Morgan Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier published in 1997, is a violent love story based during the Civil War.  The protagonist Inman opens the book lying restless in a military hospital thinking about a life with out the love of his life, Ada. Inman is based off Frazier’s great-great uncle William Pinkney Inman. The novel travels back and forth from Inman’s story to Ada’s story in the time they are apart.

             Based in North Carolina in the Blue mountain range far off in the “wild” is where Ada and Inman call home. Ada’s story never leaves the mountain range. With out Inman and her father, who dies early on. Inman’s story begins after a war wound at the battle of Petersburg. Stuck in a Military hospital recovering from his wound on his neck. Inman speaks to a blind man, who had been blind since the day he was born. Inman asks the man if he would ever want to see just for 10 minutes, the man surprises Inman by telling him he wouldn’t.  Inman is taken back while he thinks back to the battles where he wished he could have not seen. Suffering from post traumatic stress he is inspired by this conversation. Inman sneaks out of the  hospital and this is where Inman’s journey begins to reunite with the love of his life.

A story with lots of death and missing love, Frazier writes a very emotional story. His writing style with dialect but no quotes is very hard to understand and easy to get lost.  A back-and-forth comparison between the two lives makes for a very interesting story line.  Cold Mountain was Frazier’s first and most successful novel after winning the National Book Award. The novel gives us a trace of the rich history and culture of North Carolina.

Personally I was not a big fan of the book. If you are looking for a book with war and love this is the book for you. The way it was written and set up is fantastic. The style of dialect may be the only tricky part of the book other wise it is a quick read with some great action and violence to go along with a emotional love story.