SOURCE: "Tried in the Fire," in The Washington Post Book World, July 6, 1997, p. 6.

[In the following review, Messud praises the lyricism and language of Frazier's Cold Mountain, but complains that the ending "relies unabashedly on the conventions of romance."]

Contemporary fiction continues to tackle the Civil War because its ramifications are ubiquitous still: That brutal conflict marks the watershed of American modernity, as the First World War marks Europe's. Significantly, Charles Frazier's rich first novel addresses that watershed not only in its themes but in its very structure.

Cold Mountain comprises the interwoven narratives of a Confederate soldier named Inman and his intended, a young woman named Ada Monroe. Wounded at Petersburg and transferred to a Tennessee hospital in the summer of 1864, Inman deserts and heads for his home in the mountains of North Carolina. His journey is fraught with adventures and pitfalls, with curious characters who unburden...