The Coldest Night [Hardcover]

Robert Olmstead (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2012

Henry Childs is just seventeen when he falls into a love affair so intense it nearly destroys him. To escape the wrath of the young girl’s father, Henry joins the Marines, arriving in Korea on the eve of the brutal battle of the Chosin Reservoir—the defining moment of the Korean War. There he confronts an enemy force far beyond the scope of his imagining, but the challenges he meets upon his return home, scarred and haunted, are greater by far. 
From the steamy streets of New Orleans to the bone-chilling Korean landscape, award-winning author Robert Olmstead takes us into one of the most physically challenging battles in history and, with just as much intensity, into an electrifying, all-consuming love affair. 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2012: Spare. Elegiac. Well-crafted. These are words used to describe Robert Olmstead’s novel The Coldest Night—and all of them are true—but what really makes the book special is the imagery and emotion throughout. A seventeen-year-old Henry falls in love with Mercy, the young daughter of a judge. They run away to New Orleans, where they create their own private Eden, but eventually Mercy’s family locates them and forces the two lovers apart. Seeing few alternatives, Henry enlists to fight in the Korean War. One could read far into this novel and think that it is a book built around young love. But when Henry goes to Korea, the language lifts off to a new level. Though spare in its presentation, The Coldest Night is a novel of surprises. It is emotional and frequently profound.

Review

Editors’ Pick for Amazon’s Best of 2012 list

Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year

Kirkus Reviews Top 25 Fiction Books of 2012

 

“The no-rush gait, the unadorned yet unambiguous description, the resonant alliteration . . . This is the kind of sentence that warms The Coldest Night and makes you wonder if Olmstead was meant to be a poet. But Olmstead is a novelist, and a very good one . . . It’s his depiction of war’s less monstrous aspects—the continuous repositioning of troops and reshuffling of strongholds, the ceaseless anticipation of surprise attacks, the unmitigated exhaustion—that steadily unsettles . . . These lines lend a humanity to war that descriptions of guts and gore alone cannot.”—The New York Times Book Review

“There are very few living American writers it would be fair to pair up with Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison in a review. Robert Olmstead, however, brings enough poetic oomph to his battlefield renderings to manage just fine . . . Put Olmstead on a battlefield and stand back. The writing is powerful and the imagery stark. Readers will find that the forgotten war roars back to life again in the pages of Olmstead’s excellent novel.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“The Coldest Night is riveting, thoughtful and—in the large section set in Korea—harrowing . . . Olmstead is an immensely gifted stylist, his prose capable of conveying the magic and passion of first love as well as the ferocity of battle. He also has a knack for imagery as memorable as it is unexpected . . . Few write as powerfully or as realistically as Olmstead about the way war makes a boy grow up far too fast.”—The Washington Post

“Working-class boy meets rich girl, and forbidden passion flares, in this thought-provoking, unabashedly romantic novel set in the 1950s.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Robert Olmstead's The Coldest Night is an unusual treat in this era of formulaic airport paperbacks, lightly edited Internet releases and over-hyped pop fiction. It's not just a standout in terms of plot, character development and effective use of language; the reader immediately marvels that this is literature, in addition to being a great book.”—The Virginian-Pilot

“Robert Olmstead writes shellshocked prose with cadences that sound like early Hemingway . . . [The Coldest Night] has the courage of its convictions, and its descriptions of war and its aftermath are frighteningly credible.”—The Columbus Dispatch

“Crafted to captivate . . . Robert Olmstead’s eighth novel, The Coldest Night, mesmerizes . . . Its diction thrills with the splendor of a clear refrain sung by a chorale of swaying seraphim.”—The Courier-Journal  

“Breathtaking . . . Henry Childs' unforgettable first love and trial-by-combat in one of the Korean War's most harrowing battles are captured in revelatory language—and implanted in a tale of riveting suspense.”—Barnes & Noble Review

“Robert Olmstead, author of the national bestseller Coal Black Horse, delivers another work of prose with language so painstaking and exact it reads more like poetry. The Coldest Night is a treasure . . . His descriptions of nature are lush and bountiful, lending a measure of beauty to even the most forbidding of landscapes . . . Olmstead weds the nature of armed aggression to the nature of man without apology, even with compassion, seeking only understanding, which, during our second decade of continuous war, is no insignificant goal.”—BookPage

“A war story, a love story, a coming-of-age story—it’s a simple theme spun into a novel heartbreaking in its stark and stunning prose . . . This is the kind of war novel I love . . . Novels about the Korean War are few and far between, and this is a strong offering in that category. Recommended.”—Historical Novels Review

 

