Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, is a epic saga based loosely on the Odyssey of Homer and set in the American south near the close of the Civil War.  It follows Inman, a soldier in the Confederate army as he heals from a neck wound in an Army hospital, his brief struggle with whether to heal and go back to the fighting or to leave then and go home to the woman waiting for him, Ada.  Inman chooses to go home, slowly makes his preparations for a long journey on foot and slips out of the hospital just before morning hoping to leave the war behind him forever.

Paralell to Inman's journey is a process of development that Ada undergoes on the small farm her, largely, city raised father had purchased in which to recover from consumption and live out his days preaching in a small, liberal, country church.  At the beginning of Ada's journey she is alone after the death of her father and the farm was on the verge of crumbling under missuse and neglect.  A young girl, Ruby, comes to her aid and with her direction and knowledge Ada finds the strength and energy to rebuild the neglected farm.

The novel is a story of two people struggling to survive for one another.  Ada becomes the sustenance Inman relies on throughout his long adventure home.  Inman, in turn, becomes part of the reason Ada survives and builds up the farm.  A place for them to live out their lives together.  She is afraid of being along as an old woman, a bitter spinster ripe with regret of losing the man she knew she could love.

Cold Mountain is in equal measures beautiful prose and grotesque humanity.  As both characters face the consequence of war in remote areas they have to over come great obstacles in their quests for survial.  Raiders, roving gangs paid to collect deserters, near-do-wells searching for hand outs.  Inman faces both base humanity -- caring nothing for others and looking out for only themselves -- and the generosity of humble souls willing to share their meager belongings, maybe the last food they have in the cupboard.

It is a beautiful novel that captures the rich and compelling landscape of the south in all its variances and oddities.  Frazier makes it accessible to all readers and draws us in to his story.