Rating: 
Summary: Too heavy on melodrama
Review: Gap Creek is a great story, but it's too heavy on tragedy, hardship, and melodrama. It ends on a slight uplift toward hope, but nothing in the previous too-many pages leads readers to believe things will EVER work out for Julie and Hank. There's some beautiful writing in these pages, but man, this author needs to lighten up a little on the pathos. What is it with these Oprah books that seem to celebrate misery?
Rating: 
Summary: A Remarkable Story
Review: I found this novel to be a wonderful read despite it being a little slow going at the start.Julie Harmon Richards is a young woman, at the turn of the 20th century, learning to deal with life and love in the Appalachian mountains. She marries Hank at the tender age of 17 and begins to learn the true meaning of hardship and suffering. They leave her family behind and start fresh in Gap Creek. Julie and Hank must fend for themselves in every aspect of their lives. They face con artists, death, floods, fire and childbirth. Starvation and loneliness also enter into the picture. Julie has always known hardship and hard work, her work ethic is unbelievably strong. Her unending courage and determination throughout the book inspired me. She grows from a young girl into a young woman at a fast pace during the first year of her marriage to Hank. Her love for him never wavers and in the process her spirituality grows as well. The ending left me wanting more ~ did they ever find the happiness that they so deserved? Will life get easier for this pair who struggled with so much? Mr. Morgan leaves it to us the reader to decipher the true ending...in my mind it's a happy one. They get to start anew.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking!
Review: Great storytelling with movement, a great plot, and wonderful characters. You won't be disappointed. Also recommended: McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood
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Summary: I hope this was not suppose to be a love story.
Review: All through this book I kept hoping something good would happen to poor Julie. Nothing ever did. I'm sorry but Hank was a lousy husband. 1. He moves her to a house far away from her family to live and take care of a grouchy old man. 2. She has to work like a dog to clean up this guy's filthy house and clothes. 3. He (Hank)smacks her in the face the first time she makes a mistake. 4. Hubby then looses his job because he can't control his temper at work and hits his boss. 5. Hank acts like a two year old child when there was a flood.(That whole scene in the hay loft was disturbing) 6. Please explain to me what kind of husband leaves his wife when she is about to deliver a baby with no one to help her!!! If you have not finished the book do not read beyond this point. I don't know about the rest of you but that gold coin Julie found right before they were about to leave was not hers to take. I have been thinking about it for days and have come to the conclusion that Hank and Julie lived on that land rent free for 7 months. The old man died early on and Julie only had to cook and clean for him for a short time. Also they used to land to plant their crops and ate and gave away that food. Now I do not think they owed the family any money for rent because that was not part of the agreement. I can't help it but I think they stole that gold coin. ...
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Summary: A Wonderful Insight Into Early Appalachian Life
Review: Gap Creek is a story of growing up, letting go, facing hard adversity, and overcoming loss. The life Julie and Hank lived was common at the turn of the century in 1900. When my relatives were young, their families had a smoke house, lived off the food from the garden, canned food for the winter, washed and boiled their clothes, and many other ways of life this book brought alive to me. It gave me a true appreciation for my ancestors' struggle just to maintain daily existence. Gap Creek teaches us a lesson too......hard work, faith, and endurance can see us through any hardship, just as Julie and Hank learn in the end. The book was well written.....Morgan's descriptive style made me either hungry, or wanting a cup of coffee just by the way his writing brought the smells to life! I thought the book was a very accurate depiction of Appalachian life in the late 1800's. I am so glad I lived through this turn of the century instead of that one! Julie's strength is to be admired. All in all, a very enjoyable read
Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculous!
