Status
Available
Call number
Call number
F Mor
Series
Collection
Publication
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (1999)
Description
Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML: A New York Times Bestseller & Oprah's Book Club Pick Young Julie Harmon works "hard as a man," they say, so hard that at times she's not sure she can stop. People depend on her to slaughter the hogs and nurse the dying. People are weak, and there is so much to do. At just seventeen she marries and moves down into the valley of Gap Creek, where perhaps life will be better. But Julie and Hank's new life in the valley, in the last years of the nineteenth century, is more complicated than the couple ever imagined. Sometimes it's hard to tell what to fear most�??the fires and floods or the flesh-and-blood grifters, drunks, and busybodies who insinuate themselves into their new life. To survive, they must find out whether love can keep chaos and madness at bay. Their struggles with nature, with work, with the changing century, and with the disappointments and triumphs of their union make Gap Creek a timeless story of a marriage.… (more)
Subjects
Original publication date
1999
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User reviews
LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
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
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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 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
LibraryThing member repb
A wonderful account of a marriage during earlier, trying times. Filled with fascinating stuff about making do in an isolated living environment. Should be required reading by every young, pampered couple in the country whose idea of hardship is a two bedroom house.
LibraryThing member BethsLibrary
My favorite book! Three major factors helped me determine this 1) After reading it, I continued to think about the characters and, even days later, wondering what happens next. 2) When reading other books, I find myself disappointed that the characters and plot aren't like Gap Creek. 3) I use my
In the pioneer days of the Appalachian Mountains a very young, naive girl marries a man she barely knows (which wasn't unusual for that time) and struggles to make a life. In a world where money, food, and resources are hard to come by, this girl grows into a woman. Through laughter, tears, and hard work she makes a life for herself and her family. A truly touching story that makes a reader appreciate how privileged we are in today's society.
Can't wait to read the sequel!!
P.S.
If you like Gap Creek, I recommend The Hinterlands also by Robert Morgan.
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feelings about Gap Creek as a gauge for rating other books. In the pioneer days of the Appalachian Mountains a very young, naive girl marries a man she barely knows (which wasn't unusual for that time) and struggles to make a life. In a world where money, food, and resources are hard to come by, this girl grows into a woman. Through laughter, tears, and hard work she makes a life for herself and her family. A truly touching story that makes a reader appreciate how privileged we are in today's society.
Can't wait to read the sequel!!
P.S.
If you like Gap Creek, I recommend The Hinterlands also by Robert Morgan.
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LibraryThing member bethlea
I enjoyed this title although I believe it is aimed for the teen crowd.
LibraryThing member tgsalter
Appalachia at the turn of the 19/20th century -- remarkable in its simplicity, but I couldn't put it down. Julie and Hank struggle to survive on a small farm in Gap Creek ... and live to tell the tale.
LibraryThing member angelia
"It was the first time I ever noticed how the way the world looks don't have a thing to do with what's going on with people." (p.12) I thought this was the defining sentence of the book. Really put into perspective the tribulations of the time.
LibraryThing member readingrat
A raw portrait of basic day-to-day survival in an age very far removed from our modern day conveniences.
LibraryThing member JGoto
Robert Morgan brings Appalachia to life in Gap Creek. The novel follows the struggles of newlywed, Julie Richards, in turn of the century South Carolina. Morgan’s ability to create a real sense of place, write natural dialogue and develop believable characters makes his books engaging from the
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first page on. Show Less
LibraryThing member mom24dogs
Whatever trials Job suffered were nothing compared to the tribulations that befall Julie Harmon Richards. Following the deaths of her younger brother and father, 17-year-old Julie takes one look at 18-year-old Hank Richards and falls in love. Following their marriage a month later, the two move
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from their North Carolina homes to Gap Creek, South Carolina, where Hank works at a cotton mill and Julie cooks and cleans for a Mr. Pendergast in exchange for room and board. Pendergast is fatally injured trying to rescue his hidden savings during a devastating fire, and Julie, now pregnant, gives all of Pendergast's money to a man who tells her he is the lawyer for the bank that holds the mortgage on the house. Gap Creek floods and the house is ruined. Julie's baby lives only for a few months. Finally, Pendergast's heirs show up, so Hank and Julie, now pregnant again, leave Gap Creek for an uncertain future. Although Morgan, author of The Truest Pleasure (1995), has written better novels, even readers numbed by the seemingly endless series of disasters will respect Julie's strength of character and wish her well. Show Less
LibraryThing member autumnesf
Dont recommend. Story felt very incomplete.
LibraryThing member mana_tominaga
A gripping tale about harsh life in Appalachia and a young couple's first year of marriage. This lyrical work includes a rather graphic depiction of childbirth. Another Oprah title with a body of water in the title!
LibraryThing member labwriter
The book is supposed to be set in Appalachia, in North Carolina, but if the author has ever been to that part of the country, it sure doesn't show. The book jacket says he lives there, but that has to be an error. After reading the book, along with a "thin" sense of place, I'm not absolutely
The book was written in the first person, from the woman's perspective. There surely are male authors who can pull that off, but Morgan isn't one of them. Also, Morgan doesn't seem to know much about what these communities were actually like. Did he do any research for the book?
