VeganCleopatra

This book was boring and poorly written. The characters are dull and have no real dimension. The character of Inman is absolutely unbearable and is not a character you are left feeling anything for at any point in the book. Quite frankly I was wishing for the character's death throughout so I wouldn't have to listen to his meandering stories or descriptions. Ada, the suppposed love interest, in boring and apparently cannot do anything on her own. All in all, I did not care one iota what would happen to these characters.

Frazier, in my opinion, is not a talented writer but someone who simply writes a multitude of thoughts together and then tries to connect them all. The book consisted far too much of description of landscape after landscape with little storyline backing it up. For example, why do these two main characters supposedly even care about what happens to the other nonetheless love eachother? There was no love as far as I could tell. The quote on the cover of my particular copy of the book which states: "An astonishing debut...a genuinely romantic saga that attains the status of literature." Romantic saga? Where the hell was the romance? Not that I bought the book thinking there WAS romance but how can a quote like that be on the cover and there be NO romance as far as I could tell? I really feel sorry for Frazier's wife, if he has one. She clearly is living a lackluster "love" life.

In addition, why oh why were there no quotations in this book?? Did Frazier do this to further aggrivate the reader? He definitely succeeded! To have a quote in the middle of a paragraph and only know it is a quote because suddenly it says "he said" etc. is absolutely annoying. Learn to include quotes Frazier!!! Although to have truly saved the book he would have had to of had a decent, perhaps thought-out, storyline. That would have been nice.

A side note regarding the violence in the book. Frazier does not write it convincingly and you never feel any concern for the characters or fear any true harm (well you wish for it though). In addition, violence towards animals was included for no apparent reason as it never added to the story. At least two dogs were kicked forcefully in the face, others were shot. Even in a violent period such as the Civil War, how many people were really going around kicking dogs?? Dog is clearly not Frazier's best friend. I couldn't even begin to account for all of the chickens and goats whose heads were suddenly ripped from them (literally for some). The inclusion of these scenes never seemed necessary and simply further angered me towards the author.

If someone is actually interested in a "romantic saga" around the Civil War, read Gone With The Wind and stay away from this book. I still cannot believe this book was made into a movie!