New York Times Best
Sellers
Summer 1998
A Walk in the Woods:
Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill
Bryson. New York: Broadway Books/Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1998. 276 pages
with a map and a Suggested Reading list.
A Walk in the Woods has become an
immensely popular book this summer, even making the non-fiction best-seller lists. Its
appeal stems primarily from the humorous touch of the author. Publishers Weekly notes
that Bryson, "plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical
account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance . . .[He] carries
himself in an irresistibly bewildered manner, accepting each new calamity with wonder and
hilarity." **Click
here to order**
1997 and 1998
Cold
Mountain by Charles Frazier. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press,
1997. 356 pages.
Recent memory has never seen such advance hoopla for any Appalachian first
novel as for Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. The January 13, 1997, issue of
Publishers Weekly, a season before the book was released, noted that "Viking
editor Elizabeth Schmitz guaranteed the book for her house with a preemptive bid in the
‘substantial six-figure’ range, a sum that already has been earned back through
foreign sales." By the spring , the same publication was describing the book this
way: "Rich in evocative physical detail and timeless human insight, this debut novel
set in the Civil War era rural South considers themes both grand (humanity’s place in
nature) and intimate (a love affair transformed by the war) as a wounded soldier makes his
way home to the highlands of North Carolina and to his prewar sweetheart . . . In a
leisurely, literate narrative, Frazier shows how lives of soldiers and of civilians alike
deepen and are transformed as a direct consequence of the war’s tragedy." At
this point it was noted that film rights had been sold, yet the book was not published
until the summer! Post-publication rewards have been completely in tune with
the pre-publication publicity. The novel has now won the National Book Award and
numerous other prizes, and it stayed on the best-seller list for much of both 1997 and
1998.
Cold Mountain is superbly written, with a grace and
sophistication which is downright enticing. The plot tension is powerful. Alternating
chapters follow first Inman, the soldier, and then Ada, his love interest. Inman is
attempting to walk home to Cold Mountain in Haywood County, North Carolina, after
deserting his hospital bed in Petersburg, Virginia. Ada is
attempting to build a new life for herself on the mountain, her former summer home,
after the war has stripped her father of both his life and his fortune. Both characters
are very well developed, yet the writer artfully maintains tension by never spelling out
the exact nature of their prewar relationship. Frazier’s depiction of
Ruby, the local woman who comes to work Ada’s place in return for room and board,
clearly illustrates the landscape and lifestyles of the mountain region at the time.
However, his choice of secondary characters whom Inman meets in his journey through the
mountains prevents him from achieving a satisfactory portrayal of the people of the
region. These people tend to be so extreme as to be simply incredible. Some are totally
cruel; others are so outlandish that the novel almost turns into a kind of carnival side
show. That is a shame given the many strengths of this novel. Frazier (b. 1950) lives on a
farm near Durham. He grew up in the North Carolina mountains and drew inspiration from the
story of his great-great-grandfather who deserted the Civil War. **Click here to order**
Reviews by George Brosi, Copyright 1998