I picked this book up from the second-hand bookstore near where I work on a particularly rainy and grey Sunday. Since I haven't been reading like I used to, I wanted something easy to get me back in the groove, and this book, and the snippet of review from the NYT on the cover, caught my eye.

It's interesting enough, and the first 50 pages or so drew me in like crazy (hint: gruesome death), but as I neared the end, I realized that there wasn't really ever going to be any story or any real resolution to this novel. It's well-written enough, though the honky-tonk drawl of the first-person narrator can be a bit distracting. The main beef I had with this book was the (male) author's penchant for writing long descriptive passages of exclusively female experiences (like childbirth, and sex - which really read like an account of what men THINK sex is like for women but bears no resemblance to my experience of it, anyway). I don't want to be a gender elitist here, but it wasn't convincing, and it seemed a bit patronising.

All in all, this was a fine summer read, but it didn't make me think anything new, though it did prime the pump for something with a little more bite.

This book tells the story of Julie whose indomitable spirit is challenged repeatedly. I loved the simplicity of the prose and the story and was invested immediately. Great writing and a great story.

I loved this book. Following a young couples hardships was wholesome and enlightening. It got a little weird when they highlighted joining the church, but I think the author saved it with the ending. Amazing writing! Reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing and The Color Purple but without the intense southern diction that is hard to follow for some. Would love to read another book by Robert Morgan.

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 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.

Robert Morgan's "Gap Creek" is written in a simple manner, easy to read, but raw. If you think your life is rough, read this book. The primary root of trouble in this story is the land of Gap Creek itself. In fact, the earth itself is so extraordinarily pervasive and alive, that Morgan almost allows it to become its own rich, cumbersome but generous character. In this story, the land of Gap Creek rears itself up and fights against the main characters Julie, Hank and the other mountain people on the boarder of South Carolina at the turn of the century. Death, floods, winter storms, poverty, childbirth, accidents... they were as common place as the amount of work on the homestead that Julie went through from sun up to sun down. Morgan also depicted Julie as the earth itself; she struggled against it, but it made her who she was. Although it wore out both Julie and Hank, the land itself forged their character for better or for worse. There were no pretenses in this book; the sheer arduous difficulty of life brought out quickly each character's true inner person, testing them and causing them to change in ways they probably would not have, had they been born in another century or town.

There are two premises espoused in this book: 1) in order to have a successful marriage, the woman must subjugate her strengths, personality, perseverance, to her abusive, shiftless husband in order to protect his fragile ego and to safeguard against added abuse; and 2) once your abusive, shiftless husband finds god, he will no longer be abusive and shiftless. I hate this book for putting the burden of a "good" marriage on the woman and perpetuating the myths that if the woman just keeps her place of subservience (and her husband finds god) all will be well. I wouldn't recommend this tripe to anyone.

The Gap by Robert Morgan A story of a marriage. A sad short book that is full of tragedy resiliency and sadness. A couple marries and travels to N Carolina. They end up settling in with an elderly cantankerous man. The woman cares for him while her husband works. Then tragedy hits and doesn’t stop with a fire or a flood or death. It just keeps coming. They overcome difficulties if struck in todays world would have killed us. They hold onto faith and positivity from within. Their pure love gets them through even in the worst of time.

Oh man, this book was really shaping up to be a four star book and then the ending. What the heck was that? If you like historical fiction and are okay with open-ended endings, this covers a less common time at the turn of the 20th century in South Carolina.

This is a book that I read several years ago. I will give this book 5 stars as I will never forget it and continue to recommend it and loan my personal copy to friends. A story of extreme hardship and survival. If you think you have problems, read this book and you will count your blessings.

I read this book years ago and loved it. I forgot the title and searched for it for years. This time, I listened via audiobook. I finished it in less than 24 hours. It's written so well and authentically depicts the grit, strength, and resilience of Applalachians and mountain folk.

Whoa, times were tough in Gap Creek, South Carolina in 1899-1900.
They went through some things that stressed me out and I had to put the book down, because of their gullibility.
What I liked most about the book was the descriptions of the seasons, the landscape, and the weather.
What I didn't like was the husband.
What I did like was his growth.
What I didn't like was the skeevy sex.
The book would have been a three star with that left out. But some writers feel the need to add it? Or don't know how to write it without the skeevy details?
A few questions about the book: pg 7 was the lemon imported?
pg 179 what happened to the hog meat? (it seemed to disappear and then later in the story reappear)
don't believe the story about the cow.
pgs 279-280 a person could be heard screaming 1.5 miles away in the mountains, especially in 1899-1900 when there weren't plains, trains, automobiles, etc buffering the scream.
I would have liked the book better if I had read it in middle school.
(read for a library book club)
pg. 237 The world would be a better place if people helped each other more. (Julie)

A good book that follows the life of a young girl in late 19th Century Carolina’s life. It definitely shows the life style of rural mountain living and the trials and tribulations that post civil war life was like. Would recommend reading but mostly like won’t read twice.