Emily's Reviews > Cold Mountain

I'm so glad I gave this book a second try! I started it maybe 18-19 years ago and just couldn't get into it. I wasn't interested in history and just wasn't ready for it then. Now, older (and hopefully wiser!) I was ready for it. As a North Carolina native, I enjoyed the Appalachian setting in western North Carolina, and the prose was simply beautiful. There was certainly violence, as the story is set in civil war days, and some passages were hard to read (animal killings, especially), but it is beautifully described. "Show, don't tell" is supposed to be the mark of a good writer. If that is the case, Frazier fully earned all the accolades and awards he received for this book. I can't believe I ever found it boring; but then, our definition of boring changes as we do.