Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
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Book Reviews of Cold Mountain
Book Review: Intense and brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is very bold in it's desciptions. It is placed in the cival war and has an extrodinary ending.Book Review: "I Am Coming Home, One Way or Another..."
Summary: 4 Stars
It's hard to describe Charles Frazier's debut novel, as it's like nothing else I've ever read. The only other book that I've ever had trouble reviewing has been the The Complete Conversations with God (Boxed Set), a series that makes for a rather awkward comparison considering it belongs in another genre altogether. The similarities between the two lie in the uniqueness of how the tales are told.
I'll start by saying that I watched the movie Cold Mountain (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law before reading the novel, which in hindsight, actually turned out in my favour. On reading the book I found myself captivated by the beautiful language and mellow pace of the story, something that was obviously lost in the film adaptation. Despite the film giving away the most important details of the plot, the change in the method of which the story was told meant that there were still several pleasant surprises to experience on the way. In particular, the romance between Inman and Ada is much more poignant and has a lot more weight when compared to the (rather flimsy) treatment of their love story in the film.
Inman is a soldier who should be dead from his neck-wound, but who survives and decides to desert in order to return to his beloved home on Cold Mountain, North Carolina, where his love Ada is waiting for him. On the journey home, Inman struggles against the dangers of a war zone and the weakness of his own healing body, meeting several intriguing characters along the way who either help or hinder him. Meanwhile, Ada (a socialite who finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere after her father's death) struggles to maintain the derelict farmhouse she inherits. Thankfully, the help of a drifter named Ruby means that Ada gradually sheds her upper-class ways and learns how to live on the natural rhythms of the land (though she does manage to introduce Ruby to some English literature in return!)
With two such different stories, it's inevitable that some will enjoy one character's progress over the other. Much has already been said on Inman's Odyssey-like journey from the war to his home, but I found myself intrigued by the precarious situation that Ada finds herself in. Coming from such a wealthy and stable background, Ada has too much pride to return to her relations, and instead finds herself forced to become a laborer on her own land. Finding that her education, culture and social etiquette is completely useless in her new surroundings, Ada learns to live off the land - and Ruby considers it an achievement when Ada stops taking a book out into the fields with her (although Ada does manage to introduce Ruby to literature in the evening, including - you guessed it - The Odyssey (Penguin Classics)).
It is tempting to describe the book as a "Civil War book", given the historical background of the story itself, or as a "love story" considering the relationship between the two protagonists. Yet the novel is neither of these things, despite the fact that "Cold Mountain" centers around the themes of both love and war. As others have already mentioned, reading this book with the expectation of a Gone with the Wind type-story will lead to disappointment. Furthermore, the fact that the Inman and Ada spend most of the novel apart means that their initial courtship is told in mainly in the reveries of the two characters.
The Civil War is just the necessary catalyst to put our protagonists on their paths toward personal growth, understanding of their place in the world and a sense of peace. Technically, the Civil War could be any war. (Well not really, considering the care and detail that Frazier puts into describing the geographical beauty and culture of America's south, but that's beside the point). Likewise, the love between Inman and Ada is the goal that each are moving toward, but it is the symbol of home and stability that each personify to the other rather than a sense of "epic love" that make up the real basis of their relationship.
My point is, that this isn't a book about the historical impact of the Civil War or even a star-crossed lovers' tale. It's about the impact a war has on a select number of human beings, and how they deal with all the terrible consequences it has on the daily routines of life. Set against the chaos and destruction of war is the steady rhythm of nature and the turn of the seasons: inexorable and unchanging. And yet, that is simply *my* reading of the text - in a novel this rich and dense, there are endless possibilities for interpretation and understanding.
The language is what really draws you into the novel; it is poetic and dreamy without becoming pretentious or getting in the way of the plot itself. Even when Frazier draws out the story out into flashbacks or characters' reveries, there's always something interesting to be learnt. There are a few odd stylistic choices, the most obvious being that there are no speech marks. Instead, dialogue throughout the text is punctuated by a dash. However, since this technique is neither necessary nor distracting, there is little need to dwell on it save to point out that it's there!
