Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3068 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Binding: Paperback
• 127 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Charles Frazier's debut novel, Cold Mountain, is the story of a very long walk. In the waning months of the Civil War, a wounded Confederate veteran named Inman gets up from his hospital bed and begins the long journey back to his home in the remote hills of North Carolina. Along the way he meets rogues and outlaws, Good Samaritans and vigilantes, people who help and others who hinder, but through it all Inman's aim is true: his one goal is to return to Cold Mountain and to Ada, the woman he left behind. The object of his affection, meanwhile, has problems of her own. Raised in the rarified air of Charleston society, Ada was brought to the backwoods of Cold Mountain by her father, a preacher who came to the country for his health. Even after her father's death, Ada remains there, partly to wait for Inman, but partly because she senses her destiny lies not in the city but in the North Carolina Blue Ridge.

Cold Mountain is the story of two parallel journeys: Inman's physical trek across the American landscape and Ada's internal odyssey toward an understanding of herself. What makes Frazier's novel so satisfying is the depth of detail surrounding both journeys. Frazier based this story on family history, and in the characters of Inman and Ada he has paid a rich compliment to their historical counterparts. Cold Mountain is, quite simply, a wonderful book.

John Berendt
`Cold Mountain is a heartbreakingly beautiful story, elegantly told and utterly convincing down to the last haunting detail'

Kate Atkinson
'A beautiful book written in exquisite prose'

Customer Reviews

Beautiful story
A beautiful story of heartbreak and broken times, COLD MOUNTAIN is by far the best Civil War story to come out of the U.S. While I love Gone With the Wind, it can't hold a candle to "Mountain."

What is so galling about the story and the characters are not the the north's treatment of the south during this era, but rather the treatment of Southerners against Southerners. I was reminded more than once of The Color Purple and the same one-on-one treatment. I would highly recommend this chilling tale of survival, along with the novel Bark of the Dogwood---funny and knowing like Pychon or Sedaris, yet set in the modern-day South.

Cold Mountain: there's no through trail
Men ask the way to Cold Mountain.
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail. - Han-shan

Cold Mountain is a beautiful story of a soldier who is trying to return home to his pre-Civil war fiance, Ada.

The novel itself is based upon local folklore and stories that author Charles Frazier's ancestors passed down through generations. The soldier's name is Inman and what makes his journey so difficult is that he is wounded and he is traveling though an environment which most likely looked like the videos we see on msnbc of ravaged war struck locations.

Inman's journey home reminded me of those Homer epics that we read in school only this story did not have its genesis in ancient Greece but in America during the Civil War. There is a Cold Mountain and it is located in North Carolina within the Pigsah National Forest. There also was a real Inman who was named William Pinkney and he served in the Confederate army and though Frazier wrote a book of fiction; much is related to Frazier's ancestor (William Pinkney) and what transpired in his own life.

So with the third part of Bartram's Travels in hand, a wounded Inman starts out his journey to return home not knowing what he will find when he gets there. A lot has happened and the war has changed everything. The book and the story of the wanderer named Flower Gatherer by the Cherokee gave Inman happiness with its beautiful images and these same images became indelibly bright when he continued his journey much like Flower Gatherer.

The writing is beautiful and the ending not what is expected or hoped for; but haunting nonetheless.

"When Ada reached the story's conclusion, and the old lovers after long years together in peace and harmony had turned to oak and linden, it was full dark. The night was growing cool, and Ada put the book away."

War changes everything and how we relate to each other and these changes in the landscape, ourselves and others are key themes.

A worthwhile book.

Bentley/2007

Cold Mountain - AS Level
i've just finished studying this book for english a.s level

i found it possibly the dullest book ever, the narative structure is so long winded, you can read pages and pages and pages where nothing at all happens

my dislike of the book is probably because we anaylsised every last word, but still on my 4th read of the book, i still dont see what people see in it

if you are studying it though, i recommend the york notes, they are actually useful