, there's no lasting memory. Not the worst of it anyway. It fades. Our minds aren't made to hold on to the particulars of pain the way we do bliss.
And so, we continue walking, because, like Inman, most of us can see that there [is] little usefulness in speculating much on what a day will bring.
We walk and we rejoice that we are readers and we know that a book may provide a holiness. . . of such richness that one might dip into it at random and read only one sentence and yet be sure of finding instruction and delight.
And it is good, so very good, to be reminded of how much others have suffered here, and how much solace holy words (wherever we find them) may provide us and how often we can delight in natural beauty.
And it is so good, so very good, to have reminders to look around us at what is precious to us and conjure the poetry of our lives, the words of spells and incantations to ward off the things one fears most.
For, just as Odysseus was pushed by a great gale as soon as he was within sight of home, so will you be pushed away from goals and dreams and loved ones.
For, just as Inman is captured and tied and dragged back over all the terrain he has already traveled, so will you be waylaid and rerouted and broken.
But, you've got to keep on walking, straight as the crow flies, regardless of what happens to you on your journey.
You've got to keep crawling toward your Cold Mountain, keep it always in front of you.
Current location: North Carolina
. . . he held to the idea of another world, a better place, and he figured he might as well consider Cold Mountain to be the location of it as anywhere.
Like Inman, I have been trying to get to Cold Mountain for years now. My original inspiration came from a family of beloved Tar Heel next-door neighbors who introduced me to sweet tea, red velvet cake and unhurried speech. They made homemade ice cream in the summers while standing on the patio in bare feet and they produced vegetables from soil the color of coffee grounds while the rest of us stared down at the Florida sand, knowing that nothing would grow there.
The Tar Heel husband of this family would alternately love on his wife in a demonstrative way I had never witnessed before, then occasionally produce a gun after too much moonshine and wave it menacingly in the air, terrifying his wife and all three daughters. Somehow, order would always be restored the next day.
I have always known that these were my people.
I have flirted with a move to North Carolina at several different junctures of my adult life, but the closest I have come to making that move is now. Now, or more accurately, this summer. And now. . . well, you know. The damned pandemic. The thing that is upsetting the natural course of our daily lives, our dreams, our plans, our equilibrium, too.
But, though it is true that every age considers the world to be in a precarious state, at the very edge of dark, we are being threatened with something that so many others who have walked before us have faced: pandemics, wars, depressions, recessions, tyrannical leaders, natural disasters.
So, my plans are on hold. Like Inman's. Like Ada's. Like Ruby's. Like Stobrod's.
But, we keep on planning and we keep on dreaming, even if we do look up, as Inman does, and think sometimes, God, if I could sprout wings and fly. . . I would be gone from this place, my great wings bearing me up and out, long feathers hissing in the wind.
One foot after the other foot after the other foot after the other foot.
It hurts. So much of it hurts, and you'd be hard pressed to say which hurts more, the physical or emotional pain, but pain goes eventually, and when it's gone, there's no lasting memory. Not the worst of it anyway. It fades. Our minds aren't made to hold on to the particulars of pain the way we do bliss.
And so, we continue walking, because, like Inman, most of us can see that there [is] little usefulness in speculating much on what a day will bring.
We walk and we rejoice that we are readers and we know that a book may provide a holiness. . . of such richness that one might dip into it at random and read only one sentence and yet be sure of finding instruction and delight.
And it is good, so very good, to be reminded of how much others have suffered here, and how much solace holy words (wherever we find them) may provide us and how often we can delight in natural beauty.
And it is so good, so very good, to have reminders to look around us at what is precious to us and conjure the poetry of our lives, the words of spells and incantations to ward off the things one fears most.
For, just as Odysseus was pushed by a great gale as soon as he was within sight of home, so will you be pushed away from goals and dreams and loved ones.
For, just as Inman is captured and tied and dragged back over all the terrain he has already traveled, so will you be waylaid and rerouted and broken.
But, you've got to keep on walking, straight as the crow flies, regardless of what happens to you on your journey.
You've got to keep crawling toward your Cold Mountain, keep it always in front of you.
October 19, 2017
Did not like it. Although it has an interesting structure and pretext, it is so intellectualized that it is hard to care about the characters at all. It seems like Frazier is more interested in showing off than in writing a gripping work of fiction.
June 8, 2017
How long would you wait for your lover, if you knew not whether they were alive, and you yourself had changed almost beyond recognition?
This is a beautiful, understated, unsentimental Odyssey of quiet longing, endurance, and transformation.
"This journey will be the axle of my life."
Inman's journey is across hundreds of dangerous miles, fleeing war and trying to get to where his love lives, four years after they parted.
"She had made her way to a place where an entirely other order prevailed from what she had always known."
Ada's journey takes place within a few miles of her home.
It's no coincidence that Inman's treasured book is a travel book (whereas Ruby "held a deep distrust of travel", even to the shops).
Times are tough, but at least Ada and Inman have confidence in who and what it is they yearn for.
Structure
Most of the novel alternates between Ada’s and Inman's separate struggles to survive, with backstory gradually provided by their reminiscences. Each of Inman's chapters involves a dramatic encounter, good or bad, that sheds light on his character, as well as the trials of war and wilderness. Ada is 26, orphaned, nearly destitute, and trying to cope with a little land, but no staff or skill. The varying tempo works well.
Both Inman and Ada cultivate the art of really seeing: Inman is ever watchful, noticing every little sign in nature or people's behaviour that may signal danger (a shadow behind leaves, a blade hidden in a hairdo); Ada learns to see the signs of seasons, weather, harvest, birds, and animals.
The language is sometimes a little archaic, as it should be. Quotation marks are not used, but I didn't really feel their absence: dialog is usually prefaced with a long dash.
Civil War
Although the backdrop is the American civil war, I didn't feel hampered by my relative lack of knowledge of US history. There was enough background detail to picture daily life, but the politics and the war were external to the characters, and hence to me as a reader.
Right and Wrong; Revenge and Forgiveness
Inman is a deserter: badly injured, but a deserter none-the-less. He was never a natural killer, is haunted by what he's seen (and done), and doesn't believe in the cause anyway, if he ever did. There are gangs wanting bounty for finding deserters, and desperate men who will kill for any reason and none. Coupled with his inherently peaceful and forgiving nature, repeatedly put to the test, the risks are great.
Pondering the story of a man born blind, Inman asks himself "What would be the cost of not having an enemy? Who could you strike for retribution other than yourself?"
But retribution isn't really his mindset; he's almost too good to be true, given the hardships and dangers he faces, such as stealing food, but leaving more money than it's worth, putting himself in grave danger to help strangers,and avoiding and preventing violence, even when it's not really his responsibility and would be easier to walk away. He's certainly more forgiving than the disgraced preacher, Veasey.
The Sustenance of Literature - and Music
An unexpected pleasure was the underlying thread of the solace to be found in books.
On the very first page, Inman is in military hospital "settling his mind" with a treasured copy of Travels of William Bartram. Throughout the story, he returns to this book, in small snippets, at times of need.
Ada's relationship with books fluctuates: at her lowest point "the characters seemed to lead fuller lives than she did", and when she's first dragooned into hard labour to make the land viable, she drops the habit of keeping a book in her pocket. However, at the end of the day, reading aloud is a pleasure and a bonding experience for her and Ruby. We glimpse the privilege of opening someone's eyes to the joys of powerful stories.
Another, seemingly irredeemable, character finds salvation in music, starting off with a handful of standard fiddle tunes, but making his own instruments and composing a large repertoire of moving pieces. "The grouping of sounds... said something comforting to him about the rule of creation,... a powerful argument against the notion that things just happen."
Couples
At least as important as the relationship between Ada and Inman, and possibly more interesting, is that between Ada (educated, city girl, now alone in the country) and Ruby (an illiterate who was an almost feral child). She comes to help Ada, not quite as a servant, not - initially - as a friend, let alone equal, but Ruby takes charge of instructing in the sense of educating Ada and even telling her what, when, and how to do. "To Ada, Ruby's monologues seemed composed mainly of verbs, all of them tiring" and "Ruby made a point of refusing to tackle all the unpleasant tasks herself." Ada puts up with this because she realises that "Ruby would not let her fail", whereas a hired hand might just walk away.
There are moments when .
Inman draws strength from his devotion to and memories of Ada. He occasionally looks at other women (water is a recurring theme), but it's all very chaste.
Then there's Ruby's estranged, good-for-nothing father, Stobrod, and Ada's role in handling and healing their relationship.
