Apparently, there is a movie in the works: http://www.thezreview.co.uk/comingsoon/c/coldmountain.htm
What do people think, about either book or movie?
Very good novel, though perhaps not quite worthy of the hype it received. Strong characters, interesting enough plot; especially strong in evoking the time and the place. (I did find it difficult to get into at first.)
Read it. Loved it. Want the author to write another. Have no idea why I’ve abandoned comple sentences.
As for the movie, Hollywood actors are just too pretty. I have a hard time seeing Law and Kidman in the roles, although I have nothing against their overall acting ability, they never seem like ‘real’ people to me, and that’s what I’d like to see in this movie.
I read it. I absolutely hated it. Granted, this was an assignment for my 10th grade English class and the book is decidedly not appropriate for the vast majority of 15 & 16 year olds, even if the teacher likes to think so.
Obviously, I will not be seeing the movie.
Read it. Decent story, fair-to-middling execution. The movie might be good, since it will necessarily leave out the overwriting.
i read it too and really enjoyed it:)
I agree with you, its hard to picture kidman and jude as the main characters.
I also found it hard to warm up to. However, once I did I fell in love completely. The language was just exquisite and evocative. And it made me cry, which books rarely do.
I have a feeling the movie will be a disappointment, I think they will miss the things about it that made it great. Or maybe I’m just being cynical.
I was one of the few people I know who didn’t love it. I did like the half of the book which is dedicated to the young woman trying to figure out life on a farm. I think it’s the “Little House On the Prairie” fan in me who loves to read about the details of long-ago life. The other half of the story was darker and I enjoyed it less.
My husband read it aloud to me and both of us were taken with the descriptive passages in particular. Within the past year my husband and I have been to the real Cold Mountain – that’s how much we liked the book.
I will miss the lyricism of the book but I do look forward to seeing the film. After seeing the previews for The Hours I would think that Kidman could play any role.
I thorougly loved this book, of course - there is something about it I found incredibly compelling.
I particularly loved the quote from some Chinese text at the beginning, which went something like “Cold Mountain: there is no way through”.
I admit that it has an unusually dark vision. That is part of what I liked about it.
I wonder if in the movie they will have Inman killed at the end? If they do not, if they “Hollywoodize” it with a typical happy ending, I will be mightly dissapointed.
Another thing I liked about it was that it was neither a typical “romance” type story, nor a typical “adventure”.
I liked the novel. It’s been a couple of years since I read it and I can still recall parts of it. In my case that is a pretty good indication that it was above average.
Kidman can probably do the role. Like some others here have expressed, I’m afraid the movie will skip over some points that made the book unique.
I wanted to throw the book across the room!
What a bad way to tell a war story. He might as well have had a cape with his super powers. Every terrible way to die was not enough to kill our hero. And that woman who know everything, she was supposed to be a country woman with no education and brought up with out family or a community but she knew how to do everything! These were not people they were gods!
Superman returns home to find his love being helped out by Wonder Woman. Ha!
Those old timey, uneducated country folks knew how to do a lot of things that have been forgotten today. They had to be clever and resourceful in order to survive.
There are many cases where us moderns look at something that people accomplished hundreds of years ago, without current technology or knowledge, and we’re stumped by the “How’d they do that?” question.
But one person did not know it all. She was far from believable as was most of the book.
I am totally mystified.
What exactly is so unbelievable about a country woman knowing how to run a farm?
Can you give any examples of things she did which you found incredible?
I thought this was the best novel of the past 10 years or so.
I will echo a couple of posters who said it was a bit hard to get into. The beginning of the book drags a bit. Once you get past that, you’re hooked. (The slow beginning is really my only beef with the novel.)
I disagree with minty’s “overwritten” assessment. The author uses words like Rembrandt used paint. Beautiful, rich and evocative writing, IMHO. The best I’ve seen in some time.
I also enjoyed the little historical tidbits: references to the Cherokee, the vanished passenger pigeons, the Confederate “home guard.” The author had a great sense of the story’s locale and a great sense of history.
Like Malthus, I am puzzled by Stellablue’s comments. The character you’re discussing (can’t recall her name) may not have been formally educated, but she was steeped in folk wisdom, and knew how to run a farm. I’ve known many like her.
To each his own of course. I did not like the book. It was a tale told with a pen of mush. Seems everything horrible that the author had ever heard about happening to a man during the war was condensed to happen to this one man. He almost died so many times you just gave up wondering what brush with death would befall him in the next chapter. The language was heavy and overdone. Not at all an easy flow nor did each character have a clear voice of their own.
As for Ruby, I don’t recall all the details but I remember that she was abussed and abandoned as a child. You need others to learn all this from, extended family and a nurturing community which she did not have. Just as Inman was the everyman for all of man’s burtality, Ruby was the one for all of folk wisdom. A type not a character.
This is just part of why I did not like it but then I did not like Love Story or Bridges of Madison county either. I am glad you enjoyed it. But I felt I had been manipulated and been reading some version of a romance novel with a bit less bodice ripping.
It is a good thing we have so many books to choose from so that all can find what they like.
It just seemed like an extended series of gross out scenes. I started flipping past the women’s story as I found it dull. All in all, it made ‘1984’ seem cheerful and upbeat.
I read it and I hated it. I kept waiting for something to happen. I skipped whole pages and never missed anything. It felt like the writer kept trying to make it seem so beautiful and deep and real and magical all at the same time. I happen to love beautiful/deep/real/magical books with a passion, but the problem was that Cold Mountain just did not grab me. There was no hooker, no interest. No irresistible force that made me stop at the end of a paragraph, shiver, and think “Wow.”
I read it six months ago. I am thirteen. It was hard to read. On the other hand, however, I also read Lord of the Rings (all of it)which is equally difficult, and managed that one easily.
If you haven’t read Cold Mountain, don’t waste your life when you could be reading something good. Black House, by Stephen King, maybe. That was an excellent book!