Cold Mountain — Charles Frazier
A nostos in Civil War gray.
War's long road home is the oldest story there is, and it keeps being true.
A nostos in Civil War gray: the long literary walk home, for the reader who wants the Odyssey's bones without Joyce's difficulty.
What it keeps and what it changes
Keeps: the homecoming shape: a wounded soldier walking home across a broken country to the woman who waits.
Changes: the setting to the collapsing Confederate South, grounding the myth in hard historical realism.
Keeps the homecoming shape: a wounded soldier (Inman) deserting and walking home across a broken country to the woman (Ada) waiting, meeting his own Circes and Cyclopes on the way. Changes the setting to the collapsing Confederate South and grounds the myth in hard historical realism.
Whose story is it?
split between Inman’s journey and Ada’s homefront, in alternating chapters.
The feminism angle: Ada's half of the novel is a real second story, with self-reliance replacing the waiting-wife trope.
How much time does it ask?
≈15 hr read / ≈15.5 hr audiobook.
Inman’s road home, and Ada learning to work the land while she waits.
Where to find it
Other ways to get it: Ebook — Kobo ↗ · Kindle — Amazon ↗ · Audiobook — Libro.fm ↗
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby ↗ · Find at your library — WorldCat ↗
Pairs well with: The Return (2024), if you want a chaser in another medium.
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More ways home: The Emily Wilson Translation (2017) · The Robert Fagles Translation (1996) · The Robert Fitzgerald Translation (1961)