Nature Names
There is mythical power in names. Ada's education was academic and theoretical: she knows the names of almost none of the plants and animals, and that is part of her helplessness in her new situation. In contrast, Ruby has an encyclopaedic knowledge of such things, and thus she takes the lead in survival.
Ruby is also guided by signs that Ada's preacher father, Monroe, would have dismissed as superstition. Ada "chose to view the signs as metaphoric... a way of being alert" so that "she could honor them". But a hundred pages later, she writes to her cousin in Charleston about how field work has changed her, "Should a crow fly over I mark it in all its details, but I do not seek analogy for its blackness... I suspect it is somehow akin to contentment." It's worth noting that the first chapter is titled "the shadow of a crow" and the last "spirits of crows, dancing".
The Ending and the Epilogue
Twenty pages from the end, it was so tender and understated and perfect that I had to pause. I was sure it would end badly, and I couldn't bear it.
Reminds me Of
(The links are to my reviews of these books.)
The quiet stoicism, solace in literature, and connection to the soil, reminded me of one of my two favourite books, Stoner.
The almost literal saving power of books in the midst of turmoil and deprivation is something Jeanette Winterson stresses in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?.
The harsh beauty of the mountains, coupled with love and longing, reminded me a little of Brokeback Mountain. The similarity of title may be a factor, too.
Quotes
* "The first smear of foggy dawn and [he] waited for the world to begin shaping outside."
* "Nature... sometimes calls attention to its specific features and recommends them for interpretation."
* "Educated beyond the point considered wise for females" but "impractically for the demands of an exposed life".
* "Though not a childless couple, they had retained an air of romance in their marriage, as the barren often do."
* "The foul country... was vague and ominous in the moonlight."
* "He would like to love the world as it was... Hate took no effort other than to look about."
* "When it became too dark to read and the air turned blue and started to congeal with mist."
* "Celebration had been a lacking feature of her life since survival had such a sharp way of focusing one's attention elsewhere."
* "She had lived so long as to have achieved a state of near transparency."
* Gypsies had "a fine honesty in their predatory relationship with the rest of mankind." I know what he means, but...
* "Dying there seemed easier than not... Inman had seen so much death it had come to seem a random thing... it no longer seemed dark and mysterious. He feared... he might never make a civilian."
* "The easement of maiden, spinster, widow", though if your knowledge of anatomy is "to a degree hypothetical", your fantasies may focus on fingers, wrists and forearms.
* A path "so coiled and knotted he could not say what its general tendency was... He felt fuddled and wayless."
* "Marrying a woman for her beauty makes no more sense than eating a bird for its singing."
* "The pain settled to a distant noise, like living by a river."
* In a dead man's clothes "he felt he had donned the husk of another life... as a ghost must, occupying the shape of the past to little effect."
* "A suggestion of trees as in a quick sketch, a casual gesture toward the form of trees... as if there were no such thing as landscape."
* "The sentimentality of finding poignancy in the fall of leaves, of seeing it as the conclusion to the year and therefore metaphoric."
UPDATE re the Film
If you love this book, or think you may read and love it in the future, avoid the the 2003 film starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger.
It's not that it's an awful film (though the acting, accents, and very fake-looking snow and scenery are pretty poor), and it's not the many (very many) tweaks they made to the plot (some are inevitable with any adaptation from one medium to another).
No, the problem is that it seems to miss the entire point and atmosphere of the book. By a long, long way. There are some gory battle scenes, but in general, it's a sunny romance. The sun is shining far too much of the time, even in Inman's dangerous travels, most of the hardship is soft-focus, the power of the landscape is mostly missing, and the power of books is sidelined. Inman's Bartram is important, but only because, in the film, it was Ada's parting gift, so it's a memento from a lover, rather than something separate, but more profound.
This is a beautiful, understated, unsentimental Odyssey of quiet longing, endurance, and transformation.
"This journey will be the axle of my life."
Inman's journey is across hundreds of dangerous miles, fleeing war and trying to get to where his love lives, four years after they parted.
"She had made her way to a place where an entirely other order prevailed from what she had always known."
Ada's journey takes place within a few miles of her home.
It's no coincidence that Inman's treasured book is a travel book (whereas Ruby "held a deep distrust of travel", even to the shops).
Times are tough, but at least Ada and Inman have confidence in who and what it is they yearn for.
Structure
Most of the novel alternates between Ada’s and Inman's separate struggles to survive, with backstory gradually provided by their reminiscences. Each of Inman's chapters involves a dramatic encounter, good or bad, that sheds light on his character, as well as the trials of war and wilderness. Ada is 26, orphaned, nearly destitute, and trying to cope with a little land, but no staff or skill. The varying tempo works well.
Both Inman and Ada cultivate the art of really seeing: Inman is ever watchful, noticing every little sign in nature or people's behaviour that may signal danger (a shadow behind leaves, a blade hidden in a hairdo); Ada learns to see the signs of seasons, weather, harvest, birds, and animals.
The language is sometimes a little archaic, as it should be. Quotation marks are not used, but I didn't really feel their absence: dialog is usually prefaced with a long dash.
Civil War
Although the backdrop is the American civil war, I didn't feel hampered by my relative lack of knowledge of US history. There was enough background detail to picture daily life, but the politics and the war were external to the characters, and hence to me as a reader.
Right and Wrong; Revenge and Forgiveness
Inman is a deserter: badly injured, but a deserter none-the-less. He was never a natural killer, is haunted by what he's seen (and done), and doesn't believe in the cause anyway, if he ever did. There are gangs wanting bounty for finding deserters, and desperate men who will kill for any reason and none. Coupled with his inherently peaceful and forgiving nature, repeatedly put to the test, the risks are great.
Pondering the story of a man born blind, Inman asks himself "What would be the cost of not having an enemy? Who could you strike for retribution other than yourself?"
But retribution isn't really his mindset; he's almost too good to be true, given the hardships and dangers he faces, such as stealing food, but leaving more money than it's worth, putting himself in grave danger to help strangers,and avoiding and preventing violence, even when it's not really his responsibility and would be easier to walk away. He's certainly more forgiving than the disgraced preacher, Veasey.
The Sustenance of Literature - and Music
An unexpected pleasure was the underlying thread of the solace to be found in books.
On the very first page, Inman is in military hospital "settling his mind" with a treasured copy of Travels of William Bartram. Throughout the story, he returns to this book, in small snippets, at times of need.
Ada's relationship with books fluctuates: at her lowest point "the characters seemed to lead fuller lives than she did", and when she's first dragooned into hard labour to make the land viable, she drops the habit of keeping a book in her pocket. However, at the end of the day, reading aloud is a pleasure and a bonding experience for her and Ruby. We glimpse the privilege of opening someone's eyes to the joys of powerful stories.
Another, seemingly irredeemable, character finds salvation in music, starting off with a handful of standard fiddle tunes, but making his own instruments and composing a large repertoire of moving pieces. "The grouping of sounds... said something comforting to him about the rule of creation,... a powerful argument against the notion that things just happen."
Couples
At least as important as the relationship between Ada and Inman, and possibly more interesting, is that between Ada (educated, city girl, now alone in the country) and Ruby (an illiterate who was an almost feral child). She comes to help Ada, not quite as a servant, not - initially - as a friend, let alone equal, but Ruby takes charge of instructing in the sense of educating Ada and even telling her what, when, and how to do. "To Ada, Ruby's monologues seemed composed mainly of verbs, all of them tiring" and "Ruby made a point of refusing to tackle all the unpleasant tasks herself." Ada puts up with this because she realises that "Ruby would not let her fail", whereas a hired hand might just walk away.
There are moments when .
Inman draws strength from his devotion to and memories of Ada. He occasionally looks at other women (water is a recurring theme), but it's all very chaste.
Then there's Ruby's estranged, good-for-nothing father, Stobrod, and Ada's role in handling and healing their relationship.
Nature Names
There is mythical power in names. Ada's education was academic and theoretical: she knows the names of almost none of the plants and animals, and that is part of her helplessness in her new situation. In contrast, Ruby has an encyclopaedic knowledge of such things, and thus she takes the lead in survival.
Ruby is also guided by signs that Ada's preacher father, Monroe, would have dismissed as superstition. Ada "chose to view the signs as metaphoric... a way of being alert" so that "she could honor them". But a hundred pages later, she writes to her cousin in Charleston about how field work has changed her, "Should a crow fly over I mark it in all its details, but I do not seek analogy for its blackness... I suspect it is somehow akin to contentment." It's worth noting that the first chapter is titled "the shadow of a crow" and the last "spirits of crows, dancing".