One thing I will say though, in the inevitable comparison with Gone with the Wind. When reading Margaret Mitchell's novel, I felt that I was reading a part of history, something that happened a long time ago in a world that had long since disappeared. Frazier's novel however - whether by intent or accident - makes the Civil War feel like something that happened in my own lifetime. The characters and their lives are so immediate that I had to keep reminding myself that had Ada, Ruby and Inman been real people, they would have died hundreds of years ago. That thought surprised me.
Book Review: Book and Film - No Better, No Worse, All Good
Summary: 4 Stars
By the time he published his first novel, Charles Frazier was already forty-seven years old and heading toward his golden years. However, his debut "Cold Mountain" struck a chord when it began populating bookshelves in 1997, so much so that it sold a whopping three million copies worldwide and won the National Book Award. It just goes to show that in the literary world, it's never too late for a star to rise. Frazier has since penned his second novel "Thirteen Moons", another Civil War-centered story, but it is his first novel that set the bar for his superb writing style.
"Cold Mountain" begins with wounded Confederate soldier W.P. Inman (a character loosely based on Frazier's own great-great-uncle William Pinkey Inman) lying in a hospital in Raleigh, NC with a bullet hole in his neck. Never having understood or agreed with the reason for the war or his duty to fight in it, Inman finds himself well enough to leave and climbs through a window in the quiet of the night, knowing full well he will be punished for his desertion. His ultimate quest is to return to his home of Cold Mountain and to the farm at Black Cove to proclaim his love to Ada Monroe, a woman for whom he has pined the last four years.
Meanwhile Ada is struggling to preserve the homestead at Black Cove on her own after her father, the Reverend Monroe, dies suddenly from heart failure. Seemingly out of the mist of the Blue Ridge mountaintops appears Ruby, a young but tough-as-nails frontierswoman who whips the farm back into shape, dictating and divvying out labor as good as she gives it. All the while Ada nods in reply, hastily taking notes in her journal amongst her innermost ramblings and delicate sketches. There is little time allotted for Ada to grieve for her father, as the work of the farm is constant and time-consuming, distracting her from the misery her memories can create.
Frazier's descriptions of the Cold Mountain region are vivid and well detailed, his personal knowledge of the topography of the area working to great effect (Frazier was born in Asheville, only 35 miles north of Cold Mountain). Frazier mentions in the novel's acknowledgments page that he was given a writer's retreat by friends in the North Carolina Mountains and that "the long view from the porch is the book's presiding spirit". Frazier not only referred to his father for all the family stories but researched several different texts to recreate the gritty feel of a Civil War battlefield, in particular the Siege of Petersburg (which he was told his great-great-uncle participated in).
The dialogue is simplistic and appropriately pastoral; nary an anachronism is present in the form of a catch phrase, inside joke or out-of-place mannerism (as a man blows his own horn about his skill in courting women, another man tells him, "You think you bore with a mighty big auger"). Because the lot of these folk live in back country, you have the inevitable slang that suggests a Deep South ignorance and/or lack of proper education ("And they still done him like they did? Spiked him up and knifed him and all?"). You also have the well-educated Ada, whose big-city articulation seems displaced in a wild countryside. As you can see, you get great examples of both sides of the tracks. Most of what is spoken is a far cry from how we communicate today. Some of it (particularly on Ada's side) is, I dare say, disappointingly absent from people today who desperately need better manners and/or a more delicate approach.
In 2003, the novel was adapted to film by the late director Anthony Minghella and starred Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zellweger. In the movie, Kidman's portrayal of Ada is one of overt naivete, almost complete uselessness. Ruby has to teach her everything and it's a struggle to get her out of bed to assist in the duties of the farm; she even displays some resistance to learning the tricks and trades of farm work. In the novel, this is hardly mentioned - Ada goes straight to work, knowing full well her obligation and displaying a talent for quick learning. She also abandons her vanity promptly, using one of her best dresses and hats to create a scarecrow for the vegetable crop. There is little change in Ruby's character from book to film; in fact, Zellweger makes her a bit more colorful without losing that fierce independence that Ruby is so known for. Inman remains intact nearly 100%, Jude Law giving a reserved and dignified performance that brings great justice to Frazier's main character.
