Meanwhile, the scarred veteran Inman is experiencing his own harrowing, perilous odyssey as the Civil War rages on. But both Ada and Inman experience the varieties of nature as the seasons shift from heat to cold. Written by Frazier over several years and drawn from family tales recounted by his father, Charles O. Frazier, this first novel truly feels like an intense, deeply thoughtful labor of love.
Every word seems to have been chosen with care.
Cold Mountain'' takes its title from a forested tower, Inman's destination, where the novel reaches its heartbreaking climax. It speaks to the reader with candor and honesty, without flamboyance, or literary tricks, pulling us ever deeper into the thoughts of Ada and Inman as they move irresistibly and fearfully toward one another. Frazier has set out a story of love between two people, each wounded, who hardly know each other, but who desperately need not to be alone. Until the very end of the book, they are far apart. Inman, whose travels are hard, thinks frequently of Ada, who once sat in his lap briefly at a holiday party.