The Ending and the Epilogue
Twenty pages from the end, it was so tender and understated and perfect that I had to pause. I was sure it would end badly, and I couldn't bear it.
Reminds me Of
(The links are to my reviews of these books.)
The quiet stoicism, solace in literature, and connection to the soil, reminded me of one of my two favourite books, Stoner.
The almost literal saving power of books in the midst of turmoil and deprivation is something Jeanette Winterson stresses in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?.
The harsh beauty of the mountains, coupled with love and longing, reminded me a little of Brokeback Mountain. The similarity of title may be a factor, too.
Quotes
* "The first smear of foggy dawn and [he] waited for the world to begin shaping outside."
* "Nature... sometimes calls attention to its specific features and recommends them for interpretation."
* "Educated beyond the point considered wise for females" but "impractically for the demands of an exposed life".
* "Though not a childless couple, they had retained an air of romance in their marriage, as the barren often do."
* "The foul country... was vague and ominous in the moonlight."
* "He would like to love the world as it was... Hate took no effort other than to look about."
* "When it became too dark to read and the air turned blue and started to congeal with mist."
* "Celebration had been a lacking feature of her life since survival had such a sharp way of focusing one's attention elsewhere."
* "She had lived so long as to have achieved a state of near transparency."
* Gypsies had "a fine honesty in their predatory relationship with the rest of mankind." I know what he means, but...
* "Dying there seemed easier than not... Inman had seen so much death it had come to seem a random thing... it no longer seemed dark and mysterious. He feared... he might never make a civilian."
* "The easement of maiden, spinster, widow", though if your knowledge of anatomy is "to a degree hypothetical", your fantasies may focus on fingers, wrists and forearms.
* A path "so coiled and knotted he could not say what its general tendency was... He felt fuddled and wayless."
* "Marrying a woman for her beauty makes no more sense than eating a bird for its singing."
* "The pain settled to a distant noise, like living by a river."
* In a dead man's clothes "he felt he had donned the husk of another life... as a ghost must, occupying the shape of the past to little effect."
* "A suggestion of trees as in a quick sketch, a casual gesture toward the form of trees... as if there were no such thing as landscape."
* "The sentimentality of finding poignancy in the fall of leaves, of seeing it as the conclusion to the year and therefore metaphoric."
UPDATE re the Film
If you love this book, or think you may read and love it in the future, avoid the the 2003 film starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger.
It's not that it's an awful film (though the acting, accents, and very fake-looking snow and scenery are pretty poor), and it's not the many (very many) tweaks they made to the plot (some are inevitable with any adaptation from one medium to another).
No, the problem is that it seems to miss the entire point and atmosphere of the book. By a long, long way. There are some gory battle scenes, but in general, it's a sunny romance. The sun is shining far too much of the time, even in Inman's dangerous travels, most of the hardship is soft-focus, the power of the landscape is mostly missing, and the power of books is sidelined. Inman's Bartram is important, but only because, in the film, it was Ada's parting gift, so it's a memento from a lover, rather than something separate, but more profound.
June 29, 2021
This is quite possibly the longest it has taken me to finish a book of this length. Maybe not ever, but at least since I got back into reading a lot about 10 years ago. I think an ongoing reading slump had over the past year had a lot to do with it. But I also think the way the book is written was part of it, too. Whatever the reason . . . I am thankful it is over and that I don’t have to carry it around anymore!
So, your first thought is probably that it must be a bad book if it took that long to read. I can say that I do not think it is a bad book at all. It has many colorful characters and interesting anecdotes. If you really like historical fiction – and specifically Civil War era historical fiction – I believe you will enjoy this book.
However, I am only giving it 3 stars because, for me, I never wanted to read more than a few pages at a time, and I was never all that excited to pick it back up. Could be a side-effect of the aforementioned slump, but I really think I would have had a similar response if I was not slumping. I am not sure I can easily put into words exactly what it is about the way it is written that made me less than motivated to get into it. It was just so heavy and wordy – maybe it is like when you eat something that is very rich so you can only eat a little at a time and need a break between mouthfuls. I get the impression that many others that read this had an experience similar to mine.
Should you read it? It is hard for me to recommend a book that I was not very motivated to read – even with the result being that I did like it okay. Just be prepared to get mired in it for a while if you end up with an experience like mine. But, hopefully in the end, you do find something about it to enjoy.
So, your first thought is probably that it must be a bad book if it took that long to read. I can say that I do not think it is a bad book at all. It has many colorful characters and interesting anecdotes. If you really like historical fiction – and specifically Civil War era historical fiction – I believe you will enjoy this book.
However, I am only giving it 3 stars because, for me, I never wanted to read more than a few pages at a time, and I was never all that excited to pick it back up. Could be a side-effect of the aforementioned slump, but I really think I would have had a similar response if I was not slumping. I am not sure I can easily put into words exactly what it is about the way it is written that made me less than motivated to get into it. It was just so heavy and wordy – maybe it is like when you eat something that is very rich so you can only eat a little at a time and need a break between mouthfuls. I get the impression that many others that read this had an experience similar to mine.
Should you read it? It is hard for me to recommend a book that I was not very motivated to read – even with the result being that I did like it okay. Just be prepared to get mired in it for a while if you end up with an experience like mine. But, hopefully in the end, you do find something about it to enjoy.
September 16, 2015
The best way I could find to describe the book is the American Civil War version of the Odyssey, with Inman as the wandering hero trying to find his way back home to the North Carolina Appallachians, and Ada as his Penelope tending the home fires. This is an oversimplification, but the epic scope is there, the perilous journey, the oddball characters met on the road, the mystical elements of prophecy, cursed fate, faithful love. Additional major themes tackled are the brutality and senselessness of war, women emancipation, Native American (Cherokee) Trail of Tears, music as soul healer and the majesty of nature.
... he had seen the metal face of the age and had been so stunned by it that when he thought into the future, all he could vision was a world from which everything he counted important had been banished or had willingly fled.
Inman is a young man born and raised in the high country, at the foot of Cold Mountain, the highest peak in this scarcely populated corner of North Carolina. He goes to war not out of any patriotic fervor or deep seated political convictions, but in search of adventure and excitement. The four years in the trenches cure him of any romantic feelings about organized killing, leaving him sorely wounded and spiritually crushed:
Anyone could be oracle for the random ways things fall against each other. It was simple enough to tell fortunes if a man dedicated himself to the idea that the future will inevitably be worse than the past and that time is a path leading nowhere but a place of deep and persistent threat. The way Inman saw it, if a thing like Fredericksburg was to be used as a marker of current position, then many years hence, at the rate we're going, we'll be eating one another raw.
His one comfort in the long bed ridden hospital weeks is a travel book describing the mountains back home, a Bartram guide that will accompany him on all his travels once he decides to turn his back on the war and walk back home. As a deserter he is forced to hide during the day and walk only by night, stealing what scarce food he could find. Local militias are combing the territory looking for his ilk, and more than once Inman is forced to fight his way free. The destruction of his character is visible most of all in the way he is still living in a world where the options are "kill or be killed", always ready to solve his problems at gunpoint. Inman is no angel of peace, making his separate peace and searching for redemption. He is still very much a professional killer, a desperado who will let nothing stand in his way, a PTSD victim that belongs in a hospital rather than roaming free.
"You will be living fitfully. Your soul will fade to blue, the color of despair. Your spirit will wane and dwindle away, never to reappear. Your path lies toward the Nightland. This is your path. There is no other." is the refrain of a Cherokee curse that marks every step Inman takes.
Yet, glimpses of his former character resurface in the way he takes the part of the less fortunate than himself, usually women in distress (like Sara - a teenage war widow with a small child and a pig: "There was nothing about her story remarkable other than that it was her life."). As he leaves the lower lands and comes closer to the high hills, Inman's struggles become more desperate due to lack of food and exhaustion, yet his spirit becomes free of his flesh and soars:
God, if I could sprout wings and fly, I would be gone from this place, my great wings bearing me up and out, long feathers hissing in the wind. The world would unfurl below me like a bright picture on a scroll of paper and there would be nothing holding me to ground. The watercourses and hills passing under me effortless and simple. And me just rising and rising till I was but a dark speck on the clear sky. Gone on elsewhere. To live among the tree limbs and cliff rocks. Elements of humanity might come now and again like emissaries to draw me back to the society of people. Unsuccesful every time. Fly off to some high ridge and perch, observing the bright light of common day.
