Search - Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage

This was an incredibly good book. It held my interest right from the start. Young couples these days have it easy for their first year of marriage compared to Julia and Hank.Could you last the whole winter with 6 cents to your name?

This is an interesting story of a marriage--young people growing to intimacy through trials and tribulations. Very good.

I agree with everything that's been mentioned in the other member's reviews. I was completely taken with this story from the first page. The author just grabs you and holds on, his beautiful descriptions are wonderful. I really felt like I was there. The character of Julie is drawn magnificently. How this author (a man) was able to write from her perspective just amazes me. The story moves at an amazing pace, too. The author has such control...very good. I laughed, I cried...every emotion was there, without any corniness or melodrama.

I've never been a big fan of the books on Oprah's book club, but this one was very good.

I enjoyed the contrasts in this book. When things go wrong Julie keeps on working to make the most of every situation to manage their life and make it better. When very low on food, she receives a gift of jam from a visiting neighbor. You can almost taste it as she devours the whole jar! There are subtle and romantic moments that add to the story. Every basic thing, food, clothing, friendship, and any tiny luxury is so appreciated by Julie. This is a compelling view if the way life was and is very different from today.

Besides being a 'crackin' good story', GAP CREEK also gives a strikingly realistic picture of the everyday life of a farmer in the North Carolina back hills. Some of the information comes from grandparents who actually lived there. (Along with Oprah) I highly recommend it.

From back cover: Julie Harmon works hard, "hard as a man" they say, so hard that at times she's not sure she can stop. People depend on her. She is just a teenager when her brother dies in her arms. The following year, she marries Hank and moves to Gap Creek. Julie and Hank discover that the modern world is complex, grinding ever on without pause or concern for their hard work. To survive, they must find out whether love can keep chaos and madness at bay.

From Amazon.com:
Robert Morgan's Gap Creek opens with one wrenching death and ends with another. In between, this novel of turn-of-the-century Appalachian life works in fire, flood, swindlers, sickness, and starvation--a truly biblical assortment of plagues, all visited on the sturdy shoulders of 17-year-old Julie Harmon. "Human life don't mean a thing in this world," she concludes. And who could blame her? "People could be born and they could suffer, and they could die, and it didn't mean a thing.... The world was exactly like it had been and would always be, going on about its business." For Julie, that business is hard physical labor. Fortunately, she's fully capable of working "like a man"--splitting and hauling wood, butchering hogs, rendering lard, planting crops, and taking care of the stock. Even when Julie meets and marries handsome young Hank Richards, there's no happily-ever-after in store. Nothing comes easy in Julie Harmon's world, and their first year together is no exception.