Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier – Civil War Odysseus

Charles Frazier 1997 novel tells the story of Ada Monroe and Inman during the American Civil War. This is a massively well researched novel. Not only does Frazier work around the American Civil War (1861-65) like he knows the terrain, he also includes the every day tools, implements and attitudes of the period into every line of prose.

I quite often find that period pieces have a tendency to be so much in love with their own project that they forget to tell a story, rather focusing on the detail. I don’t have that kind of interest in history, sadly. I guess I should, but to coin a phrase it all seems like a seedy succession of robber baron scumbags to me.

Now, that being said, when it is as well done as it is here it just deepens and textures the story imbuing it with so much life and blood that it becomes a geniune delight to read.

Taking up the tradition of alternating chapters we follow Inman on his journey home from a war hospital to Cold Mountain and Ada’s development from a lady of leisure to a hard working farm owner.

Inman has had enough of killing and after taking a wound to the neck he finally just deserts intending to go back home and propose to Ada, the minister’s daughter. On his journey he meets good people and bad and generally has a hard time of it. Every person he meets gets to tell their story, or involve him in their lives in some way and it is easy to make the parallell with Odysseus and Penelope. Inman, to my mind, displays every characteristic of battle fatigue. He is sick of killing and wants to be left to lead a simpler life, hoping against all hope that he can be put back together.

Ada, on the other hand, has a different challenge to contend with. Her father dies, leaving her alone and basically penniless. He had taken up residense in Black Cove at a farm being given the recommendation from a doctor that it sould be good for his lungs. The farm has never been intended as a working farm. He has a deep fascination with Emerson and that naturally leads to some more idyllic and scenic notions of what a farm should be. Once the money runs out and Ada is basically facing starvation she is lucky enough to have a young girl named Ruby come and work with her. Ruby’s story is also told and it is an equally fascinating one. She has grown up fending for herself in the woods since her father is a useless layabout and drinker named Stobrod.

The richly layered text is not only descriptive and beautifully crafted, it takes its metaphores and imagery from the context. Inman at one point fights off three men intending to beat him down with a scythe. He reflects on how good it feel to hold a scythe again and working with it, moving at the mens’ legs. When it breaks he beats at them with just the snath. A little thing like that is just indicative of how deep inside this world, this character’s head we get to go as readers.

It is all together too simple and just plain wrong to think this is just a love story, even if Ada is the motor that gets Inman moving. There is so much more to draw out of this text, like an understanding of how hard life actually is when working on a farm where every aspect of life is gruelling work. Ada is so inept she does not even know how to cook for herself, make butter or kill a chicken. Ruby teaches her by example how to lean in to the burdon.

Each character has an arch and when Ada and Inman finally do meet up they are two very different people from what they were when they parted. And there is no story book ending to this kind of tale. Which is to say that Fazier does not take the easy way out. Their meeting is brought about by violence, Ada has her gun cocked at Inman not recognising him and it is certainly not the home coming he was hoping for. Once they do recognise each other at least the gun gets lowered, but it is still a stark contrast to the dreams they’ve both had. And I like that. I like the fact that this could have been a big Hollywood moment with a sweaping violin score in the background, but instead it is a case of two wounded animals circling each other cautiously.

There really is a bit of everything in this novel. Sex, blood, violence, war, coming of age stories, home guard and fiddle music. Philosophy and religion figure too, just like the intertextual nods to everything from Emerson to The Odyssey to the Bible to the lyrics of Wayfaring Stranger. Above and beyond it all we have the basic notion that you can never step into the same river twice, or go back home. I like the tone and texture of the novel. I like the scope and the richness. I like it so much I can actually read it more than once, and that doesn’t happen that often.

I think it has something to do with the fact that it operates on at least two levels at the same time. We have the big, sweaping tale of a homecoming and the minute details of every moment in between.

MULE