The love story, however, becomes over-dramatized and cliché. In the book, Ada is a lot more silent and reserved about her feelings for Inman, a bit aloof I would say. It's not until they meet up again in the woods beyond Black Cove that her heart's desires truly start spilling forth. In the movie, Ada is weepy and perpetually emotional, awaiting Inman's return with a heavy heart, wistful letters and watery eyes. In the end we have an epic love scene that serves to sate a viewer's desire to watch two beautiful people in the semi-nude simulate mind-blowing lovemaking (I'll admit I was one of those people - Jude Law is so dreamy, even though he is a scoundrel).
Even after having seen the film before reading the book, I'd have to say that I have no preference for one or the other - I like them both equally. I can appreciate the differences between the two and what was changed for dramatic effect to fit the medium in which it was presented (and I'm referring to the film). I also appreciate what the film managed to preserve about the book - after all, the central point of the story is the most important and it indisputably remained.
Whether you see the film or read the book first, there is one singular certainty - the story will captivate you. There is a reason that this novel has its accolades - it is one of the better novels of our waning generation that seeks to revive another generation long since passed. Experience these unique generations simultaneously by picking up a copy today.
Book Review: Flawlessly written, about as intriguing and entrancing as a novel can be...
Summary: 4 Stars
I think what impressed me the most with `Cold Mountain' was the fact that everything drew me in, everything was so detailed and seemingly important that even in parts where I wished more was going on I still couldn't take my eyes off the page. For the few weeks that it took me to read this book I found it very difficult to put the book down. Right from the outset Charles Frazier does a phenomenal job of hooking us in with his introduction of Inman, one of the main characters of the novel, and he doesn't let up once the first page has been turned.
The story recounts the journey of that one Inman as he travels to his love Ada through treacherous war times. As a deserter for the Confederate Army, Inman is being pursued by groups sent to kill the traitors and that doesn't help his condition as he travels with little food or money to a destination he's not too sure he'll ever reach. In the meantime Ada is suffering on her own terms. After the sudden death of her father she's left alone with no real skills or ability to take care of the plantation she and her father lived on. That's when she's approached by young Ruby, a hard working touch cookie (if I can call her that) who makes it her mission to whip Ada and the plantation into shape.
The chapters trade off between Inman and Ada and I will say that Inman's storyline is much more entertaining and it had me wishing at times that Charles would have just written a novel dedicated to his journey and not his relationship to Ada. Their relationship itself may be the only pet peeve I have with this novel. For the most part Inman is explained as far as who he really is on the inside, the man he was meant to be an the man he feels he's become (there's one chapter in particular where Inman tells a folk story an old Indian woman told him that I feel really explains this mans soul..."I take it that she could have been living in a better world, but she ended up fugitive, hiding in the balsams") but as far as Ada is concerned, the reader never really gets to know her, and she gives no real reason anyone would suspect a man of Inman's breed would risk his life to reconnect with. This may in itself just be a way of showing that Ada has yet to find herself, but I just found it increasingly difficult to understand just why Inman loved her so much when it was so obvious why any woman would love him (that whole Sara episode says so much).
Ruby is by far the most interesting character in the novel and the most well defined and explained of the bunch. As her relationship with her father is explained and then reexamined after his sudden appearance at her new home we are brought deep into this young woman's life and we grow to love her and her story. Her father Stobrod and his band of deserters bring as much trouble and or danger to the girls as they do enjoyment and this is something they are all too aware of.
