I just finished reading Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain
By Charles Frazier

This book helped me get through many days of power outages and a terrible ongoing series of snow and rain storms when I first started to read it. Though this is a first novel for the author, I found his prose to be deep with description and of a style uniquely his own.

Upon finishing the book, I kept thinking how cold it all was. Almost everything about this book was cold. It depicted some of the worst in human depravity and pathetic living conditions. But that should be expected in a Civil War novel. I couldn't help but wonder if the author had to be so graphic. I wonder if a female author could have written it. I know I couldn't have.

I look forward to seeing the movie.

After reading the book I feel more accepting of my own less than perfect circumstances as I think of the terrible conditions people of that era survived in. The best homes of that day don't equal the benefits I have in mine. I live in a cabin-like house in the mountains, but with electricity, plumbing, and all the modern luxuries.

I hope Frazier will have more of his novels published. I loved the author picture on the back inside cover... its very unique.

Here's an interesting website featuring some of the literature Frazier mentioned in his novel.

At this site he discusses what inspired him to write the novel.