Written as a tribute to his grandmother, author Robert Morgan wrote, Gap Creek, the story of the first couple of years of a young couple’s marriage. They lived in Appalachia around the turn of the century when money and jobs were scarce and this young couple had to try and live off the land. Julie is a strong young woman who is trying to make a home for herself and her new husband, Hank. When Hank loses his job and their live-in landlord dies, life changes for them. It doesn’t help that Julie is pregnant and Hank feels inferior in that he can’t seem to support them.

The author paints a vivid picture of life in the Appalachian high country. Hank and Julie must face a number of difficulties such as fires, floods, a drunken neighbour, and grifters. They struggle with nature, with work and with their disappointments in themselves and each other. But the author is always respectful of his characters making sure that this story of sufferings and misfortunes is delivered with compassion and hope.

I was totally engrossed by their life and I am very thankful that I live in the ease of a modern times. Gap Creek is a book that I will long remember, with it’s strong sense of place, gripping story and the amazing character of Julie. Resourceful, strong, brave and industrious her self-sufficiency was admirable especially considering her isolation from others. With his simple yet descriptive writing, I was often reminded of old-time country music and I will certainly be looking for more from this author. ( )

I really wanted to like this novel and was hoping for more of a deep, meaningful read, considering it was a New York Times bestseller AND an Oprah Book Club pick in 2000.

In this "story of a marriage", which it truly is, Julie Harmon, 17 years old, who recently married clueless, pathetic 18-year-old Hank Richards, seems to be the only person with any sense and seems to know how to do it all in any instance and emergency. She's portrayed as some kind of super woman. She goes from living at home in the mountains of North Carolina, and chopping wood and field work for the family and taking care of her father until his death to married life in Gap Creek, South Carolina. She marries at age 17 and butchers a pig all on her own from dawn to nightfall. Does all the cooking and cleaning and nurses everyone until their death and even knows how to lay them out and prepare them for burial. Then, as Gap Creek floods out the land and home, Hank says now they have to leave. So, he holds her hand and leads her out in the middle of the night across the pasture but gets so scared, he lets go of her hand and leaves her all alone and pregnant in the middle of a field of rising river. By the lightning storm she makes her way to the barn only to find him high and dry in the loft like some sorry-ass, pathetic sapsucker. Now, she's got to baby his ass and try to save herself and her baby. Then, super woman later delivers her own baby and bites the umbilical cord off because Hank leaves her during labor to get his mommy high up in the mountains to help out. Okay! So he did return, but it was a little too late...and he did finally man up just a little and try to take care of the baby while she lay sick in bed with high fever for a week or so. Like I said, a little too late, I was already disgusted!

Sorry, but there just didn't seem to be much depth to the story. It was late into the 19th century, and I can appreciate the true hard road that people lived back then, but...this story didn't set right with me at all, portraying the man, such as Hank Richards, to be such a pansy. And I'm really surprised a man wrote this novel.

In his notes, he writes that instances of the story were based on his grandmother's strong personality and a tidbit of her experiences as a young bride....but come on. This is just a little too much to even be believable. ( )

This book was just OK for me. I appreciate the author's portrayal of the difficulties of the first year of marriage. But I found that I was often left wanting for more details! Some parts were written in such detail - like the flood and the part about Delia. But others were too sketchy and left me feeling like the author could have written more. I did wonder at the end if Hank was going to become a preacher wherever they were headed for. It seemed like a hopeful ending and that better times were ahead for the couple. ( )

🚨 Trigger warnings: domestic violence (not throughout); graphic descriptions of animal killing/death; loss of loved ones.

I chose this book from a Goodwill (thrift store) book haul, so I had little knowledge about it. I chose it because it’s set at the turn of the 19th century in the Appalachian high country and I’m a sucker for mountain descriptions and settings.

It was a fast read and although there were sections that I felt dragged on for too long, I found it honest, raw, and true to the struggles of poor people, especially women, at the time.

I felt like all my senses were engaged…I could feel the relentless cold and the exhaustion of having to work in it. I could “smell” the putrid smell of eviscerated animals and damp old cellars.

I later read some of the Goodreads reviews and I would like to address some of the negative remarks and my point of view on them:

- “The author was male and should have not written from the woman’s point of view:” I have felt this way with other books but not with this one. I had absolutely no issues with the author’s insight and ability to describe the main character’s thoughts, struggles, relationships, and personality. I actually think he did a pretty good job in developing the female characters. Julie is a product of a deep connection to an indifferent environment where the weather can kill you and the earth does not always produce what you need…or takes it away. She is tough but also always hopeful. I’m wondering if what other’s view as “not understanding women” is more likely to do with not understanding the author’s portrayal of poor women’s experience at the end of the 19th century in rural mountains where you have to grow or hunt what you need.

Graphic descriptions of animals being killed: It’s true. It’s graphic, but not gratuitous. I think that we are so disconnected from how the meat we eat gets to our mouth (if you are a carnivore or omnivore) that reading descriptions of the intense works that goes into killing a hog, cleaning it, cutting it, and rendering the fat can surely take you over the edge. I totally get not wanting to read about it (this book is definitely not for you!); however, there is no way to sugarcoat the act of killing, the smells associated with it, and the work that it takes to end up with a pork chop on your plate. I also think it was crucial to understanding the intense amount of work Julie had to do to ensure survival. She had no supermarket to go to!

- The book is too sad…nothing good happens in it: It is all….struggle! I agree. They can’t catch a break! But there are moments…nuggets…of something precious in all the struggle. Despite the poverty the back breaking work, the anxieties, the disappointments, the losses, Julie perseveres…there’s “hope.” It’s just subtle that’s all.

Still…this is no “Cold Mountain” lol (I’m not being fair…I know!). I felt there was something missing and not well developed. The book cover says “The Story of a Marriage” and this felt misguided to me in a way that I can’t quite qualify.

❤️ Favorite quote:

“When you are straining you have a short temper and a sharp tongue” ( just ask my sister in law and husband when I was trying to come out of the Grand Canyon and it was all uphill!)

This is not a happy ending type of read and it may make you depressed….I tend to like these type of books and it was a short read so win-win. ( )

This was a good book, kind of average. I enjoyed it because it had many types of stories about rough life in the mountains. Some of the stories seemed to copy what I had heard from my granny about our ancestors. One story I can't mention because it would be a spoiler. The other stories about trying to find salt when there was a shortage, I had heard before. It's a story about marriage and all the hard times you go through as a couple. These days our hard times seem like nothing compared to the work they had to do back then. It was especially hard for the women. Giving birth, cooking, cleaning, sitting with sick people, it was a different time and not an easy time. The book started off kind of startling and I would say that was probably the best part of the entire book. I liked reading it though it reminded me of reading someone's old genealogy papers. ( )