Van Lingle, read The Black Flower and see if you don't like it better. Seriously. :-) Howard Bahr reminds me a lot of Flannery O'Connor - a little dark, and a little quirky.

I think part of my not liking Cold Mountain was that it didn't live up to the hype. I was expecting something really grand, and it wasn't what I got. Sort of like The Piano. (I really, really, REALLY didn't need to see Harvey Keitel in the full monty.)

I did like some of the characters, though, and some of the situations. And I know a LOT of people really did like this book, I'm just not one of them. Oh well.