Gap Creek

🚨 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 show more 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

In our modern world, we have no concept of how easy life is. This book drives that point home with every page. The water we so unconsciously get from the tap would have to be fetched at the spring, and maybe boiled, depending on conditions. The load of laundry we so carelessly throw in before leaving for the day used to take a full day's hard physical labor. The bread we pull out of the plastic sleeve would have to be hand-made with the flour that we milled and maybe the buttermilk that we churned after milking the cow, then put in the stove that we heated with the wood that we split, and on and on in a cycle of endless chores. Gap Creek is about work, both physical and emotional. Told from the view point of 17-year-old Julie Harmon in show more turn of the century (1900) Appalachia, the book describes the move from her own family where she did the work of a man due to her father's illness and death to her new home with her husband Hank where she still does the lion's share of work to help them make a start. Hank gets a job making bricks for a new mill, so Julie sets up housekeeping away from her family in an isolated area. This first home is actually in the cottage of an old widower who offered to let them stay there in exchange for meals and housekeeping. When the odious Mr. Pendergast dies due to burns from a house fire, their situation becomes even more precarious due the couple's naivete and the fact that they have no legal claim on the house and could be considered squatters. They live in fear of heirs showing up and are duped twice by people who claim to be them or represent them, and lose the only cash they had. Meanwhile they face fire, a freeze, flooding and famine, one calamity after another. The emotional work here is negotiating this new marriage, challenging in the best of times, but almost insurmountable in the obstacles they face. Julie is determined to be a good wife and keep Hank happy or at least stable, even after he loses his job due to a temper tantrum, lashes out at her verbally and physically and makes poor decisions. She is clever in the ways she appeases him and outsmarts him, but always with a loving intent. The story is simple and told in spare, but lyrical prose. Julie describes her relationship to work: "As I scrubbed the floor, I was scrubbing the world. And I was scrubbing my mind to make it clear. It was work that made me think clear and work that made me humble....it was with my hands and my back and shoulders that I could say how I feel." (122) Examples of just how strong she is include single-handedly butchering a pig (little too much detail involved -- like when they make head cheese in Little House on the Prairie!) and going through labor and delivering her own baby alone. ("This is work meant for me from the beginning of time" 284) So many situations should do her in, but she perseveres and the book offers hope, though not optimism. show less

Set in South Carolina (roughly) near the end of the 1800's, this is the story of Julie, narrated by Julie. By the time she is 16 or 17, she has seen a lot of suffering and worked very hard. She falls in love with Hank, and they get married. They are both very young, and the first year of their marriage is difficult. The book is really about the marriage, as seen through Julie's eyes.

There were times (when Hank gets angry and smacks her) when I was really frustrated and wanted her to just leave the marriage, but then I reflected that a man writing a book set in the late 1800's is not likely to have his heroine ponce off home to her mother in a feminist huff. Once I adjusted my frame of reference, I thought it was an amazing story. It show more could have been about my great-great grandparents who settled in Eastern Utah about the same time period - minus the flooding. In my Great great grandmother's memoir, she writes about having almost nothing and making shoes for her son out of old boots of her husbands' and not being able to see the stitching because she was crying so hard.

As they struggle with life, hardship and sorrow together, both Julie and Hank grow up a lot and learn about how to make their marriage work. While the ending is not a "perfect" happy ending, it is happy and beautifully done. show less

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, show more 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. show less

There is something powerful and compelling about the simple and straightforward prose of Julie's narration. Death is a too-common part of her life (and indeed probably most lives at the turn of the century) but Julie mingles grief with a love of life in a way that is enviable in an age where we fight death tooth and nail and are sometimes paralyzed with grief. There were scenes that I found particularly moving. When Julie describes the experience of giving birth and recognizing it as work and moving through the experience with confidence that she can do the work. When Julie joins the fellowship of the Gap Creek church, she describes her experience with the Spirit in such clear and ringing and peaceful terms. In addition, for Julie's show more youth, she is wise - learning the character of her husband and almost instinctively giving him what he needs to become someone better than he began. A very moving tale of a first year of marriage. Beautiful! show less

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 show more 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. show less

Usually, I avoid Oprah's book club picks like the plague. This is not because I don't like Oprah, but because her book selections are usually very dark and depressing. Though I enjoy such books, I try to find them on my own. That way, if they stink, I only have myself to blame! Well, I stumbled onto Gap Creek on audio while at the library and didn't know that it was one of Oprah's choices. Once I started to listen to it, I was completely entranced and got the paperback so that I could read it even when I wasn't in the car. Now, I can see why Oprah chose it and have to give her kudos for finding such a superb read!

Gap Creek takes places in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina where Julie Harmon lives with her mother, brother, show more father, and three sisters. The book opens with the death of Julie's brother which is then followed by the death of her beloved father. Julie was always a hard worker around the house and was assigned the chores that were usually given to men. One day while she is working outside, a handsome man drives by in the his carriage and the two begin courting. Hank Richards and Julie Harmond quickly fall in love and though Julie is only 17, they become married and move to Gap Creek where they will tend to the cantankerous Mr. Pendergast. Though their love for each other is strong, their responsibilities weigh heavy on them and their relationship. When Julie becomes pregnant, it seems like a blessing but as her pregnancy continues events occur that jeopardize their happiness and safety.

When I discussed this book with someone else who had read it, we both commented on the fact that the novel is character driven and though there are plot points, none of them matter as much as the development of the characters and their relationship. In many ways, it reminded me a great deal of Carolyn Chute's The Bean of Egypt Maine which is an ultimate favorite of mine. Though the books are set in different time periods and in different parts of Appalachia, they have a great deal in common. Both are relationship based and describe not only those between two people but also between families and (possibly most importantly) between people and the land. The story is hard to read but that is only because the people in it are hard and their lives are difficult. There are no true heroes or heroines and the novel doesn't leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling, but I think those are the strengths of the book and not weaknesses. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is sick of happy endings, cliched characters, and hackneyed plots and wants something more real. Bravo, Oprah, Bravo.

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