Gap Creek

I don't have a clear set of reasons why I didn't love this book. It seemed needlessly brutal at times, and the relationship between the two main characters didn't work for me. I know that they were going for some kind of "realism" but any book with a dead kid is a hard thing to read. Two dead kids? It's not something I'm going to recommend to my friends. Also, what was with the childbirth scene? I've given birth half a dozen times and it's very apparent the writer does not own a uterus. Note to author: childbirth pain does not run down your spine in multicolored lightning bursts. Even a baby born "sunny side up" is more unbearable spinal pressure than fireworks. Can no more describe it to a man than a man can describe getting racked up to a woman. Sigh.

Found this at a Little Free Library, and what a find! Its genre is kind of a “backwoods survival by a plucky woman and her almost-equally-plucky husband around the turn of the 20th Century.” Similar works might include “Cold Mountain” (book and movie, the latter with a well-deserved Oscar for Renee Zellweger), “Winter’s Bone” (book and movie the latter of which has well-deserved accolades but, to my mind, unacceptable Oscar snubs for Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes), and “Heartland” (1979 movie set in my home state of Montana in 1910, starring Rip Torn and Conchata Farrell, in her finest hour, an Oscar-worthy performance to my mind), all of which depict courage, strength and determination in the face of the most terrible of conditions.

Julie Harmon, the narrator, is the middle (but most responsible) daughter in a family living in Flat Rock, a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. The book starts out with the illness and death of Julie’s brother Mesenier, after a grueling trip up the mountain to fetch a doctor. Gives you an immediate flavor of the kind of environment the family must endure on a daily basis. At age nineteen, Juliee meets Hank Richards, falls in love, and hastily marries him, and they move across the state line to Gap Creek, in the mountains of South Carolina. And all this is just the preamble to what follows.

Julie and Hank have been raised in harsh conditions, so they tend to weather whatever the world throws at them. But DANG, it’s an avalanche of severe challenges. For one, they come across an abandoned house, which they fix up, and meet the owner, Mr. Pendergast, with whom they share the space. He situation tuns tragic when he dies and the house partially burns down. But any way you look at it, the couple’s existence is subsistence, mostly with crops, canning and knowledge of cooking with very little. There is a vivid description of the killing and butchering of a hog, reminiscent of similar scene in the above-mentioned “Heartland.” Their tenancy at the house remains precarious throughout, and there are several instances of nefarious individuals who take advantage of them. The weather is extreme and their marriage is challenged again and again by the stresses of existence. Throughout all of this, it is obvious that Julie is the stronger of the two, and she not only puts up with his wanting to give up, but actually boosts him and makes him stronger and a better partner. A local preacher befriends them, and eventually the couple finds comfort, solace and strength in the church community. Julie has an ambivalent-at-bestr relationship with Hank’s mother, “Ma Richards,” but comes to respect and befriend her. To complicate things, Julie becomes pregnant and suffers thorough unspeakable hardships throughout it, including delivery of her child alone. And this is just a summary! And there ain’t no happy ending either, folks.

Despite what may seem to be a depressing work, I found Mr. Morgan’s writing to be deeply evocative, not only in his descriptions of the hazards facing these characters (whom I cheered loudly throughout), but also in the joy of nature. Here’s an example:
“The trees was thinner at the ridge top and their limbs had already been stripped of leaves. I looked right up through the lightning shapes of the limbs to the blue sky…Through the gray lightning of the limbs I looked right into the deep sky.
“Now it was the strangest thing to look deeper and deeper into the blue. Most times you look into the sky and just see haze and blue. Unless there is clouds and you look past the clouds. But this time I looked into the clear sky and saw the DEPTH in the sky. I looked past the clear air into the furthest miles of air, and still deeper where the air was thinning out to nothing. I looked until I could see nothing but emptiness, out toward the stars, though I couldn’t see the stars in daylight.”

I greatly enjoyed this book, and indeed I have obtained its sequel, “The Road from Gap Creek,” narrated by Julie’s daughter Annie. Looking forward to more struggles, pluckiness and adaptation to a changing world. Five stars for “Gap Creek,” highly recommended.

Spoilers ahead

Gap Creek by Robert Morgan was also a free friday book and it was an Oprah Book of the Month book as well. Oprah, you did not pick a winner here. The story is about the first year of marriage between a young couple in 1900 South Carolina. It started out strong, with Julie being an unusually hard working and dedicated woman, and that doesn’t change. But at some point she totally stops standing up for herself. At one point of the story she gets conned and when her husband finds out he slaps her in the face and calls her a “stupid heifer” and what does she do? NOTHING!! If i was her i would slapped him right back and walked out the door. And the whole rest of the book her husband is temperamental and just about useless. Until the end when he kind of redeems himself (not really) when he takes care of Julie and their sick baby after Julie birthed the baby at home, by herself. And in the end they lose everything the worked for and wind up leaving their home. WTF.