“Olmstead writes with ferocious economy . . . The book’s continuities are a deep pleasure: a near-mystical regard for horses, for mothers, for weapons—all wrapped in a kind of elegiac masculinity. Olmstead has some of the Cormac McCarthy penchant for mixing tenderness into his terror.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“An unflinchingly realistic, yet artistic, condemnation of war. Disparate backgrounds and desperate times are a seductive combination. Olmstead makes good use of them, and what ultimately distinguishes his exceptional work from more pedestrian literature is his elegant prose. ‘Prosody’—the study of the art of versification—is a word that Henry may not have recognized, but readers of The Coldest Night will not have to consult a dictionary for its definition; Olmstead's writing demonstrates its meaning perfectly.”—BookBrowse

“[An] elegiac, gritty coming-of-age novel . . . Despite the narrative’s darkening vision (“The Lord is a man of war,” says Henry), enough redemption rescues Olmstead’s powerful, desolate, and well-crafted novel from becoming oppressively bleak.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Olmstead (Coal Black Horse) has a spare, direct style that is most effective in the brilliant, engrossing combat descriptions and ironic marine banter.”—Library Journal

“It's extremes that rivet us in Olmstead's searing seventh novel: the heaven of first love; the hell of the battlefield . . . Olmstead’s extraordinary language gives us new eyes. An exceptionally fine study of love, war and the double-edged role of memory, which can both sustain and destroy. Prize-winning material.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Olmstead employs different authorial voices to shape the story. At times the tone is mythic, at times surreal . . . The Coldest Night is powerful, and often beautiful, storytelling.”—Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1 edition (April 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 161620043X
• ISBN-13: 978-1616200435
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars timeless tale of love and war March 18, 2012

By John C. Wiegard VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This is a very memorable and stark tale of love, war, and what comes after. Olmstead's spare style is reminiscent of Hemingway as he charts the coming of age of a seventeen year old who falls in love with the daughter of a Judge. They run away together, are married, then are separated as the Judge's family attacks him and abducts his wife. For lack of a better alternative, he signs up for the Korean War, and soon experiences the horrors of the retreat from Chosin reservoir.

There is a timelessness to this story which pierces your mind and keeps bringing images back to you. It's appropriate fare as we deal with the issues of the Iraq and Afghan veterans to think on Olmstead's portrait of "Henry"- scarred and tormented by his war experience, but really facing an even greater challenge in returning home, and conflicted by a desire to go back to the battlefield.

This novel has a more obvious appeal for male readers but I recommend it highly to any reader. It is award-level writing.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Dark, dreary, dismal, disturbing, but... December 4, 2012

By Desert Rat

Format:Kindle Edition

The writing was superb. A really difficult book to categorize.

The beginning, showing the background, relatives and life of young Henry were really fascinating, and very different from anything I have read before. His family were all hard men, the type I have met often. This part, in my opinion deserves five stars.

Then we have a long part about the love between Henry and Mercy, which was 90 percent their sexual encounters. Mercy seems to be a nymphomaniac as far as I can tell. Way, way too much of the hot, steamy monkey love. This part I could give only two stars.

The war story was one of the most gruesome and accurate depictions of the terrible Korean War, or any war, that I have ever read. I was glad "The Forgotten War" was recognized for the futile savagery of that combat.

I am a Korean War vet, and while I was fortunate enough to be a medic in an Army hospital, and never in combat, I listened to many patients, young kids who had no idea why they were there or what the object of that conflict was, tell these kinds of stories.

Again, the writing was exceptionally fine, and while this was terrible to read, it was an accurate depiction of the war near the Yalu River when hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldier came and decimated our soldiers and marines. As terrible as it was, this definitely deserves five stars also.

Henry's return trip to his home was very sad, yet it dragged on far too long, with a great amount of details that really had nothing to do with the story. Several pages, for example, were devoted to his going into a diner for dinner, the people he encountered, etc which did not have anything whatsoever to do with the plot. Much of this section was very boring. Two stars for this part.

When he finally got home, his encounters with what was left of his family and others was again way too long without saying much, but so well written I had to keep going. Three stars here.

The ending was terrible, vague, unsatisfying and meaningless. I was left with a strong feeling that this was done so he could write a sequel. I hate authors who do this, just drop the story like a hot rock with no resolution. One star here.

I don't know how to average the ratings for these various sections of the book. The writing is top notch, yet so many places were boring and/or unsatisfying. Thus the three-star rating.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful writing in an unforgettable narrative April 17, 2012

By Gretchen Hirsch

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The last in the trilogy beginning with Coal Black Horse and including Far Bright Star, The Coldest Night will lift your heart and break it. Its lyrical passages and poignant love story, combined with moments of horrific violence and brutality, speak to the totality of human experience--all encompassed in a coming-of-age story you'll never forget.

The scenes at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea are so beautifully rendered that the reader feels frozen, too, and prays that these men will find refuge in something other than death.

As always, Olmstead's language is economical yet rich, evocative, sometimes surprising, and always rewarding. Small moments catch the reader with fully realized,simple truth.

I will be reading this one several times over and I recommend it without reservation.