Inman chapters in the book alternate with the story of Ada Monroe. Ada is a preacher's daughter from Charleston, who moved to the mountains hoping her father's illness (tuberculosis?) wil improve. When he dies, she is left alone on the farm they bought, utterly helpless to fend for herself, ( Monroe tried to keep her a child and, with litle resistance from her, he had largely succeeded.). She is a poster child of the Victorian morals and fetish for women as delicate and useless hothouse flowers. Some readers might find her part of the novel boring, but for me it was as compelling as the journey of Inman. Ada too is enchanted by the beauty of the mountains and is interested in all the forms of life around her - initially in an aestethic way through watercolours and journal entries, later through the healthy sweat of her labours and the satisfaction of doing things with your own hand. Ada is helped along by Ruby, a local girl who learned very early to fend for herself when she was abandoned by her drunken father Stobrod. Not even Ada's farm is safe from the ravages of war. Refugees from places sacked by the Northern Army pass through, local militias make their own law burning and pillaging. The most reprehensible thing in the whole book is this description of the total war concept, where you set out to destroy non military targets in order to demoralize your adversary. Unfortunately the tactichas become the norm in modern times where nothing is considered civilian anymore.
A third storyline is introduced later in the novel, but it was one of my favorites, given my own passion for blues music. Initially Ruby's father Stobrod is presented as a lowlife rascal, but years away in the war have changed him in unexpected ways. His salvation comes through music:
One thing he discovered with a great deal of astonishment was that music held more for him than just pleasure. There was meat to it. The groupings of sounds, their forms in the air as they rang out and faded, said something comforting to him about the rule of creation. What the music said was that there is a right way for things to be ordered so that life might not always be just tangle and drift but have a shape, an aim. It was a powerful argument against the notion that things just happen.
I will stop here in order to not spoil the ending of the novel, as the paths of Inman and Ada converge, although many are probably familiar with it from the movie version. I liked the book better, especially as I thought the movie insisted too much on Ada and Ruby and not enough on Inman and his troubles on the road. Yet it was a faithful adaptation, and moreover it was filmed around my usual mountain weekend haunts in the Southern Carpathians arc, a lovely country, rugged in places, rolling hills over the next horizon, huge forests and welcoming locals. The descriptions of the Appalachians felt more than usually familiar and appealing:
The track was ill used, so coiled and knotted he could not say what its general tendency was. It aimed nowhere certain but up. The brush and bracken grew thick in the footway, and the ground seemed to be healing over, so that in some near future the way would not even remain as scar. For several miles it mostly wound its way through a forest of immense hemlocks, and the fog lay among them so thick that heir green boughs were hidden. Only the black trunks were visible, rising into the low sky like old menhirs stood up by a forgotten race to memorialize the darker events of their history.
I did have some minor issues with the book, mostly about the slow pacing and the surprising literacy of Inman given his modest origins, but the superb prose of Frasier more than made up for it. Just don't expect a fast paced adventure, and you might have a very rewarding read on your hands. Highly recommended for lovers of Nature and introspective historical fiction. I'll end with a Wordsworth quote Ada uses in the book to describe the mountains:
Earth has not anything to show more fair. Dull would be the soul who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty.
link to a gallery of my mountain photos:
mountain views
December 4, 2013
You've probably seen the movie made from this book.
It was a fine movie. It won Oscars.
But it cannot begin to capture the truly spectacular parts of this story because they are not the surface level narratives that make it onto the big screen.
Before you can truly appreciate the quality of this book, you need to be familiar with at least Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, and parts of the Bible. You need to be on guard for a depth of symbolism and complexity of foreshadowing and allusion that will boggle your mind.
I always knew the movie didn't really get the book, but when my dad (who has not read the book) referred to it as "a chick flick" because he thought of it primarily as a love story (which it is, but not that kind), then I really realized what one misses when one has not read the book.
It was a fine movie. It won Oscars.
But it cannot begin to capture the truly spectacular parts of this story because they are not the surface level narratives that make it onto the big screen.
Before you can truly appreciate the quality of this book, you need to be familiar with at least Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, and parts of the Bible. You need to be on guard for a depth of symbolism and complexity of foreshadowing and allusion that will boggle your mind.
I always knew the movie didn't really get the book, but when my dad (who has not read the book) referred to it as "a chick flick" because he thought of it primarily as a love story (which it is, but not that kind), then I really realized what one misses when one has not read the book.
December 19, 2016
Stunning! This book is the perfect example of timing being everything. I tried to read this book when it was first released and I don't think I got passed the first 25 pages. I tried again after I saw the movie with the same outcome. Fast forward to 2016, the book obviously hasns't changed but I am a completely different reader and I LOVED this book. I'm pretty generous with 5 star reviews but I don't add many books to my favorites shelf which is where this one ended up. It is a slow burn and you have to be patient and take your time but the reward is so worth it. The story is beautiful and haunting and I am so glad that I kept trying and finally found the right time to read this.
September 2, 2015
i nearly plucked my own eyes from my skull in frustration.
the dullity was like another character in the story, grimly tugging at my sleeve to expound at length on the state of his bunion, and what it meant in relation to the larger struggle of humanity to achieve some fool thing or another.
very, very slowly.
the dullity was like another character in the story, grimly tugging at my sleeve to expound at length on the state of his bunion, and what it meant in relation to the larger struggle of humanity to achieve some fool thing or another.
very, very slowly.
December 4, 2013
Is it long? Yes. Does it sometimes take entire paragraphs or chapters to describe the scope of the landscape? Yes. Is it entirely worth it? Yes. This book is best described as an epic...for those that felt it was too long or boring, have you ever read The Odyssey? The comparison is made for a reason. This is not a book you take to the beach and read on vacation...this is a book you pick up on a rainy day when you call in sick in the middle of the week. This is a book that becomes like a return to an old friend when you reaquaint yourself with it. This is a book that took me close to a year to read as well, because I chose to walk away from it for a month sometimes and return to it when I needed a moment to escape from current times.
I never saw myself falling in love with a Civil-War era book about a soldier, and maybe it was the love story or maybe it was because I am from the area in the book that is described with such fervor and passion and affection for the land I grew up in that it brings a bit of nostalgia for my childhood back when I pick it up. In any case, it is a masterpiece. After finishing it, I sighed with bittersweet feelings. Bittersweet because I assumed Frazier had waited so long to write because he had one true novel in him, and his debut would be his only book. Boy was I wrong. I'm now reading Thirteen Moons. I bought it in June and am just short of halfway through. I am cherishing this one, too!
Sidenote: If you haven't read the book, I guess the movie is ok. If you have read it, don't bother watching the movie. It will ruin the image in your head. Also, I hate that it was filmed in Europe when the book takes place here.
I never saw myself falling in love with a Civil-War era book about a soldier, and maybe it was the love story or maybe it was because I am from the area in the book that is described with such fervor and passion and affection for the land I grew up in that it brings a bit of nostalgia for my childhood back when I pick it up. In any case, it is a masterpiece. After finishing it, I sighed with bittersweet feelings. Bittersweet because I assumed Frazier had waited so long to write because he had one true novel in him, and his debut would be his only book. Boy was I wrong. I'm now reading Thirteen Moons. I bought it in June and am just short of halfway through. I am cherishing this one, too!
Sidenote: If you haven't read the book, I guess the movie is ok. If you have read it, don't bother watching the movie. It will ruin the image in your head. Also, I hate that it was filmed in Europe when the book takes place here.
July 14, 2022
A Lyrical Masterpiece“
All that night the aurora flamed and shimmered lurid colors across the sky to the north. Such a rare event was seen as an omen to the men up and down the line, and they vied to see who could most convincedly render its meaning sown into plain speech. Somewhere above them on the hill, a fiddle struck up the sad cords of Lorena…”
Inman was in the battle at Fredericksburg when he was wounded and sent to the hospital for recovery, to then return to battle. The above quote was taken from this battle, and I could nott help but recall the words to this melancholy song, a song that men in the Civil War sang, causing many to dissert, to try to travel home to their loved ones. It was finally banned by many officers for this very reason. Was the fiddler’s playing of this song meant to demoralize the enemy? I think so, and I believe it led up to the theme of this book, Inman’s desertion.
Henry Webster, a Unitarian minister, had written this song, “Lorena” after his beloved Ellafff had left him. Like Inman, he had met his own beloved at church. Henry never got over her. The tune of this song, combined with its lyrics, are both beautiful and heart wrenching. You can read their story in the book, “The Sweetheart of the Civil War.”
