Looking Back - Cold Mountain

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Fiction
1997 Atlantic Monthly Press
Finished in January 1998
Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

National Book Award winner in 1997

Publisher's Blurb:

Cold Mountain is a novel about a soldier’s perilous journey back to his beloved near the Civil War's end. At once a love story and a harrowing account of one man’s long walk home, Cold Mountain introduces a new talent in American literature.

Based on local history and family stories passed down by Frazier’s great-great-grandfather, Cold Mountain is the tale of a wounded Confederate soldier, Inman, who walks away from the ravages of the war and back home to his prewar sweetheart, Ada. His odyssey thru the devastated landscape of the soon-to-be-defeated South interweaves with Ada’s struggle to revive her father’s farm, with the help of an intrepid young drifter named Ruby. As their long-separated lives begin to converge at the close of the war, Inman and Ada confront the vastly transformed world they’ve been delivered.

Frazier reveals insight into human relations with the land and the dangers of solitude. He also shares with the great 19th century novelists a keen observation of a society undergoing change. Cold Mountain recreates a world gone by that speaks to our time.

My Original Notes (1997):

Well, I hate to say it but I was very disappointed with this novel. I had heard it was so good and I love southern writers, so I thought it would be great. It was mediocre. It moved very slowly, with very little dialogue and not much action. Even the lengthy descriptions of the landscape became tiresome to read. This novel didn't hold my interest very well and it was a chore to keep reading it. I did like the device of a story within a story, however. Reminded me of [Willa] Cather.

My Current Thoughts:

I don't remember much about this book other than the tedious nature of the writing. I think Frazier took two full pages to describe a raindrop dripping from a leaf in the woods! This is the rare case of the movie being much better than the book.