Robert Morgan (1) (1944–)

A true woodsman, a pioneer and a reluctant icon is Daniel Boone in this informative biography.

Here is the legendary man, who wanted nothing more than to venture into the woods and hunt, fish and find his own peace.

Amid it all, he became a leader, helped set up several towns, made the Cumberland Gap to the West better known, and helped push the western boundary of the United States further west, all before the 1800s.

He paradoxically respected the natives (and was captured and lived as one of show more them for one stretch), but his actions helped push them out of their own land.

This book offers up a good look at the natives also, not as proto-hippies living at one with the land, but as they really were – sometimes brutal, sometimes big-hearted, sometimes cannibalistic. These were real people, not idealized tree-huggers. Humans, not angels.

But that’s the truth of each side – neither entirely pure nor entirely evil. Atrocities on both sides, and sometimes Boone is caught up between two groups.

Through it all, he just wants to live his life and settle his continuing, massive debts. As he finally reaches the end, he finds peace and leaves a tremendous legacy.

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The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan is his continuation of the novel Gap Creek, written in tribute to his Grandmother. In the first book we follow Hank and Julie Richards as they first get married and then try to make a living at Gap Creek. That book ended with them having to move back to Western North Carolina and live on a hard-scrabble farm on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

This second book is narrated by their second daughter, Annie as the family endures the Great Depression, show more WW II and a battle with a typhoid epidemic that almost claims one of their sons. A great deal of the story is concerned with Old Pat, a pure bred German Shepherd that is given to son, Troy. Old Pat becomes a valuable member of the family and in later years is used by the Army to breed puppies for service. The book opens with a death that occurs in England during WW II, and it closes with the death of Julie, who leaves a grieving family of husband, children, grandchildren and in-laws. There are happy times in the book as Annie tells of growing up in a caring family with brothers and a sister, her teen years of dating and her romance with a boy from the valley, who becomes a preacher. But through it all, Annie tells of her mother, her hard work and her guiding and caring for the family.

The Road from Gap Creek is written in lyrical prose and this soulful story paints a picture of stoicism, pain, endurance and courage. This gentle story of family memories was an absorbing read. show less

The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan continues the saga of the Richards family from his earlier book, Gap Creek. I thought I remembered Gap Creek from when I read it years ago, but it took a couple of chapters for me to relate these characters to those characters, in a good way. Richards gives the youngest daughter a voice in The Road from Gap Creek. In doing so, he reminds the reader that stories have multiple storytellers because each person living the story, lives their own version. show more Morgan writes from the point of view of a character whose grammar often left me wanting to grab a red pen and edit her, but the imperfect grammar is important here to distinguish the character, to make her more real, to set her in her times. The characters pulled me toward my roots, toward my self, toward a deeper understanding of my grandparents. The German Shepherd in the story had me in tears as I remembered times with my Border Collie growing up. This family felt like family. They felt like people I grew up with. They felt like people... real people, not characters. Morgan created a world filled with characters I genuinely empathized with and cared about. show less

🚨 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 show more 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. show less