Do you want to feel amazingly lazy?
Then read this book!
The by-line title of this novel should read: horribly hard work is good for you.
And it is true.
Now the actual by-line is: A story of a marriage.
That is why I decided to pick it up. Romance among lusty singles is not hard to write.
Describing loyal, tough,committed love while tethered to an imperfect, selfish human being is something altogether different.
The first two chapter are tough; very depressing in that I-guess-every-one-is-going-to-die-a-hideous-painful-death-in-this-book, kinda depressing.
I almost gave up.
I do not have time to be more depressed.
If you keep with it, like I did, you will get immersed into the story of Julie Harmon, which is ultimately a wise and hopeful story, despite a lot of sadness and injustice.
Part of this reads almost like an adult Laura Ingalls Wilder book in that author Robert Morgan goes into great detail what a self-sufficient homestead in the 19th century looks like.
Part of this reads almost like a turn of the century Hemingway novel with its minimal, poetic sentences about the realities of love and life.
Part of this reads like a Leif Enger novel as it examines what a genuine lived out faith in God looks like on a person, without being a preachy, religious book.
Note: this is not a Christian publication it is novel that simply examines faith.
Gap Creek, though being primarily about Julie has a terrific cast of characters. From a mother in law you wish you could slap, to the scary town drunk, to a spoiled little sister who flirts with your husband, to crafty con artists who steal your money, to preachers who actually show up and care, and of course her husband who despite being "the man of the house"has a whole lot of growing up to do.
I would say that the theme of the novel is:
Hard work in an unjust world full of suffering is its own reward, but one has to fight just as hard as one works, to keep having hope in the bigger, brighter, higher things orchestrating life in this world.
My favorite passage:
"As the preacher spoke I seen how it was such a little thing to be humble and to accept the gift of life, to face the future, to look at the future calmly. It was different from speaking in tongues, and it was different from the kind of frenzy and rapture you hear about. It was the still, small voice I wanted to hear. I didn't want to be wrenched-apart by feeling. I wanted to be calm and open and wise as the light on New Year's morning. "
The last three sentences especially I want to paste on a wall in my house.
This book would make a terrific book club.
Plus, it is already has the official Oprah seal of approval, so I am sure there is ton of online book discussion fodder out there.

It's amusing that this novel is recommended by the Oprah Book Club juggernaut alongside Faulkner, because Morgan is trying for the Faulkner unreliable narrator, first-person regional dialect. I don't think he's entirely successful, though.

The dust jacket let us know he's from North Carolina mountain stock, and the setting feels pretty authentic. I think it's late 1800s or around the turn of the century, but it's not entirely clear. I do wish that had been more obvious, but then the narrator, Julie Richards, is clearly uneducated and fairly unobservant. She’s more of a reporter of events, which are mostly tragedies. I couldn’t help but compare it to My Antonia, which is a similar tale of hardship (this time on the prairie) but with significantly more literary aplomb. It’s clear that Morgan did extensive research, and he certainly seems to have his facts and details right, but all that comes at the expense of the narrative; it feels self-conscious and I found myself easily distracted. The words he puts in Julie’s mouth overcompensate for his being a man writing in a female voice, and she is forced to give clunky exposition.

I could never wrap my mind around the characterization of either Julie or her husband Hank; the tertiary characters, on the other hand, are given distinct personalities, though we are told more than we see. Hank in particular is an enigma, and I don’t think it does the story any favors to have him be so mysterious and hostile. The conclusion wasn’t particularly satisfying, though I was relieved that the sadness was over, at least.

A cumbersome and unhurried story of sufferings and hope that is simple and ragged, but never seems to keep a winning pace. This couple’s misfortunes are sometimes unbelievable.

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, the imagery was amazing. The newlyweds and their progression through life working a farm under the watchful eye of the owner who is elderly. The flood was frightening and saving the animals was so important and yet they lost so much. The relationships between the characters was good, the old man was interesting and his death made me cry. Julie worked like a dog, even being pregnant. They learned and lived and loved and then lost so much that they needed to start over. This is a book that stays with you and you think about it for a long time. The end gave you hope and yet made you wonder why.