Rating: 
Summary: Depressive
Review: Besides being a depressive story, it's hard to believe so many thing could go wrong in anyone's life. Also it is not really the story of a marriage from beginning to end as I expected.
Rating: 
Summary: Glad I stuck with it
Review: After I read the wrenching first chapter of this book, I was very tempted to put it down and not pick it back up. When I finally did, I was still hesitant because I thought that the characters would not endear themselves to me, but I was wrong. I did grow to care about them - all of them - even the "hard-to-like" characters. I found myself wishing that the story would continue when I came to the last page. Robert Morgan knows his subject matter thoroughly, and he writes with a great love of his native North Carolina and the surrounding territory and mountains. I definitely, definitely recommend this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Hill People
Review: I reluctantly picked up this novel and by the time I finished it, I didn't want the story to end. I have grown up listening to stories from my Grandmother & Great-Grandmother of our ancestors - "hill people", from the Ozarks. I couldn't beleive it when the author touched on so many items that I had heard before, from hog butchering, rendering lard...even stringing green beans and gathering greens from the hillsides.The simple prose is almost musical. The way that Julie in her simple way deals with life, love, and loss is inspiring and serves as a lesson to people of my generation with our analytical therapy sessions and our endless pursuit of dealing with our "stress". I have always wondered how my grandparents and ancestors dealt with seemingly endless tragedies and in spite of it all took so much joy from life. This story is a stark reminder to laugh, live and love.
Rating:
Summary: A HEART-WRENCHING NOVEL!!!
Review: I love novels about mountain people, and Gap Creek by Robert Morgan is the best one I have read yet! It may be 2:00 in the morning, but how can one turn out the light and go to sleep with a novel of this caliber in one's hands? During the day, I took the phone off the hook, pulled the drapes, and shut myself off from the outside world as I delved deep into the pages of Gap Creek. I understand Robert Morgan was born and raised in the Appalachian mountains. No wonder he writes the way he does! He writes from the bottom of his heart!
Rating: 
Summary: SAPPY!
Review: Come on folks, get a grip! I thought this was a pitiful story. I've had it up to here with the down and dreadfully out 'po' folks in Appalachia stories. Did I miss some wonderfully redeeming glimmer of hope here? Nah.
Rating:
Summary: How Depressing
Review: I am dissapointed that Oprah included this book on her list and even more dissapointed that I wasted my time reading it! The entire novel is a progression of horribly unlucky events. Life is hard enough without bringing the trials and tribulations of this young woman's life into your own. In most novels where shadows are continually cast upon the lives of the characters a light appears at the end of the tunnel. In Gap Creek, I was pleading for the end of these poor people's lives as it appeared to be the only means for their escape from the hell on earth Mr. Morgan cast them in.
Rating:
Summary: It was like listening to my grandmother speak...
Review: My father's family hales from the mountains of Virginia, and I felt Gap Creek did a credible job of portraying the mountain life. That alone would have made the book interesting, but there was more. I found that the heroine, Julie, was someone I genuinely liked and admired. She was a real person who made real mistakes, but she also had a core of integrity that directed a lot of her decisions. It was refreshing to have the main character be someone I'd want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with. Actually, it was my affection for the heroine that leads me to only assign this review four stars. While I enjoyed the author's beautiful prose, I wanted more of Julie's thoughts and feelings to be described, since I found that to be the real strength of the story. So, the portrayal of everday life in the mountains was realistically harsh, but the characters, especially Julie, are worth getting to know.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful writing wrapping a so-so story
Review: This first-person tale of a young backwoods farm woman and her husband around the turn of the century is a well written slice-of-life -- as it might have been. Morgan's ear for dialect and turn of phrase make for interesting reading as do his detail in describing the hard-wearing daily life of the mountain poor in the late 1800's. But it's a depressing tale, filled with one one woe after another, and not enough plot development and progression in story or character. For some, the skill and quality of the writing will be enough, but for those who prefer character development and plot, read elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Too Depressing
Review: This was my first major disappointment from the Oprah book club. Although the book is well written and the author paints a very vivid picture (sometimes too vivid), too many horrible things happen to make the underlying message of hope ring true. You are constantly left wondering what catastrophe can possibly happen next. Similarly, you keep waiting for things to turn around and they don't. It's the type of book you'd have to read for an American Lit class, then write a profound paper on. Unfortunately, it's just not very profound.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: Gap Creek was a heart-capturing book, filled with emotion and detail that make the book come alive, as though you are really there. Robert Morgan did a great job at creating a book that is so gripping, that I couldn't put it down. I really felt as though I was there on Gap Creek with Hank and Julie. I felt their pain and suffering right along with them. Gap Creek is one book I'll never forget. It was so sensational that it will stay in my mind for a long time.
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