Charles Frazier

I finished listening to Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons. The reading by Will Patton was quite good. I believe this was Frazier's second book, coming after Cold Mountain, which I also listened to and loved. (I can't remember what I later thought of the movie, but I vaguely recall thinking far more highly of Renée Zellweger than I usually do.) I think both were pretty amazing southern gothic. The sarcastic dialogue is brilliant at times, up there with "but I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." Only it's brutal and violent, so the sarcasm goes something like:
 "I'm looking for my horse. He's a grey stallion."
"There's no stallion in my stables that meets that description. There is a gelding, though."
(Because the second dude castrated the first dude's horse because the first dude was sleeping with the second dude's wife.) It was sort of like Cormac McCarthy, only set in Appalachia and dealing with Native Americans. The environmental strains regarding hunting, development, and change were of course well received by this reader. I guess I could have used more of a climax, however; it's basically just one dude's awesome life and eventual decline. Still good stuff though.



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