A great story that was so much better than the movie. It is alittle slow in the beginning but I greatly enjoyed it!

I had to read this book for one of my classes, at first i was skeptical as if this book was going to be any good. The further along I got the better it got. I absolutely loved this book and I highly recommend it a good read.

This is a horrible book, and I BEG everyone not to waste money on this horrible creation. It is unrealistic and unbelievable.It is not interesting, and it is so horribly un-informed about Southern living that is it is quite insulting.To me the most laughable events are when Inman gets out of the hospital and goes to buy a new suit of clothes, and when Ada is starving to death but buys a lot of stuff at the store also. This is so ridiculous. Also, why do women love this book when the main female character is an "educated" woman who is too stupid to know that she must work to eat? I mean, isn't this insulting? Also the foundation for their "romance" is totally lacking and unbelievable. They interact for all of about fifteen minutes and kiss once. This, we are supposed to believe, sustains them for nigh on four years. The author obviously was not interested enough in his subject matter to actually research the historicity of his plot. I am apalled at the success of this book, and that it was acclaimed as a masterpiece. THis is kind of scary, and is surely a sign of an "educational" system that teaches our young people how to not to think analytically(lest they examine the state of their lives). I do not recommend this book to anyone. Read Gone With The Wind, or Little Women for that matter. Or, if you're seriously tempted to read this book, try shutting your head in the car door very violently-then you won't have to read it because you'll know what the experience will be like thus saving yourself time and money.

As of the time of this review, there are 1,475 reviews for this book. What more can I add? Undoubtedly, nothing very original. Nevertheless, here's a few thoughts:

-Slow start, but once you get past the first 50 pages or so you won't want to put it down.

-This book is really a set of very, very short stories all tied together into two main narrative lines. It can be very frustrating to some who just want to get the story moving, but that the main plotlines are not really the point. The wonder and randomness and beauty and brutishness of this thing we call life is the point. This is no "Pilgrims Progress" in which the main characters struggle and eventually reach a higher consciousness and understanding. However, it is a Post-modernist American Odyssey. In the original Odyssey, Odysseus goes from one adventure to the next on his way home from war. In it the reader (originally the listener) learns life lessons and Odysseus comes home a better man for all of his troubles.

Inman and Ada's adventures remind me of that but without the over-arching themes (thus, it is post-modernist), unless you consider the utter randomness and chaos (both good and bad) of life a theme. Are Ada and Inman better people as a result of their struggles? No, just different. Some characters become better people as a result of the war, some worse.

-Great book. Enjoyable read. I have not yet seen the movie, but I wonder how it can possibly do this book any justice.

I give this one a grade of A+.

I always try to read a book before I see the movie. However, when it came to Cold Mountain, I saw the movie first at a friend's house and then decided to read the book. Although the movie was very good, the book was exceptional. I found the characters so real to life that I found myself thinking about them as actual people. The romance of Ada and Inman was wonderful and even though most people may say that two people cannot fall in love with so little contact, I absolutely believed that it could happen to them. The supporting characters were also complex and real. It is truly a masterpiece. READ IT!!!