Lorena
“The years creep slowly by, Lorena
The snow is on the grass a gain
The sun's low down the sky, Lorena
The frost gleams where the flowers have been
But my heart beats on as warmly now
As when the summer days were nigh…”
Inman wrote a letter to his beloved Ada while he was in the hospital, telling her that he would be returning to her. Then, one day, he just walked out of the hospital and began walking to Cold Mountain, to Ada.
Ada had also written to him, missing him, hoping for his safe return. She was now alone; her last family member, her father, had died. Her neighbor’s, but few, were helpful. By this time, she had little to eat and did not know how to farm or care for the animals, animals that were not raised for food but for pleasure. Her family had been somewhat wealthy but now the money was gone, and she had only been taught to read and to play the piano. She did not even know how to cook, yet, she was a fine person, not really spoiled in the true sense of the word. Then a woman named Ruby came to help, to teach her how to take care of the farm.
Note: I read this book many years ago and loved it then, even saw the movie, but I never thought to read it again; instead, I looked for others like it. As you see, I changed my mind. I even bought the audio which I found to be wonderfully narrated by a man who knows how to read this lyrical book. Then I learned that that man was Charles Frazier, the author. He speaks as well as he writes. Like the song “Lorena’ and its tune, there is nothing more beautiful than Frazier reading his poetic book.
As I said, I spent years trying to find a book like this one, reading other Civil War novels, but I found nothing, that is, until I read “Wilderness” by Lance Weller, another lyrical writer. He wrote a post-Civil War novel, one with flash backs of the War. So, the man in his book was not walking away from the war; his walk was to find his stolen dog. Yet, I know that I will always be looking for another “Cold Mountain” even though “Wilderness” had been one for me. And I know that I will read this book again.
All that night the aurora flamed and shimmered lurid colors across the sky to the north. Such a rare event was seen as an omen to the men up and down the line, and they vied to see who could most convincedly render its meaning sown into plain speech. Somewhere above them on the hill, a fiddle struck up the sad cords of Lorena…”
Inman was in the battle at Fredericksburg when he was wounded and sent to the hospital for recovery, to then return to battle. The above quote was taken from this battle, and I could nott help but recall the words to this melancholy song, a song that men in the Civil War sang, causing many to dissert, to try to travel home to their loved ones. It was finally banned by many officers for this very reason. Was the fiddler’s playing of this song meant to demoralize the enemy? I think so, and I believe it led up to the theme of this book, Inman’s desertion.
Henry Webster, a Unitarian minister, had written this song, “Lorena” after his beloved Ellafff had left him. Like Inman, he had met his own beloved at church. Henry never got over her. The tune of this song, combined with its lyrics, are both beautiful and heart wrenching. You can read their story in the book, “The Sweetheart of the Civil War.”
Lorena
“The years creep slowly by, Lorena
The snow is on the grass a gain
The sun's low down the sky, Lorena
The frost gleams where the flowers have been
But my heart beats on as warmly now
As when the summer days were nigh…”
Inman wrote a letter to his beloved Ada while he was in the hospital, telling her that he would be returning to her. Then, one day, he just walked out of the hospital and began walking to Cold Mountain, to Ada.
Ada had also written to him, missing him, hoping for his safe return. She was now alone; her last family member, her father, had died. Her neighbor’s, but few, were helpful. By this time, she had little to eat and did not know how to farm or care for the animals, animals that were not raised for food but for pleasure. Her family had been somewhat wealthy but now the money was gone, and she had only been taught to read and to play the piano. She did not even know how to cook, yet, she was a fine person, not really spoiled in the true sense of the word. Then a woman named Ruby came to help, to teach her how to take care of the farm.
Note: I read this book many years ago and loved it then, even saw the movie, but I never thought to read it again; instead, I looked for others like it. As you see, I changed my mind. I even bought the audio which I found to be wonderfully narrated by a man who knows how to read this lyrical book. Then I learned that that man was Charles Frazier, the author. He speaks as well as he writes. Like the song “Lorena’ and its tune, there is nothing more beautiful than Frazier reading his poetic book.
As I said, I spent years trying to find a book like this one, reading other Civil War novels, but I found nothing, that is, until I read “Wilderness” by Lance Weller, another lyrical writer. He wrote a post-Civil War novel, one with flash backs of the War. So, the man in his book was not walking away from the war; his walk was to find his stolen dog. Yet, I know that I will always be looking for another “Cold Mountain” even though “Wilderness” had been one for me. And I know that I will read this book again.
October 8, 2019
I thought I knew when to give up on a book but apparently I have long way to go as I spent weeks on this dull book waiting for something to happen. But I am very angry at myself right now for wasting my precious reading time on this.
May 15, 2021
I read this book for my English literature A level. It wasn’t terrible but I didn’t find it the most exciting or engaging. Rather slow paced for me but I could see why another person might like t
June 25, 2023
Cold Mountain is the heartbreakingly beautiful and breath-taking debut novel by Charles Frazier purportedly based on the local history and family folklore passed down for generations in his family. Frazier grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina and in the shadow of Cold Mountain. But Cold Mountain was the also debut opera score written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Jennifer Higdon, who coincidentally also grew up in Appalachia. We were so excited to be able to attend the World Premiere of Cold Mountain in August 2015 at the Santa Fe Opera just north of Santa Fe. We were there on the night of the final performance when, just as the conductor came on stage, there were huge claps of thunder followed by the skies lighting up the stage as it is an open-air theater with a stunning backdrop of the beautiful Sangre de Christo mountains of Northern New Mexico. It was a superb performance and evening with the impeccable timing of the thunder and lightning to coincide with the opera script and musical score in this unique setting and written to mark the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.
Now, many years later, I am finally reading the historical fiction novel by Charles Frazier that is so beautifully and elegantly told. Frazier found his inspiration for what he calls his "American odyssey" along with the area's unique history. Frazier has said that his family has lived in the hills of North Carolina for over two-hundred years. At the core of this story is a tale of survival. It is the story of a Confederate soldier and deserter in 1865. We witness Inman's long and perilous journey as he walks home to his beloved Ada Monroe at the close of the Civil War. He is witness to the vast devastation suffered in the South as the Confederates are close to defeat. The book unfolds in alternate chapters with Inman and his struggles versus Ada and Ruby and their struggles to revive her father's failing farm after his death. Ruby has had to struggle to survive from a young age but with her Native American roots, she has a connection to the land and shares her wisdom with Ada who works along side her tirelessly. There is a bond that forms between these two women. At the stunning conclusion of this Odysseus-like tale, Inman and Ada have to confront the transformation that has occurred in each of their lives.
Now, many years later, I am finally reading the historical fiction novel by Charles Frazier that is so beautifully and elegantly told. Frazier found his inspiration for what he calls his "American odyssey" along with the area's unique history. Frazier has said that his family has lived in the hills of North Carolina for over two-hundred years. At the core of this story is a tale of survival. It is the story of a Confederate soldier and deserter in 1865. We witness Inman's long and perilous journey as he walks home to his beloved Ada Monroe at the close of the Civil War. He is witness to the vast devastation suffered in the South as the Confederates are close to defeat. The book unfolds in alternate chapters with Inman and his struggles versus Ada and Ruby and their struggles to revive her father's failing farm after his death. Ruby has had to struggle to survive from a young age but with her Native American roots, she has a connection to the land and shares her wisdom with Ada who works along side her tirelessly. There is a bond that forms between these two women. At the stunning conclusion of this Odysseus-like tale, Inman and Ada have to confront the transformation that has occurred in each of their lives.
". . . . You will be living fitfully. Your soul will fade to blue, the color of despair. Your spirit will wane and dwindle away, never to reappear. Your path lies toward the Nightland. This is your path. There is no other."
"Monroe would have dismissed such beliefs as superstition, folklore. But Ada, increasingly covetous of Ruby's learning in the ways living things inhabited this particular place, chose to view the signs as metaphoric. They were, as Ada saw them, an expression of stewardship, a means of taking care, a discipline. They provided a ritual of concern for the patterns and tendencies of the material world where it might be seen to intersect with some other world. Ultimately, she decided, the signs were a way of being alert, and under those terms she could honor them."
November 25, 2018
I am giving the book a rating of 3.5!
The edition I read has a golden circle embossed on the cover declaring it to be a “National Book Award Winner” and the blurb claims it to be “an authentic American Odyssey—hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.” Can you blame me for starting the book with very high expectations?
