[bonfire]

"Cold Mountain"


Keep reading. It gets better.

[Mamzelle]

Interesting thread--to see one of my favorite books, "Cold Mountain" listed, was sad. There isn't a better descriptive voice for the Appalachian's than what I heard in the book, or a more deflating one for the Confederacy short of Gone With The Wind. (People reading GWTW never seem to notice MMitchell's scathing view of the Confed South). My attachment to the ridges themselves may have a lot to do with it, "looking up the rows of blue ridges to that bulk which is Cold Mountain." Makes me want to head up to Blowing Rock right now..."that the Cherokees called the Cataloochee, the mounting rows of grey ridges." I hear words like "scarp" and "ivy" for the mountain laurel, old terms that my grandparents used, and realize that Frazier took many pains to get it right.

One quibble, though...there were chestnut trees back then, and Inman needn't have starved. In November there should have been plenty on the ground to eat. The chestnuts provided mast for everyone.

They've got some good music lined up for the movie, Ralph Stanley will be featured, but my hopes for that movie are low. They've filmed it in Romania. *Romania*! And they cast the ingenue part -- Aussie Nicole Kidman as Ada. Ada was dark and much younger than Kidman. Jude Law as Inman, way too British Pretty. This is going to be Gone With The Amazing Mr. Ripley.

[mommybain]

Keep reading. It gets better.

Agreed. I picked up a book entitled "The Mermaid's Singing" solely because the author's writing style was compared to Charles Frazier's. Boy was I disappointed. "Cold Mountain" is also good on audio.