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 : Cold Mountain

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780802142849
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0802142842
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: August 31, 2006
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press




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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
This unabridged audio version of Cold Mountain, read by author Charles Frazier, deserves at least as much acclaim as the bestselling print edition, which won the National Book Award. The tale chronicles a Confederate army deserter's search for home and love in the last days of the Civil War.

Much has been made of the story's homage to The Odyssey, the origins of which are found in an oral tradition. One can't help but hear echoes of Homer when listening to Frazier's soft, deliberate voice give life to his lyrical writing and to his understated, yet convincing rendering of the overwhelming events of war. Both Frazier's prose and reading are leisurely, recalling a slow foot pace. His delivery is uniquely suited to Innman's arduous, adventure-filled walk toward home and to the possibility of a reunion with Ada, the woman he loves. The author's reading does equal justice to Ada, who is being transformed by her struggle for survival on her father's farm. There is precious little dialogue, and Frazier makes no effort at acting out the characters.

One small irritation in the production is a beeping noise at the end of each side. Another minor complaint is that the tapes don't have individual boxes, which was perhaps an attempt to make the overall package appear more booklike. The recording does, however, make deft use of two brief musical interludes. In a subtle twist, the fiddle music that opens the first cassette, when repeated as an accompaniment to the epilogue, carries a bittersweet and unexpected resonance. By all means, forgive Random House Audio the tiny glitches, pass over that slender abridged version, and take home the real thing. This audiocassette is a journey that will leave few listeners unchanged by the experience. (Running time: 14.5 hours, 12 cassettes) --Naomi J. Cohn

Product Description:
In 1997, Charles Frazier’s debut novel Cold Mountain made publishing history when it sailed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier’s eagerly-anticipated second novel, Thirteen Moons. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father’s derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.




Customer Reviews
Average Rating:  out of 5 stars

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - Left me cold
I was hoping for so much more! The hype over the book and movie led me to believe this would be an incredible experience. But after trudging through mountains of adjectives describing cold weather and battle wounds, the story fell flat in the end...very unsatisfying for me.



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - An incredible addition to the canon of modern American literature...
This is one of the few books that I have ever read more than once. Frazier paints a realistic, engaging story of a man and a woman's journey through hell to be with each other. His vivid descriptions will keep you reading long after you should have put the book down and went to bed. I can completely identify with Inman's disillusionment with war, and his steadfastness to seek the one person that means something to him, despite the obstacles that nature, the war, and fate throw in has path. Unreservedly, ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - More than just a 'heroe's quest'
I started reading this book four years ago, during winter break, and put it down fifty pages in, swearing that I would finish reading it as soon as projects, homework, and life let up. During the four years that I let the book sit, those fifty pages haunted me. I'd already seen the movie, knew how it would end up, more or less - but what I wanted to know was what Frazier said about it. What was the lesson about life, the aphorism I could pack up and take away with me at the story's end? When I finished reading ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Cold Mountain
Beautifully poetic. You want to both nibble it slowly to make it last and swallow it whole in one sitting.



Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - A Long Way to Walk to Get Laid
Inman, the protagonist, part Jeremiah Johnson, part the Outlaw Josey Wales, part John Muir, is one of the most ridiculously unbelievable characters in the history of modern fiction. He has no flaws. Temptations on the road?; he eschews them. Wrongs being exacted on the dispossessed?; he rectifies them, usually chivalrously or gallantly. Starving?; he finds food. Shot and buried alive?; he rises from his interment and staggers off. To the woman he loves, this preposterous beacon he's focused on. Frazier is ... Read More







 






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