Book Review: Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

Gap CreekGap Creek by Robert Morgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First of all, to call this incredible novel "chick lit" is insulting. It should not be placed in that category.

I can't express adequately the deep feeling this book engendered in me. I have never loved a character in a book the way I love Julie. Mr. Morgan is so good at bringing life from words. His novels are pieces of poetry. The story is a life of hard work and tragedy, with small bursts of joy. This is one of those books that I never wanted to end. I kept wanting more and more for Julie and was so frustrated with the hard times she faced, and the people who were treating her badly. My stomach was in knots over some of the situations.

The way Robert Morgan writes his characters, you really feel like you know the person. How a man can speak so eloquently in the voice of a woman is amazing. Julie Harmon is a 17 year old girl living in Appalachia near the turn of the 19th century. She has already suffered tragedy in her young life when she falls in love with Hank. Julie is described as a hard worker (works as hard "as a man"), who think she is plain, and has some resentfulness towards all the work she is forced to do to keep the family going. Hank is a wonderment to Julie, and after they marry, she goes with him to live in a house in Gap Creek. The novel progresses through their young lives, and we see how Julie is much more strong and resourceful than her young husband. At one point Julie says, "Human life don't mean a thing in this world...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." She has an innate dignity that isn't ruined by all the hardship she withstands. A few of the characters that Julie deals with are, Mr. Pendergast, the old curmudgeon the couple lives with when they move to Gap Creek, Hank's crabby old mother, Julie's mother, and assorted others, both kind and wicked.

Just a great work of fiction.

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: Death of a Ghost (Hamish Macbeth, #32) by M.C. Beaton

Image
Death of a Ghost by M.C. Beaton My rating: 3 of 5 stars Oh Hamish, how I loved ye. I'm pretty sure I've read almost all of the Hamish Macbeth books (this is #32), including the little stories. I think I might have missed one before this one, somehow, because I didn't remember quite how Hamish got the poodle, although I do remember how he lost Sonsie. I've enjoyed them all, for the most part, being a lover of cozy mysteries. This one was not so great. It seemed like new characters, who could have been more interesting if fleshed out a little more, were popping up every chapter, along with the good old friends you expect from the books of the past. There really wasn't a Death of a Ghost, rather a fake ghost was being used to cover up scurrilous activities in the old castle now inhabited by former police bigwig Handy Ebrington, who also has a shady past. Hamish and his new co-hort, Charlie, inspect the scene, lose a body, and are off to solve the mystery. T...
Read more

Weekend Fun, Including MOVIES!

Image
This weekend was great! We had warm weather and snow all in two days! We also did something we don't do a whole lot of, and that was to go to a movie, at the theater, with the whole family. We saw: We've been huge fans of Wes Anderson since we saw "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". It's really not just a children's movie. I've probably watched it 5 or 6 times, maybe more. Meryl Streep, George Clooney, and many other great actors. Half the fun is trying to identify the voices. Anyway, back to The Grand Budapest Hotel. It's very Andersonesque, stars Ralph Fiennes, as M. Gustave H, the Concierge at the hotel, and a newcomer named Tony Revolori as Zero, the lobby boy. How can I describe it. It's funny, and sad, and dramatic and as always, whimsical. Here is a bit of dialogue from a part when M. Gustave has been locked up in prison: M. Gustave H.: "Good morning, Pinky" Pinky: "Mendl's again?" M. Gustave H.: "Precisely. No...
Read more

Book Review: The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World, by David Jaher

Image
The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World by David Jaher My rating: 4 of 5 stars I won The Witch of Lime Street in a books giveaway quite some time ago. I put it on the stack and didn't remember it until I recently added some large gorgeous bookshelves to the house and started shelving my books properly. I'm so glad I did! This book is a non-fiction, but reads like a novel. The author, David Jaher, has conjured up a great story, with magic, celebrities, sex, spirits, violent death and hubris. It all takes place in the 1920s, after the Great War, when Spiritualism gained strength as a movement. The war, and even more so the Spanish Flu, had killed so many people, that many bereaved loved ones wanted to try to contact their dearly departed one more time. Mediums were popping up the world over, and famous people like respected author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were promoting Spiritualism to willing audiences. At the same time, others, such as H...
Read more