Cold Mountain Book Review
Cold Mountain, written by the incredibly talented Charles Frazier, is a moving novel set in the days of the Civil War. The novel opens with the main character Inman heading back to his home Cold Mountain, North Carolina, to reconnect with his true love Ada. As the novel is creatively written in two perspectives (telling the story of both Inman and Ada) the reader soon learns that Ada is a woman who is struggling to maintain her family farm in which she has inherited. Illustrating and switching between both of the characters, Charles Frazier has successfully written a masterpiece.
Despite a potentially fatal neck injury, Inman sets out to reunite with his one true love, not knowing what danger lies ahead of him. Although the novel is set up for both characters, as well as both stories to intertwine, throughout the novel small connections are made between the two. As the traumas of the Civil War have changed Inman, the wars social and economic conditions have left their mark on Ada as well. We are shown this when we discover the death of her father, failed income, and loss of her title as a "pampered Charleston lady".
Frazier vividly illustrates the struggles and hardships Inman encounters on his travels, as well as the colorful characters he meets along the way. Inman's homeward journey is exquisitely balanced by Ada's more emotional journey towards finding her connection in the natural world around the farm. In this literate narrative, Frazier wonderfully exemplifies how the lives of a soldier and civilian are transformed as a direct consequence of the Civil War. Beautifully combining the tragedies of war and love, Cold Mountain is a must read.
No comments:
Post a Comment