Anyway, the plot is set in the backdrop of the American Civil War. Our hero, Inman, a Confederate soldier, is sorely wounded in the fighting. Disillusioned with the war, he deserts to go back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where his lady love resides, of course. He sets on this perilous journey and has to endure and survive the harshness of nature, and the even more dangerous Home Guards. On his journey, he would receive help from kind people – who are either slaves or somehow managing to survive themselves.
Inman is a pretty decent chap. When the situation demanded he could kill, but did not relish it. I liked Inman but he was quite predictable – I mean most protagonists of war novels are made from the same mould – men good at their job but dislike or are even disgusted by blood lust.
Alternating with Inman’s adventures, there are the chapters on Ada Monroe, our hero’s lady love. Ada, a beautiful, educated and pampered daughter of a late preacher is in a big mess. She is ignorant of how to run their derelict farm; all men have gone off to fight in the war and no farm laborers are left. A young girl called Ruby would come as Ada’s savior. Now Ruby is not a servant, she helps Ada on her own terms and makes Ada work in the farm as well. Together they would turn the place around.
I liked the character of Ruby. She is a tough, no-nonsense person who had to fend for herself since early childhood as her drunk father failed miserable in carrying out his responsibilities. She is quite a contrast to the sophisticated and educated Ada. But, Ruby understood survival and the tricks of running a farm.
There are quite a few interesting characters in the novel, both good and evil. I would mention two – Sara, a young widow, a girl actually, who would selflessly offer whatever help she could to strangers, and Stobrod, Ada’s father, the irresponsible drunk who went to war and deserted a changed man – a man who will redemption through music.
I was not very impressed with the chemistry between Inman and Ada. But, I liked one thing about them – both of them sought shelter and solace in books. Inman sought comfort in a travel book throughout his journey, while Ada was quite a reader.
The description of nature occupies a significant position in the narrative; the flora and fauna - the beauty and harshness - have been described in detail. Some parts were wonderful but at times it dragged also. As the name suggests, the mountain is present almost as a character in the novel.
I appreciate the reference to the injustice carried out against the Native Americans.
I do acknowledge that the author had tried to create something splendid. But, there was a gap. Some parts of the book were good, but reading through some parts was like a chore. I wish the author had kept some descriptions a bit more simple. In my humble opinion, simplicity and brevity can also lead to elegant writing.
This book is not a fast-paced adventure. As many other reviewers have said, you need to have a lot of patience to enjoy and appreciate the book.
I would recommend this book to readers who don’t mind a slow-paced read and a bit of verbosity.
The edition I read has a golden circle embossed on the cover declaring it to be a “National Book Award Winner” and the blurb claims it to be “an authentic American Odyssey—hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.” Can you blame me for starting the book with very high expectations?
Anyway, the plot is set in the backdrop of the American Civil War. Our hero, Inman, a Confederate soldier, is sorely wounded in the fighting. Disillusioned with the war, he deserts to go back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where his lady love resides, of course. He sets on this perilous journey and has to endure and survive the harshness of nature, and the even more dangerous Home Guards. On his journey, he would receive help from kind people – who are either slaves or somehow managing to survive themselves.
Inman is a pretty decent chap. When the situation demanded he could kill, but did not relish it. I liked Inman but he was quite predictable – I mean most protagonists of war novels are made from the same mould – men good at their job but dislike or are even disgusted by blood lust.
Alternating with Inman’s adventures, there are the chapters on Ada Monroe, our hero’s lady love. Ada, a beautiful, educated and pampered daughter of a late preacher is in a big mess. She is ignorant of how to run their derelict farm; all men have gone off to fight in the war and no farm laborers are left. A young girl called Ruby would come as Ada’s savior. Now Ruby is not a servant, she helps Ada on her own terms and makes Ada work in the farm as well. Together they would turn the place around.
I liked the character of Ruby. She is a tough, no-nonsense person who had to fend for herself since early childhood as her drunk father failed miserable in carrying out his responsibilities. She is quite a contrast to the sophisticated and educated Ada. But, Ruby understood survival and the tricks of running a farm.
There are quite a few interesting characters in the novel, both good and evil. I would mention two – Sara, a young widow, a girl actually, who would selflessly offer whatever help she could to strangers, and Stobrod, Ada’s father, the irresponsible drunk who went to war and deserted a changed man – a man who will redemption through music.
I was not very impressed with the chemistry between Inman and Ada. But, I liked one thing about them – both of them sought shelter and solace in books. Inman sought comfort in a travel book throughout his journey, while Ada was quite a reader.
The description of nature occupies a significant position in the narrative; the flora and fauna - the beauty and harshness - have been described in detail. Some parts were wonderful but at times it dragged also. As the name suggests, the mountain is present almost as a character in the novel.
I appreciate the reference to the injustice carried out against the Native Americans.
I do acknowledge that the author had tried to create something splendid. But, there was a gap. Some parts of the book were good, but reading through some parts was like a chore. I wish the author had kept some descriptions a bit more simple. In my humble opinion, simplicity and brevity can also lead to elegant writing.
This book is not a fast-paced adventure. As many other reviewers have said, you need to have a lot of patience to enjoy and appreciate the book.
I would recommend this book to readers who don’t mind a slow-paced read and a bit of verbosity.
December 12, 2021
Phenomenal!
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier takes the reader on a hard and unrelenting journey of two young women meant for completely different lives and of a man who struggles against all odds to get home from the War. The story grasps at and grabs hold of the ideas of hardship in war, kinship, perseverance and the will to go on despite dangers, trauma and tragedies.
Inman
A deserter of the confederate army, wounded in battle and nearly died, Inman decides to walk away from the hospital and his miraculous recovery and walk home to Cold Mountain and the girl he’d been thinking of for the past four years. His journey is one that I understand has Homeric elements - an Odyssey of his own. Ada is a constant on his mind, his memories of their few awkward encounters on the forefront. Trying to steer clear of the Home Guard whose primary job is to retrieve or kill deserters, Inman encounters some of the weirdest, wildest, meanest, kindest, generous people. Some help him and he helps some. Others are out to harm him and he defends himself against them.
He wished not to be smirched with the mess of other people. A part of him wanted to hide in the woods far from any road. Be like an owl, move only at dark. Or a ghost. Another part yearned to wear the big pistol openly on his hip and to travel by day under a black flag, respecting all who let him be, fighting all who would seek to fight him, letting rage be his guide against anything that ran counter to his will.
Ada
…she wondered how a human being could be raised more impractically for the demands of an exposed life.
She had grown up in Charleston and at Monroe’s insistence had been educated beyond the point considered wise for females…She was filled with opinions on art and politics and literature, and ready to argue the merits of her positions.
What were her aptitudes/skills? She was ok but not brilliant at - languages(French, Greek, Latin) - piano - needlework - art (pencil or watercolor) - and well read. She’d travelled the world with her father.
…she had discovered herself to be frighteningly ill-prepared in the craft of subsistence, living alone on a farm that her father had run rather as an idea than a livelihood.
Ruby
And though Ruby had not spent a day of her life in school and could not read a word nor write even her name, Ada thought she saw in her a spark as bright and hard as one stuck with steel and flint.
Raised basically on her own, her father, Stobrod (an inadequate fiddler and lover of liquor) was absent for most of her life. Ruby was left to forage and kill and provide for herself.
Her skills/achievements by age 10? she knew all features of the mountains for twenty-five miles in any direction as intimately as a gardener would his bean rows. And that later, when yet barely a woman, she had whipped men single-handed in encounters she did not wish to detail.
Ada and Ruby
The girls become each other’s teacher and helper, equal in all that would be done to work the farm and keep it going by themselves as any able-bodied man was off fighting in the war.
I’m saying if I’m to help you here, it’s with both us knowing that everybody empties their own night jar. And thus an unlikely relationship between two women who couldn’t be more different began. It would seem that Ada had much more to learn from Ruby than Ruby did from Ada and that the tasks were much more difficult. With no money for buying fabric to make clothes, for instance, Ruby taught Ada that they could make their own with sheep’s wool. All Ada could think was that every step in the process that Ruby had so casually sketched out would be many days of hard work to come up with a few yards of material coarse as sacking. Money made things so much easier. Ruby was the mastermind behind planning everything that needed doing and when to get it done telling Ada all the time about their plans. She was practical and didn’t have a lazy bone in her body. All Ruby’s talk was of exertion. The work it would take to build a momentum of survival to carry them through winter. To Ada, Ruby’s monologues seemed composed mainly of verbs, all of them tiring. Plow, plant, hoe, cut, can, feed, kill.
