Cold Mountain - By Charles Frazier

© 1997. 449 Pages. Fiction- Civil War/Mythic Retelling

Read May-June 2026 in Pittsburgh and Boston. Book #10 of 2026.

Rating +2/2

This has been the best book I’ve read so far in 2026 for many reasons.

1. Frazier writes beautifully. The book has this flow that carries you along. The chapters are structured initially with alternating characters until the end when their paths converge.

2. The characters you are introduced to are all memorable, fully-formed and each feels like a separate adventure. It was fun to follow Inman, the protagonist’s journey, as he met, interacted with, was changed by and then left the various people he met.

3. It is a re-telling of the Odyssey. Although not a 1:1 carbon copy, the elements are there and you can see the outlines of the plot and the characters.

4. I had to read with a dictionary. And there just aren’t many books that force me to do that. Try these on:

   1. Toper

   2. Anchorite

   3. Malandered

   4. Sordor

   5. Menhir

   6. Moiled

   7. Dolmen; and for extra credit

   8. Gudgeon and pintle

5. The imagery in the book of the mountains, the rivers, the passing seasons is captivating. And he doesn’t pull punches describing the Civil War.

6. War is not glorified. Unlike the Odyssey, war is portrayed as horrible, brutal and corrosive. The people leading the war are portrayed as self-interested. There is neither glorification of the struggle against northern invasion nor demonization of either southerners or northerners per se.

7. And while I can’t say that the book left me happy and uplifted, I still felt that the message was optimistic, resilient and hopeful. I think we need this kind of message now, when it is so easy to feel so mired in the confusion and chaos. Characters like Inman and Ada remind us that self-sacrifice, growth and hope bring us forward. Characters like Ruby remind us that self-sufficiency and grit are the engine of our dreams. Characters like Stobrod remind us that even the most broken and degenerate of us can achieve humanity and divinity when we are touched by beauty. And all of them remind us that without Love, none of these is worth much anyway.

Favorite Quote:

“To live fully in a place all your life, you kept aiming smaller and smaller in attention to detail.” (388)