Kristen's Reviews > Cold Mountain

Just loved this book. I always enjoy books that do a good job of creating atmosphere through descriptive writing. This book is one of the best of that sort. The story itself is enjoyable, but what I liked even more was the detailed description of life in the civil war era. We have the idea from many movies and books that the south in the Civil War was all plantations and cotton, lovely ladies and dashing gentlemen. This south is something that Margaret Mitchell simply did not acknowledge, and it is probably much more true to what the majority if southerners lives were like during the time.

My one complaint is that you do wonder why Inman and Ada were so drawn to each other. They don't have much of a relationship before he leaves, but they do seem very much devoted to each other. My assumption is that perhaps relationships were just much different in that time period. People didn't "date" for a year, then live together for two years, and then maybe, just maybe, decide to get married. People courted, then decided fairly quickly whether their intended would make a satisfactory marriage partner. There was more to it than mere love - financial and physical survival were much more a part of the equation.

Particular highlights to me in the book were the time he spent with the "goat lady" on the mountain, and the sad plight of the girl whose husband is dead, baby is sick, and livestock are almost gone.

I have to say something about the movie. I saw it before I read the book, and I enjoyed both, but for entirely different reasons. I enjoyed the movie mostly as a star-crossed love story. The book I enjoyed for it's descriptive narrative as much as for the story.