Ada and Inman
But she filled him full, and so he believed everything that had been taken out of him might have been for a purpose. To clear space for something better.
Frazier works through the journeys of his characters in Cold Mountain for the biggest part of the text. It is quiet in some ways and life changing in others for all of them (Ada, Ruby, Inman) who are working to reach a sort of understanding or acceptance of their situations that life has brought them. The prose is eloquent and beautiful and its slow pace is meant to be savored. The sense of the natural world and the agony and disappointments that come with war for those fighting and those at home are presented with such earnestness. Without revealing anything that would spoil the ending, I will only say that it is perfectly handled. We are rewarded with the end of a long and persevering journey that defines what is meant by home and freedom and love.
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier takes the reader on a hard and unrelenting journey of two young women meant for completely different lives and of a man who struggles against all odds to get home from the War. The story grasps at and grabs hold of the ideas of hardship in war, kinship, perseverance and the will to go on despite dangers, trauma and tragedies.
Inman
A deserter of the confederate army, wounded in battle and nearly died, Inman decides to walk away from the hospital and his miraculous recovery and walk home to Cold Mountain and the girl he’d been thinking of for the past four years. His journey is one that I understand has Homeric elements - an Odyssey of his own. Ada is a constant on his mind, his memories of their few awkward encounters on the forefront. Trying to steer clear of the Home Guard whose primary job is to retrieve or kill deserters, Inman encounters some of the weirdest, wildest, meanest, kindest, generous people. Some help him and he helps some. Others are out to harm him and he defends himself against them.
He wished not to be smirched with the mess of other people. A part of him wanted to hide in the woods far from any road. Be like an owl, move only at dark. Or a ghost. Another part yearned to wear the big pistol openly on his hip and to travel by day under a black flag, respecting all who let him be, fighting all who would seek to fight him, letting rage be his guide against anything that ran counter to his will.
Ada
…she wondered how a human being could be raised more impractically for the demands of an exposed life.
She had grown up in Charleston and at Monroe’s insistence had been educated beyond the point considered wise for females…She was filled with opinions on art and politics and literature, and ready to argue the merits of her positions.
What were her aptitudes/skills? She was ok but not brilliant at - languages(French, Greek, Latin) - piano - needlework - art (pencil or watercolor) - and well read. She’d travelled the world with her father.
…she had discovered herself to be frighteningly ill-prepared in the craft of subsistence, living alone on a farm that her father had run rather as an idea than a livelihood.
Ruby
And though Ruby had not spent a day of her life in school and could not read a word nor write even her name, Ada thought she saw in her a spark as bright and hard as one stuck with steel and flint.
Raised basically on her own, her father, Stobrod (an inadequate fiddler and lover of liquor) was absent for most of her life. Ruby was left to forage and kill and provide for herself.
Her skills/achievements by age 10? she knew all features of the mountains for twenty-five miles in any direction as intimately as a gardener would his bean rows. And that later, when yet barely a woman, she had whipped men single-handed in encounters she did not wish to detail.
Ada and Ruby
The girls become each other’s teacher and helper, equal in all that would be done to work the farm and keep it going by themselves as any able-bodied man was off fighting in the war.
I’m saying if I’m to help you here, it’s with both us knowing that everybody empties their own night jar. And thus an unlikely relationship between two women who couldn’t be more different began. It would seem that Ada had much more to learn from Ruby than Ruby did from Ada and that the tasks were much more difficult. With no money for buying fabric to make clothes, for instance, Ruby taught Ada that they could make their own with sheep’s wool. All Ada could think was that every step in the process that Ruby had so casually sketched out would be many days of hard work to come up with a few yards of material coarse as sacking. Money made things so much easier. Ruby was the mastermind behind planning everything that needed doing and when to get it done telling Ada all the time about their plans. She was practical and didn’t have a lazy bone in her body. All Ruby’s talk was of exertion. The work it would take to build a momentum of survival to carry them through winter. To Ada, Ruby’s monologues seemed composed mainly of verbs, all of them tiring. Plow, plant, hoe, cut, can, feed, kill.
Ada and Inman
But she filled him full, and so he believed everything that had been taken out of him might have been for a purpose. To clear space for something better.
Frazier works through the journeys of his characters in Cold Mountain for the biggest part of the text. It is quiet in some ways and life changing in others for all of them (Ada, Ruby, Inman) who are working to reach a sort of understanding or acceptance of their situations that life has brought them. The prose is eloquent and beautiful and its slow pace is meant to be savored. The sense of the natural world and the agony and disappointments that come with war for those fighting and those at home are presented with such earnestness. Without revealing anything that would spoil the ending, I will only say that it is perfectly handled. We are rewarded with the end of a long and persevering journey that defines what is meant by home and freedom and love.
November 3, 2019
❥ 3 / 5 stars
I’m sorry to Inman and Ada but I must say that the most interesting and impressive thing in the book is Ruby.🤧
Note : External reading #3 (Grade 11)
I’m sorry to Inman and Ada but I must say that the most interesting and impressive thing in the book is Ruby.🤧
Note : External reading #3 (Grade 11)
December 5, 2013
This is in my estimation one of the masterpieces of American fiction. I am surprised to be saying this, because I read it after I'd seen the film, and my expectations were not particularly high. Cold Mountain is the Odyssey retold in many respects not the least of which is its depiction of the horrors of violent expeditions far from home and the yet worse horrors of violence at home. It is a story of the Civil War as it affected those who were marginal to the state and had least to gain from the war, the hard-scrabble farmers of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The assessments of war as benefiting only the wealthy and as a virus carrying violence into every pore of the social world are powerful ones. A beautifully written work of fiction, in everything from the finely honed descriptions of the topography and botany and zoology of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the lovingly detailed descriptions of the preparation of Appalachian food to the brilliant evocations of loss and loneliness and resilience of those caught up directly in the violence of war as well as those who wait for them to come home.
February 18, 2008
This book far exceeded my expectations. It was grim and beautiful. It's a historical novel that brings you to the time and place with such an easy touch...no awkward passages setting the stage, just outstanding storytelling. The characters are well developed and authentic in their complexity. Also, it rang true with my experience of life, meaning that not everything ended satisfyingly for the characters. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
August 21, 2008
What an absolute abomination. The only thing that saves this from the doom of getting just one star is... well, at present I am even unable to think of that. Actually, I did laugh when Ada got attacked by a rooster. The books lacks a real story, is over-long, and whoever gave Mr Frazier a thesaurus should seriously reconsider their actions, because the excessive descriptions cause the reader to lose the will to live. Moreover: why, oh why, is it compared to The Odyssey? I fail to see how anyone could categorise this as "literature". (I haven't seen the film; but maybe it could revive some interest. I can't help but feel it would be terribly "Gone With The Wind"-esque, though.
FURTHER COMMENT, MADE ON 21ST AUGUST 2008: "I got an A on my exam for this! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!"
FURTHER COMMENT, MADE ON 21ST AUGUST 2008: "I got an A on my exam for this! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!"
October 22, 2020
Set in 1864 near the end of the American Civil War, Inman has been traumatized by his experiences in battle. After being wounded, he deserts his hospital bed to travel home to North Carolina’s Cold Mountain, to reconnect with a woman he met before leaving to join the Confederacy. The woman, Ada Monroe, has led a privileged life, but the war takes its toll, and she is left to fend for herself on her father’s farm. Inman journeys hundreds of miles by foot, encountering an assortment of people and trying to avoid the Confederate Home Guard. Ada transforms her life with help of Ruby, a woman who knows how to work the land. The storyline shifts back and forth between Inman and Ada.
The book is somewhat slow in developing and episodic in nature. The characters are well-developed and believable. I pictured Ruby as a person of mixed-race, though it is not stated directly, and I believe this added to my appreciation of the story. One of the primary strengths is the writing. Frazier has a wonderful way with words in describing the beauty of the natural environment and its impact upon the characters. I enjoyed the setup of the two connected characters struggling with their separate challenges and the way the author portrays their motivations to live when it would be easy to give up.
There are dark and disturbing scenes in this book involving harm to people and animals. The novel is loosely based on the author’s family history. Frazier does a fabulous job of evoking the era –showing the horrible impact of the war, how it tore families apart, and how people longed for a sense of stability. The last quarter of the book is a brilliant piece of writing.
