Gap Creek (Oprah book of the month)

Rating:
Summary: Reality of a mountain marriage
Review: I found this book to be a very good read. Mr. Morgan has a very keen insight into the mind and actions of a mountain woman. My Grandmother was from the North Carolina mountains and her account of mountain life was very similar to Mr. Morgan's account of Julie. Like most mountain folk, Mr. Morgan is a wonderful story teller. I did not want to like the husband in this story. His character was selfish and weak. However, after completing the book I had to concede that his character was very realistic. He came into the marriage as a spoiled child but after many trials and sorrows he grows up and becomes the husband that Julie needs. I would like to read a second part to this book and see what happens to Hank and Julie after leaving Gap Creek.

Rating:
Summary: moving story of a strong woman loving a weak man
Review: I really enjoyed this book and was unable to put it down! Thecharacters are real and very well developed and I found myself bothadmiring and feeling sorry for Julie, a very young woman forced to grow up too soon. Taken advantage of by her family her entire life, by the time she marries Hank she has already learned at a young age the powers of restraint, love, commitment and patience. I think that this story is an example of just how extraordinary people can be when they put their minds to it. Although society usually views women in dysfunctional relationships as weak, Julie is an illustration of how strong a woman needs to be to love such a weak man.

Rating:
Summary: There warn't no easy days bein' a mountain woman...
Review: The very linear first-person account of the hard stuff of mountain living for a poor, young woman is reality-driven. It ain't always pretty, in fact seldom is. But there is a finely-honed beauty about the honest, pragmatic account of the hardship, triumphs and tragedies that seem interwoven into the "gettin' through" of every day. We may not embrace or understand the mentality that accepts the domestic-violence-followed-by-love-making, but the truth of the matter is as openly explored as is the absence of grace in butchering a hog. While the imperfect grammar of the narrator might be a distraction in a less carefully-crafted piece, it enhances the depth of this piece. One can only wonder, too, at the research of a male writer who can write with such stark authenticity about the childbirth experience. I reckon this ain't beach reading. It is an opportunity to become enthralled with the lives of some memorable characters about whom one begins to care.....even during times when reading must be delayed to attend to realities of ones own life - like earning a livin' and stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Very disturbing book
Review: This book is generally an average book. It talks about a rural girl moving to the Appalachians, away from her usual lifestyle back with her mum. I was quite disturbed that 3 people died in the first 5 chapters, later 1 or 2 more died including the character's child. That was appalling, and I think the author is trying to say, by using comparison between Julie and her husband, to survive one must help oneself and through supplication to God. But it was so obscure that it looks as if the whole story talks about how fate plays with their lives. They lost money, houses, everything, and then the story ended off with both of them walking back to I-forgot-where to start afresh. It is no typical book of Oprah, even though if you want to have a read on the bus or so, this is just about average for all -- easy to read, and simple.

Rating:
Summary: DOESN'T EVEN DESERVE TO BE AN "OPRAH" PICK
Review: After finishing this book, my first thought was that this author must be best friends with Oprah for her to have picked it. When I see it on the bestseller's list, I have to laugh. It wasn't even that good....as a matter of fact, it was boring. I never read a book where the characters were so un-developed. You never find out what any one individual's motivation is for doing anything. In marrying Hank, Julie leaves one life of drudgery for another. Now I understand that this was the way life was back then but the author has the nerve to have the words, "The Story of a Marriage" right under the title of the book. If this was the story of a marriage, then Julie should have stayed single.

Rating:
Summary: I want my money back.
Review: I'm not a professional book reviewer, but this book was terrible. The characters are just empty shells. It bumps along from one scene to another without any reason. I had a huge problem with the portrayal of domestic violence as foreplay. He belts her a couple of times and it makes her want to have sex with him? It just amazed me that the author would place this young woman into a terribly abusive relationship and then describe how glorious her sex-life was with her sniveling, gutless husband. I guess sex sells...at least it sold the legions of people who only buy what Oprah tells them to buy. This was the 1st and last book I'll buy based on Oprah's opinions. Shame on me.

Rating:
Summary: THOUGHTS ON GAP CREEK
Review: Gap Creek is a completely exhausting, yet exhillariting novel. To see how hard Julie works day to day, yet sense the contentment in her life is enlighting. She has to bear more tragedy than you can imagine, yet she accepts her plight in life and makes the most of her situation. She never loses faith in her husband, Hank. In fact, in her time of greatest need, he finally seems to find his purpose in life in taking control of his household. This seems to bring Julie and Hank closer together,when he realizes he is needed and she realizes he can step up to the task. Her near-death exchange with her late father is a tender, thought provoking moment that reminds us all we can be "worthy" just by loving others more than ourselves.

Rating:
Summary: Hard work, hard life
Review: It is amazing to think about how people had to live back at the turn of the century. This book opens our minds to how easy our lives are comparitively. Things we take for granted, food, shelter, medical care, transportation, a paying job, were hard won back then. Julie's life made me realize how spoiled we have become. If everyone worked as hard as Julie, no one would go to bed hungry and everything would sparkle. I thought this book was well written, not a happy story, but , a story that needed telling. Read his other books, The Hinterlands and The Truest Pleasure. They are wonderful, too.

Rating:
Summary: This is a Man's Point of View Re: Gap Creek
Review: Thought I was buying a book on life in Appalachia--you know, hunting, skinning, trapping, moonshining, etc. Had some of that, but it was so much more. I gained a lot of respect for the young woman in that story. I really enjoyed reading this book. That speaks volumes coming from a man who thought he'd be reading about coon hunting and such.

Rating:
Summary: He said, she said
Review: There are some good things to say about this book. The mountains of South Carolina and North Carolina are wrought beautifully; Robert Morgan's status as the poet laureate of North Carolina is unquestioned. He acptures well the stark beauty of the landscape, as well as the pain of living in poverty in the remote reaches of the mountains. The simplicity of his language sometimes gets in the way, though. His use of "I said" and "Hank said" throughout the story, without variety, becomes almost unbearable. Even more troubling is the glaring lack of character development. Julie Harmon's character is meant to represent a strong southern woman, but she gives in to other people's wishes too often and is too often silent to be credible. Her husband, Hank, is barely crafted at all. He comes across as insensitive, unforgiving, brooding, and humorless, but because there are a few instances which contradict this general impression, it's difficult to tell if that is what Morgan intended. The characters are so lacking in substance, the reader starves.