Gold Mountain

摘要

The first thing you hear about Charles Frazier is that he's shy. It is also the second thing you hear, and the third. When you finally speak to him on the phone, he gives you directions to his home outside Raleigh, N.C., where he raises show ponies on an 11-acre spread among the pines. You tell him you admire his debut novel, "Cold Mountain," and he answers so softly you can barely hear him: "Thanks. 'Preciate it." Later, when Frazier steps onto his porch to greet you, you realize you had no idea what he looked like. The photograph on his book jacket—taken by Katherine, his wife of 21 years—finds him talking to his springer spaniel, his face turned and obscured by hair. "I'm uncomfortable having my picture made," says Frazier, 46. Was he hoping no one would ever recognize him? "That was the initial idea," he says. Katherine is heard laughing in the next room. "The plan," she calls out, "has failed miserably."