4.5
The book is somewhat slow in developing and episodic in nature. The characters are well-developed and believable. I pictured Ruby as a person of mixed-race, though it is not stated directly, and I believe this added to my appreciation of the story. One of the primary strengths is the writing. Frazier has a wonderful way with words in describing the beauty of the natural environment and its impact upon the characters. I enjoyed the setup of the two connected characters struggling with their separate challenges and the way the author portrays their motivations to live when it would be easy to give up.
There are dark and disturbing scenes in this book involving harm to people and animals. The novel is loosely based on the author’s family history. Frazier does a fabulous job of evoking the era –showing the horrible impact of the war, how it tore families apart, and how people longed for a sense of stability. The last quarter of the book is a brilliant piece of writing.
4.5
July 25, 2007
I read this book before the movie was planned (at least to my knowledge), and I loved it from the beginning. It probably isn't the type of book you can read with lots of distraction around you, it requires a quiet setting where you can immerse yourself in the beautiful writing. Set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains the story of the Civil War is told as it relates to the lives of those who live in this rural area, and the devastating effect it has on everyone. However, the story is much more about love, forgiveness and hope than just the despair of the seemingly endless days until Inman returns.
October 5, 2013
It's Gone With The Wind Meets Easy Rider -- with all the phoniest elements of both American classics!
All the old Southern lies are here, chillun. Slavery wasn't so bad. We weren't fighting for slavery. The war was not our fault. Slavery was not our fault. Nothing is ever anyone's fault, except for the damned meddling Yankees who started the war for no reason at all! We are all prisoners of history. We know our darkies . . . and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!
But at the same time there are plenty of groovy new lies, too. And the new lies are custom-made for an aging baby-boom generation that never quite outgrew its own monumental self-pity. Can you dig it? Here's Billy Pilgrim -- I mean, here's Inman, the dope-addled draft dodger, running from the Man. He's groovy, vacant, passive, and profoundly self-involved. He's not sexy Rhett Butler, oh no! He's empty-eyed Peter Fonda, on the road like Kerouac, looking for America and not finding it anywhere.
My heart bleeds. Or not.
I didn't like this book very much. But Abraham Lincoln gave it a really scathing review. "Those who deny freedom to others, do not deserve it for themselves. And under a just God, cannot long maintain it."
All the old Southern lies are here, chillun. Slavery wasn't so bad. We weren't fighting for slavery. The war was not our fault. Slavery was not our fault. Nothing is ever anyone's fault, except for the damned meddling Yankees who started the war for no reason at all! We are all prisoners of history. We know our darkies . . . and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!
But at the same time there are plenty of groovy new lies, too. And the new lies are custom-made for an aging baby-boom generation that never quite outgrew its own monumental self-pity. Can you dig it? Here's Billy Pilgrim -- I mean, here's Inman, the dope-addled draft dodger, running from the Man. He's groovy, vacant, passive, and profoundly self-involved. He's not sexy Rhett Butler, oh no! He's empty-eyed Peter Fonda, on the road like Kerouac, looking for America and not finding it anywhere.
My heart bleeds. Or not.
I didn't like this book very much. But Abraham Lincoln gave it a really scathing review. "Those who deny freedom to others, do not deserve it for themselves. And under a just God, cannot long maintain it."
October 4, 2007
I really shouldn't like this book as much as I do. A historical romance? Come on.
Frazier's prose is in the tradition of that poetic backwoods style that you might find in some Faulkner or in the films of Terrence Malick and David Gordon Green. Definitely the product of a learned man trying to sound like he's from the sticks, equal parts Old Testament fire-and-brimstone and rootsy colloquialism. His story is ambitious in its attempts to convey feelings of the grandeur of America, smouldering passions that impossible distances can't dull, and the world-weariness felt by every generation as soon as it realized the scope of evil in humanity. And, honestly, he pulls it off.
Yes, this is kind of crowd-pleasing fiction, but it's one of the best things to wind up on any kind of bestseller list in recent years. Sometimes you need to read something like this. Maybe.
Frazier's prose is in the tradition of that poetic backwoods style that you might find in some Faulkner or in the films of Terrence Malick and David Gordon Green. Definitely the product of a learned man trying to sound like he's from the sticks, equal parts Old Testament fire-and-brimstone and rootsy colloquialism. His story is ambitious in its attempts to convey feelings of the grandeur of America, smouldering passions that impossible distances can't dull, and the world-weariness felt by every generation as soon as it realized the scope of evil in humanity. And, honestly, he pulls it off.
Yes, this is kind of crowd-pleasing fiction, but it's one of the best things to wind up on any kind of bestseller list in recent years. Sometimes you need to read something like this. Maybe.
Want to read
February 6, 2019You're not gonna believe what happened to me! I started Cold Mountain! Julie suggested it and I got all excited and immediately downloaded it and started reading it at like 4 in the morning. I was going along, having fun, this certainly is a fast-moving story, and then....suddenly I was done.
I'd fucked up and downloaded some kind of bullshit abridged movie adaptation. It was like 50 pages long.
And the thing is, now I know everything that happens! I can't just...start reading the real book. It'll be too weird! I'm going to have to wait like a year before I try reading the actual thing.
Gah, I'm so mad at myself. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
I'd fucked up and downloaded some kind of bullshit abridged movie adaptation. It was like 50 pages long.
And the thing is, now I know everything that happens! I can't just...start reading the real book. It'll be too weird! I'm going to have to wait like a year before I try reading the actual thing.
Gah, I'm so mad at myself. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
February 10, 2019
Great story, but overly descriptive.
December 3, 2008
Just loved this book. I always enjoy books that do a good job of creating atmosphere through descriptive writing. This book is one of the best of that sort. The story itself is enjoyable, but what I liked even more was the detailed description of life in the civil war era. We have the idea from many movies and books that the south in the Civil War was all plantations and cotton, lovely ladies and dashing gentlemen. This south is something that Margaret Mitchell simply did not acknowledge, and it is probably much more true to what the majority if southerners lives were like during the time.
My one complaint is that you do wonder why Inman and Ada were so drawn to each other. They don't have much of a relationship before he leaves, but they do seem very much devoted to each other. My assumption is that perhaps relationships were just much different in that time period. People didn't "date" for a year, then live together for two years, and then maybe, just maybe, decide to get married. People courted, then decided fairly quickly whether their intended would make a satisfactory marriage partner. There was more to it than mere love - financial and physical survival were much more a part of the equation.
Particular highlights to me in the book were the time he spent with the "goat lady" on the mountain, and the sad plight of the girl whose husband is dead, baby is sick, and livestock are almost gone.
I have to say something about the movie. I saw it before I read the book, and I enjoyed both, but for entirely different reasons. I enjoyed the movie mostly as a star-crossed love story. The book I enjoyed for it's descriptive narrative as much as for the story.
My one complaint is that you do wonder why Inman and Ada were so drawn to each other. They don't have much of a relationship before he leaves, but they do seem very much devoted to each other. My assumption is that perhaps relationships were just much different in that time period. People didn't "date" for a year, then live together for two years, and then maybe, just maybe, decide to get married. People courted, then decided fairly quickly whether their intended would make a satisfactory marriage partner. There was more to it than mere love - financial and physical survival were much more a part of the equation.
Particular highlights to me in the book were the time he spent with the "goat lady" on the mountain, and the sad plight of the girl whose husband is dead, baby is sick, and livestock are almost gone.
I have to say something about the movie. I saw it before I read the book, and I enjoyed both, but for entirely different reasons. I enjoyed the movie mostly as a star-crossed love story. The book I enjoyed for it's descriptive narrative as much as for the story.
November 30, 2021
This book was flowing like a dream. Slow, beautiful, and very descriptive. Cold mountain is an odyssey through nature, how cruel life can be and what it takes to survive.
I am still processing all the emotions this took out of me. I don’t really want to go deeper, this is just a book that needs you to dive in and experience the journey by yourself.
I just wish the epilogue wasn’t included. The ambiguous ending was perfect as it was, so it ruined my perspective a little bit.
Still, the writing is sublime, it really calls a second more attentive read to enjoy it even more the second time around. The story of Ada and Inman will stay with me a long time.
Thanks a lot Peter for recommending this very poetic book to me!
I am still processing all the emotions this took out of me. I don’t really want to go deeper, this is just a book that needs you to dive in and experience the journey by yourself.
I just wish the epilogue wasn’t included. The ambiguous ending was perfect as it was, so it ruined my perspective a little bit.
Still, the writing is sublime, it really calls a second more attentive read to enjoy it even more the second time around. The story of Ada and Inman will stay with me a long time.
Thanks a lot Peter for recommending this very poetic book to me!
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