Review: I checked out the audio version and could not get past CD 4. The constant "I said/he said..." drove me crazy. However, the worst thing about it was the unbelievably dreary story line and how unrealistically mature and introspective Julie was. Her character, for all she went through, was actually one-dimensional and predictable. All the book amounted to were detailed descriptions of country life and too many down home southern sayings. It was one trial after another with ridiculous "tough" insights by Julie. This was not realistic! Do not waste your time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: The married life
Review: Annotation-"Gap Creek" is a story based on love and marriage between two very compassionate human-beings. Gap Creek is a story of growing up, overcoming obstacles, and managing life with all hands. This story will open up your heart and take you into a world filled with realities of what married life can turn out to be. Author Bio- Robert Morgan was born and raised in Green River, a small community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. He studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and in 1968 he earned an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 1971 Morgan began teaching at Cornell University where, since 1992, he has been the Kappa Alpha professor of English. Morgan's childhood memories include that of growing up in a small and isolated valley in the North Carolina Mountains are a fertile and constant inspiration for his fiction, which deals with such powerful and formative experiences as attending Pentecostal services, farming, marriage, and fighting disease. Since 1969, Morgan has published four books of fiction, including The Hinterlands (1994) and The Truest Pleasure (1995) named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable. (bookbrowse.com) Evaluation- I found the story of "Gap Creek" to be somewhat gory, but at the same time there was meaning and suspense to the story that kept the pages turning. This story is a very realistic way of life early in the 1900's when life was very frightening, and a lot tougher than it is living in today's world. The two main characters Hank and Julie fell in love and agreed to marry. They moved to Gap Creek where Hank got a job at a mill. Julie's job was to take care of Mr. Pendergast's house that he rented out to the couple. Throughout the story many unfortunate misshapenness take place such as Mr. Pendergast dying, Hank losing his job, Julie becoming pregnant, Fires, floods, and many more devastating events that took place. Julie and Hank had to live off of food from their garden, and canned food that had been saved up from the winter. They had to wash and boil their clothes to keep clean and survived on Milking cows to drink from. Life was not easy, but Hank and Julie managed to survive.
This is a story that will open up your eyes and make you look at your life a little deeper. "Gap Creek" teaches us the lessons of marriage that anybody can manage to run into throughout ones life. Marriage is not always just fun and games. Hank and Julie were two lovers who despite their many obstacles always had compassion for each other. All through the many up's and down's. They needed one another to survive and they did just that together.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting read
Review: I read this once before years ago and when I discovered that it is on Oprah's booklist, I decided to read it again. It's beautifully written and I enjoyed it more so the second time around ~~ especially since I had gotten married since the first time I read it. However, like a lot of Oprah's other selections, it is rather depressing. Ok, maybe depressing is the wrong word to use. It is very realistic look at life in the early 1900s when life is still tough and hard, especially for mountainfolks who have no money for medicines and knowledge. Julie is a hardworking woman who meets Hank and agrees to marry him. They moved to Gap Creek where Hank got a job in a mill. They rented a house with Mr. Pendergast where Julie's job is to take care of the house and their landlord. Through a series of unfortunate mishaps, Mr. Pendergast dies, Hank loses his job and Julie gets pregnant. Together, the naive couple struggle to survive the harsh winter ~~ where a huge flood destroyed most of their food crops that they had saved for winter ~~ and together, they find an inner strength they didn't know they had. They basically grew up, as most newlyweds do when they leave home for the first time. It is a realistic look at life. Marriage is not about roses and sweet dreams coming true. It really is a marriage of two minds melding together in spite of obstacles placed in their ways. This is a marriage about survival. They needed one another to survive that first year. And together, they will beat the odds for as long as it takes. I enjoyed it ~~ even the rather descriptive details about farm life and having to butcher your own animals for meals. However, that time wasn't too long ago that we haven't forgotten it. It's a rich look into life that once was and reminds us of how good we have it now. 1-30-04
Rating:
Summary: Interesting detail, no emotional punch
Review: For reading a detailed account of life in Gap Creek, I was expecting more of an emotional attachment from the protagonist than what Robert Morgan gave the lead character.
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Summary: Poor Julie
Review: You've got a tough road ahead, Julie. This story- in spite of the fact that the main character is strong, hardworking, and downright inspirational- is totally depressing. Julie has a hard life in the days before microwave ovens, washing machines, or even running water for that matter, but she makes it a hundred times worse when, at the age of seventeen, she marries handsome Hank. Now, it would be easy to make excuses for Hank, given that he is also very young and basically has a lot of growing up to do. However, some of the things he does are so heinous that you just cannot overlook them: on p.219, he shows that he was capable of leaving Julie to die in the flood, and on p.200, although the author leaves some room for doubt, it appears that Hank rapes Julie's sister. Are we supposed to believe in the end that Hank has reformed, and that there are better days on the horizon for Julie? I think most readers would agree with me that poor Julie, bless her hardworking heart, is only at the beginning of a long, difficult life.
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