Cold Mountain: part 2

Alright! Now I'm about a quarter through Cold Mountain and have made bounds since my last post.  At this point there is now a connection between Inman and Ada (the two main characters).  As Inman wanders over the country, running into all types of strange folk on the way, he recalls meeting Ada at church and an encounter with her before he goes off to war.  I think it's really interesting how the author presents this though.  Inman is walking for days on end and his mind wanders naturally, while he obviously loves Ada he isn't thinking about her constantly and doesn't start thinking about her when it's convenient to the story.  I really enjoy this style of writing because there's no haste to it, the character development is natural as well as the development of their relationship.  Frazier slips it in just as thoughts in a characters mind, there's no rush to develop a relationship or a clear character.  It's as if you're actually meeting that character, you learn things about them like you were actually spending time with them and not for the convenience of the plot.
Another detail that Frazier adds is his use of dialogue.  He only ever uses indirect dialogue, and when he does use actual speech he doesn't use quotations.  I'm not really sure what that says about the story, but I think it's an interesting choice especially for a novel.  Frazier does cool little things with the text, each chapter is from either Ada or Inman's perspective and each title is from a sentence somewhere in the chapter, I haven't read far enough to tell if it's a remarkably important sentence in the chapter but I find it clever nonetheless.  I truly enjoy Frazier's writing style, it's something that would be so much fun to play with in my own writing.  Overall this book is fascinating and I can't wait to get to the heart of this story.  If you loved the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child, you will love this book, and if you didn't you will probably still love this book.  Anyone who is interested in historical fiction, war, or just creating realistic characters should read this book.  I think there is a lot to be learned from writing like this.