Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

First, I haven't seen the movie.

My sister-in-law loaned me her copy of this book and made me swear I would return it to her. She wrote her surname in blocky letters at the top of the title page. In case I forgot whose book it was, I guess. She was sharing something really special. Her copy is a paperback, worn and with distinct dog-ears on certain pages. I had to turn them up to read the words underneath, then carefully I folded them back into place.

She had given me the book as we were leaving, after our first visit to her year-old mountain cabin. Her husband named the little dell where it sat 'Black Cove' and the dog they adopted, which wandered onto the construction site and never left, was named Ruby. Inside the great room, a wall of windows with a door to a full deck overlooks a slice of a sweeping vista across a valley, mountains on each side and in the distance. When we were there, controlled brushfires were smoking on the far ridge. Above the window-wall, wood-burned and etched into the log above the sill, is a quote from the book, in 8-inch-high script letters. At the time, I thought it was lovely and unique, but since I didn't know the story I didn't understand the references. Now I know. My sister-in-law and her husband married later in life and had various journeys which brought them together. They plan to retire there.

I can understand why she likes the book. It's very descriptive of the North Carolina mountain region. The story develops slowly but eventually becomes a romance. I'm sure my brother-in-law enjoys the use of vocabulary in this novel. He's very amused by obscure words and this book has quite a few, since the author has tried to increase the reader's feeling of authenticity by including colloquial language from the Civil War period, the time the book takes place. Truly, I can say I've never before heard of a prothalamion.

Like many first novels, the story is told in third person past tense but the vivid detail presented from a tight main character point of view gives the reader the feel of a first person narrative memoir. As a result, the book is excellent at showing the effects of a region changed by war. The author collected real-life accounts of the period and has combined them into Inman's journey home and Ada's struggle to cope with her rustic life. These alternately intertwined separate stories create a depiction of a cross section of North Carolinians' virtues and vices exaggerated by a time of deprivation.

While reading, I felt that the book might have been better as a set of short stories. Inman's journey is so laden with events that the reader eventually deems it unlikely that all of this would be connected to one man. Even when another character is relating a story, so that the events didn't actually happen to Inman, after a number of these recitations, it seems impossible that one person would encounter so much. This was a distraction to me, which wouldn't have occured if the vignettes were presented as stories of their own. In the Odyssey, the stories themselves are symbolic in a way which these are not. As a result, Inman seems moved through his journey to get to the next opportunity for a collected tale. The book sometimes drags as the plot is soldiered on.

Similarly, the romance seems added to connect the stories. Ada's life provides a way to show the reader how a 19th century homesteader lived in the mountains. Frazier's encyclopedic knowledge of country ways is slowly reeled out in the story of how Ada learns farming from her companion, Ruby. Ruby's character is well defined and the motives of her actions are well explained. But Ada is more thinly drawn, seems indecisive, and we are never sure why she acts as she does, albeit that her background is revealed. Ada serves as the reason for Inman to continue his journey. By the end of the book, the two main characters don't really know each other and have rarely been able to correspond, so the connection seems rushed and unrealistic. The ending of the book hints at a transformation in Inman's character brought about by the effects of finding love. But the final twist of fate which closes the novel seems starkly opposite to the motivation the reader expects that a practical man such as Inman would have gained from the conclusion of travels. The ending fits a classic tragic romance perfectly - which made it feel contrived to me.

While the story left me dissatisfied at the ending, I'm glad I gained an earthy view of my adopted state during the most crucial period in its history. This is one of the few books set in the civil war south which avoids all political topics, especially the question of slavery, in favor of a rich panorama of sight, sound, smell of a place in time. When I returned the book to my sister-in-law by parcel post, I included an index card with my recipe for hash brown breakfast pie.