Any fan of the brilliant film will enjoy this novel as well and will be amazed at how so much of the illustrious novel fit so nicely into the big-screen adaptation. The many scenes involving Inman and those whom he meets along the way, like Sara and Veasey are fantastically examined within these tightly woven pages and are sure to be highlights of this read. The one character I would have liked to have seen examined a little deeper is that of Teague, the man responsible for the deaths of so many deserters. I felt that he was sorely overlooked and became more of the stock villain than a living breathing monster of a man.
All in all though I really can't complain too much. Charles writing style is almost flawless, capturing not only the speech and emotion but also the atmosphere of the time in which he writes of. His attention to detail is effortless and such a breath of fresh air. I was stunned as to how much I enjoyed this novel for it wasn't one I would normally pick up to read despite being a huge fan of the film. I've never been too interested in literature involving the war or even this specific time period but talk of how wonderful this book was got me intrigued enough to take a gander and I'm so glad that I did. With very little to do with the war but so much more to do with the fight for survival and the striving towards something better, `Cold Mountain' is a wonderful novel that is sure to be a favorite of many.
Book Review: The Undiscovered Country
Summary: 4 Stars
Immense and reaching in its ambition, dense in its verbiage and sense of character and place, chilly in its view of life and man's fate, "Cold Mountain" is aptly titled, even if most of it weren't set on a steep North Carolina promontory of that name.
Inman, a soldier in the Confederate Army during the War Between the States, has had enough. Wounded, he escapes from the hospital rather than return to action for a cause he doesn't especially believe in and knows to be lost. Back in his home in the hills of North Carolina lives Ada, the minister's daughter Inman kissed before marching off. Does she share his ardor still, and wait for him as he treks across hard country to be with her?
Charles Frazier's story doesn't have much of a plot. It rather consciously if loosely evokes Homer's "Odyssey" just like James Joyce and the Coen Brothers did. Inman is captured on his journey by oddly beguiling women who lull him much the way the Sirens did Ulysses. In a series of chapters alternating with those depicting Ada on the home front, we see him either embroiled in other similarly evanescent incidents or hearing stories from here-and-gone characters that testify to the epic sense of life and tragedy that imbues Frazier's novel.
"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," Frazier writes as Ada listens to a vagabond fiddle player. "It was a powerful argument against the notion that things just happen."
On the other side of that equation is everything else in "Cold Mountain," parted lovers, starving babies, casualties of war, even a drake stranded in a pond growing icy with winter. The constant presence of war and death are not there for narrative tension but as a lens to a human condition that has scarcely succeeded in discovering anything else, despite all possible good intentions. Not a page of this novel isn't drenched in some sort of misery. That makes for tough going, as does a central storyline at times uninvolving.
What makes "Cold Mountain" so special is Frazier's descriptive language. You simply haven't read a book quite like this before. Certainly I haven't, and I've read a few. James Joyce once claimed his gift for language was such there wasn't any earthly concept he had to strain at presenting in prose, and Frazier has that gift more than anyone I've read, Joyce included.
Nature indeed is more of a character in "Cold Mountain" than any human barring Ada, Inman, and Ada's companion Ruby. The world around these characters is a constant reference point, and Frazier often takes entire pages describing birds roosting on dog hobble, or the slaughter of pigs. It's a world more than a hundred years old, and I wonder if it ever existed in reality half as firmly as it does in Frazier's head.
There's some nice glimpses into the human condition, too, though mostly via the natural world: "Marrying a woman for her beauty makes no more sense than eating a bird for its singing," observes one crone who Inman meets tending goats.
"Cold Mountain" is a daunting tutorial for anyone who wants to pursue fiction as a career, with the caveat being you don't have to be quite as descriptive as Frazier. In fact, Frazier's descriptiveness holds the book down somewhat in terms of story (a movie based on this book tried nobly but suffered from the fact the book exists to be read, not adapted for the screen). It's just that the descriptiveness works so well for him.
In fact, "Cold Mountain" is a marvel of artistry in the way it conjures what it does, making you feel you walked with Inman and waited with Ada though every lived-in page. It's not for every casual reader, but if writing is something you take seriously, budget yourself some time and read it.