In 1997, Charles Frazier' s debut novel "Cold Mountain" made publishing history when it sailed to the top of "The New York Times" best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier' s eagerly-anticipated second novel, "Thirteen Moons," Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate ...
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In 1997, Charles Frazier' s debut novel "Cold Mountain" made publishing history when it sailed to the top of "The New York Times" best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier' s eagerly-anticipated second novel, "Thirteen Moons," Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father' s derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, "Cold Mountain" asserts itself as an authentic odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.
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I recently read this novel on a recommendation. I thought it was strictly historical fiction. Instead, I found an allegory framed by a snippet of American history. It took me several chapters to adjust to Frazier's style of writing. His tale was weird and wonderful and gruesome almost beyond belief. I thought the ending rather abrupt. I'm not sure whether I would read any of Frazier's subsequent novels.
JosephMM
Dec 22, 2011
WONDERFUL
This is a truly wonderful story, beautifully told.
Maggy
Oct 9, 2007
If you like war books mixed with a touch of really depressing romance, you'll probably love this. The writing style is interesting with the story line - be prepared to go without quotation marks in dialogue areas. This is better read if you have a good knowledge of Civil-War-era Southern society. History is written by the victors, so most of our collective Civil War knowledge comes from the Union perspective. This book challenges that perspective, giving a sympathetic view of a war-torn society.
Paperstreet
Aug 29, 2007
A Love Letter
Being a resident of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and living down the road from Cold Mountain itself, I picked up the book out of curiosity, and with a hope to recognize some old hiking grounds. What I found instead was a masterpiece of narrative, and not about the adversity facing two lovers.
This is a love letter to the mountains. Frazier carefully details each scene in Cold Mountain with the smell of sweet hay, the buzzing of cicadas and wisps of bugs in the sunset floating over the tall weeds just outside of the garden. You're immediately transported to a time and place where you're reminded that yes, life can be simple, and what you need can be cultivated from the earth outside your door.
Several readers have mentioned that they found the book to be boring. I think if you get past the first chapter, the book can engage the reader completely.
rjent.retired@gmail.com
Jul 19, 2007
Great read
This is an outstanding book. A true representation of the "war of nothern agression" portrayed through southern eyes. Although not a historical book, it is based on the authors' family. A wonderfull love story intertwined around the idiocy and terrible price of war. Truly a good read!