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certain I could say when the story takes place. He gives a clue once, but only once; I remember thinking that maybe it was around 1900, but now I don't remember why I thought so.The book was written in the first person, from the woman's perspective. There surely are male authors who can pull that off, but Morgan isn't one of them. Also, Morgan doesn't seem to know much about what these communities were actually like. Did he do any research for the book?
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LibraryThing member kelawrence
Amazing hardships, but a good story about a simpler life and simpler times.
LibraryThing member mb
This book is really beautiful. The characters are naive and their hopekulness during all thei hardship really touched me.
LibraryThing member cenneidigh
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
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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 Show Less
LibraryThing member jbaker614
By the time I finished reading "Gap Creek", it was hard to imagine that anything else could go wrong for Julie and Hank as they try to make a life for themselves in South Carolina at the end of the 19th century. This is a story of love, hardship and eternal hope that life is worth living and what a
Here is one notable passage for me from "Gap Creek":
"Everybody looks younger in death... I wonder why."
"Because they have stopped worrying.... All the grief goes out of them, if they went to heaven."
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young couple have to endure. Amidst all the tragedies that befall Julie and Hank, there is always hope that there is a new beginning for them to move towards.Here is one notable passage for me from "Gap Creek":
"Everybody looks younger in death... I wonder why."
"Because they have stopped worrying.... All the grief goes out of them, if they went to heaven."
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LibraryThing member nittnut
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
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.
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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.
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LibraryThing member dawng
An immensely depressing novel but still a good read.
LibraryThing member KRaySaulis
Very sweet story. Beautiful visualization and believable characters. Wonderful book.
LibraryThing member estellen
Good but not memorable book.
LibraryThing member CarrieWuj
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
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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 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
LibraryThing member artdamnit_reads
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
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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member book58lover
This was a hard book to read. It's the fictionalized story of the author's grandparents' first year of marriage and what a hardscrabble year it was. Like the old adage 'if it weren't for bad luck they would have no luck at all'. Fire, floods, bad mother-in-law, death of an infant; they had it all.
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I'm glad I finished they book but had I known I probably wouldn't have started it at all. Certainly not Little House on the Prairie. Show Less
LibraryThing member JenniferRobb
The cover claims this is an Oprah's Book Club selection--I can't say I cared much for her choice.
The story is mostly about Julie Harmon Richards, and most of it takes place after she married Hank Richards. I admire Julie's work ethic and her ability to push forward no matter what discouragements
Hank barely works in this novel--he has a job when they first get to Gap Creek--but as we later learn, he loses it when he hits a boss. I'm never clear on whether he really was searching for work or if he just assumed no one would hire him. He does go out an hunt occasionally and works around the house and farm at time, but most times we hear that Julie is doing the work not Hank in the narrative. I do hope he helped her with planting etc. I do wonder if they will make it as a couple long-term.
Hank also likes to blame Julie and call her names. Though I do think he had a right to blame her when she gave away Pendergast's money to a (probably false) attorney, he did not have to call her a stupid heifer. It's almost justice when Hank is also tricked into giving away money (to someone claiming to be Pendergast's daughter). One would think they'd have learned from the first instance to ask for proof. In fact, by the third time someone comes around claiming to represent the heirs, I have to wonder if he really is an attorney--though since he comes with the pastor, we have to hope he truly is an attorney representing the heirs.
I wondered if Hank was true to Julie. It sort of seemed like the author hinted that Hank might have had relations with Carolyn when she visited them and neither admitted it to Julie.
It's a shame that they have to leave after doing all the work to plant crops and put up provisions.
The story is mostly about Julie Harmon Richards, and most of it takes place after she married Hank Richards. I admire Julie's work ethic and her ability to push forward no matter what discouragements
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life put in her path. I think Hank really loves Julie, but he's not always much of a husband to her. Though I realize that this was set in a time when women didn't have all the opportunities they do today, I have to wonder if Julie really was better off with Hank or if she should have left him.Hank barely works in this novel--he has a job when they first get to Gap Creek--but as we later learn, he loses it when he hits a boss. I'm never clear on whether he really was searching for work or if he just assumed no one would hire him. He does go out an hunt occasionally and works around the house and farm at time, but most times we hear that Julie is doing the work not Hank in the narrative. I do hope he helped her with planting etc. I do wonder if they will make it as a couple long-term.
Hank also likes to blame Julie and call her names. Though I do think he had a right to blame her when she gave away Pendergast's money to a (probably false) attorney, he did not have to call her a stupid heifer. It's almost justice when Hank is also tricked into giving away money (to someone claiming to be Pendergast's daughter). One would think they'd have learned from the first instance to ask for proof. In fact, by the third time someone comes around claiming to represent the heirs, I have to wonder if he really is an attorney--though since he comes with the pastor, we have to hope he truly is an attorney representing the heirs.
I wondered if Hank was true to Julie. It sort of seemed like the author hinted that Hank might have had relations with Carolyn when she visited them and neither admitted it to Julie.
It's a shame that they have to leave after doing all the work to plant crops and put up provisions.
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LibraryThing member homeschoolmimzi
Great read. I read this several years ago. Made me appreciate the blessings I have! Gave me an appreciation of people's true hardhsips. I'd recommend this book. I'll likely read it again.