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The beginning of Cold Mountain was absolutely vexing, it made me claw the
reading table to relieve the words that brought me misery. Because Charles
Frazier is so very adept in descriptions, the scenery and surroundings in
which the narrating character experiences life is written out in many words.
Although from the character's perspective, events are observed and taken in a
lot faster than when the reader is presented with print. For me, it was
like puzzling fifty pieces to form one image from that character. I found my
eyes dragging to reread the lines that I had glazed over, due to no action
and slow character development.
However, as the story progressed, my opinion about Frazier's writing
style changed. Mainly because snippets of humor from Ada's narratives, and
Ingman's encounters with violence and such like enticed me to read further.
Ada transformed from an ignorant, dainty lady, to a self-sufficient woman
who empties her own "night jar." Her narrative is mostly about life
on her late father's farm with a new friend, Ruby. This also added to my
liking of the book, because Ruby and Ada had such contrasting backgrounds
that I liked the idea of them becoming friends. Ada also reminisces about the
past, the stories innocent and predictable in a way that its been said and
done in other books before. But when I look from the beginning to the end,
I find that Ada has a unique personality, a subtle difference from the others
in the books that I have read.
Ingman's character was revealed in a pace that definitely kept me
interested, as I mentioned before, because of his many encounters with death
and intense conclusions in each scene. His narrative was more captivating
because his trek back home to Cold Mountain led readers to meet people, often
young women, living in desperate poverty and loneliness from war. The
story becomes heart-breaking because the reality of war comes up often and
readers practically see how Ingman wants to be secluded from society and
leave all its pain. He experiences many nightmares himself, which gives
readers an idea of the psychological affects of war. The one thing I feel was
lacking from the characters was emotion, it seemed as though war was so
destructive that death was always on everybody's minds. They become confused
about life, lost, as though just living for death.
Cold Mountain is well-written, the plot is sound, easy to follow, and has
a unparalleled style that makes it a classic novel. I still hold to that the
start was horribly slow, but the book definitely is a nice midnight read.
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