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Ellen Isaacs | |
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Cold Mountain is a beautifully told story of two people during the civil war. Inman is a soldier who deserts the Confederate army when he is injured and stops believing in the war. He slowly walks back home to Cold Mountain, where he hopes to reunite with Ada, the woman he was just falling in love with when the war began. Meanwhile, Ada, is left alone on her estate when her father dies, equipped with plenty of cultured knowledge but no practical survival skills. She pairs up with Ruby, a no-nonsense woman who has been surviving on her own all her life, and together, they work the farm and fend for themselves. The story reads like Fielding's Tom Jones, or Hardy's Tess of the d'Urburvilles, elaborate stories of young people who make journeys, meeting interesting characters along the way, learning how to survive, and essentially growing up in the process. The writing style, too, is similar, in that it is well-crafted and slow paced, making detailed note of the physical surroundings, the wildlife, and general patterns of behavior. I enjoyed this book, and despite taking a month to read it, felt that I didn't go slowly enough to really appreciate the writing. Over the years since college, I think I read more for plot and character development and take less time to appreciate writing style and detailed observations. Still, although the book's plot is fairly simple and not much "happens," there is enough of interest within each encounter or episode to keep the story moving. I found Inman and Ada fundamentally interesting characters, probably because they both bucked the standard traditions of the time, especially Ada who rejected the coy, dependent female role entirely. And I also enjoyed learning a little about the life and culture of the South during the civil war. Despite all these praises, I also didn't love the book, perhaps because of my own impatience more than any flaw in the book.
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