Rating: 
Summary: Awed
Review: I am continually awed by the wisdom, humility, and strength of people of the soil, many of whom are barely literate. Robert Morgan brings Ginny and Tom to life in ways that may only be understandable to people who have lived or have closely observed other Ginnys and Toms. He captured the speech rhythms and themes of the traveling tent evangelists. He looked into the souls of these two engaging people, and he made me look into my soul.
Rating: 
Summary: Massive disappointment
Review: I bought this after reading GAP CREEK, which I truly enjoyed. I was so disappointed in TRUEST PLEASURE. He dances around the issues between the sisters and moved entirely too slowly into the meat of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Robert Morgan is just too good!
Review: I have yet to find anyone who can match this down home, old tymey way that Robert Morgan can put into his books. If your a bean and cornbread or greens and pot liker kind of person, then you will love his books. It's all about how it use to be and there is allways a love story and the sex is good, but not in a way that would offend anyone. Try this, you will love it.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great book by Robert Morgan
Review: I loved reading Gap Creek so when I saw The Truest Pleasure on the shelf I decided to pick it up. Robert Morgan is an amazing writer and I truly enjoy reading his books.Ginny and Tom were well written and very real characters. They fought a lot about Ginny's religious beliefs and Tom being a true workaholic but I never doubted for one minute that they were devoted to their marriage and that they loved each other. This marriage teaches us a great lesson, you never appreciate what you have until you lose it. Through the vivid descriptions of Ginny and Tom's workload, this book has made me appreciate all of the modern conviences that we have today even more. This book was well written and enjoyable. I would recommend this book as well as Gap Creek to anyone and I'm looking forward to reading more books by Robert Morgan.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book by Robert Morgan
Review: I loved reading Gap Creek so when I saw The Truest Pleasure on the shelf I decided to pick it up. Robert Morgan is an amazing writer and I truly enjoy reading his books. Ginny and Tom were well written and very real characters. They fought a lot about Ginny's religious beliefs and Tom being a true workaholic but I never doubted for one minute that they were devoted to their marriage and that they loved each other. This marriage teaches us a great lesson, you never appreciate what you have until you lose it. Through the vivid descriptions of Ginny and Tom's workload, this book has made me appreciate all of the modern conviences that we have today even more. This book was well written and enjoyable. I would recommend this book as well as Gap Creek to anyone and I'm looking forward to reading more books by Robert Morgan.
Rating:
Summary: Truly "The Truest Pleasure"
Review: I loved reading The Truest Pleasure!! It takes pride on my shelf along with my other loved books. It was wonderful how Robert Morgan potrayed the lives of Ginny and Tom. The way Ginny and Tom communicated had too many similarities to my own life. I am now reading Gap Creek and I will be looking for my next book my Robert Morgan.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not outstanding
Review: I thought this book was good, but it wasn't great. I have also read Gap Creek and I would recommend reading that book rather than The Truest Pleasure. This book was well written and clear, but it wasn't very interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing!
Review: I went looking for more of Robert Morgan's works after I read 'Gap Creek,' which I thoroughly loved, and recently came upon this one. What a disappointment! Yes, this book has authentic mountain dialect in it and good prose, but not what I'd call 'outstanding.' And you do get a fairly detailed picture of life in hard times during the turn of the century in Appalachian North Carolina. However, the book, while similar to 'Gap Greek' in its emphasis on hard work, differs enormously, I felt, in the plotting and storytelling. There is little suspense in this one (it's no page turner!) and many scenes often seemed more like little essays on various tasks and trials of that era. But often these scenes had no link to a story line--and the story line itself was much too simple for me, just no complexity. Also, I found the book very repetitive--it went over the same themes and disagreement between Tom and Ginny again and again, with little advancement of the story. In addition, I didn't find the narrator, Ginny, likeable. I was often so frustrated with her I wanted to wring her neck! In 'Gap Creek,' on the other hand, the female narrator, Julie, is immensely sympathetically drawn and I was very caught up with her and her story. I did feel sorry for Tom, Ginny's husband, in this novel, but that's about as far as I was pulled into this book. The ending that's supposed to be so heartwrenching, by the way, we already know about, thanks to the back cover of the edition I had, so it came as no surprise. But at that point, I was just glad to finish the book and had no more feeling for Ginny at the end of it then I did at the beginning. I did learn that this is only Morgan's second novel, I believe, so maybe somewhere between this one and 'Gap Creek' he really honed his novel-writing skills! I'd highly recommend 'Gap Creek' over this title (unless you want to read it for period history and don't care so much about the storytelling/plotting), but I think highly enough of Morgan, despite this disappointing earlier book, that I'd still like to look up other later books of his--I just can't believe that 'Gap Creek' is the only really good novel he has in him!
Rating:
Summary: Morgan is Unbelievable.
Review: It is the late 1800's. Ginny is a young girl who loves to read, help out around her pa's farm and attend revival meetings at the arbor. She is tall and gangly and so does not expect to be courted or to marry like other girls. But when Tom comes to work on a neighbors farm, Ginny finds herself intrigued by him. He is broad and strong, a hard, passionate worker and a man of few words. Shortly thereafter, they marry and begin their life together. Morgan chronicles their sorrows and happiness's, their sorrows and joys. It is the simple life they live where a woman should be content to have healthy children and a home to care for and a man should be satisfied to work hard and see progress. But, of course, real life never pans out that easy and the story culminates with a spell-binding, shocking ending. Brilliantly written and passionately told, this is, without a doubt, the best book I've read since Wally Lamb's I Know This Much Is True.
Rating:
Summary: FIRE AND ICE
Review: Morgan's female narrator is convincing and as consistent as is probably possible for a man. This novel reveals his gift as a story teller without sacrificing his obvious abilities as a poet. Morgan knows the land, the work and the people that he deals with here. There are few places you will see a better depiction of turn of the century living in rural Western North Carolina. The fire and ice symbols that repeat in the novel give it a rich texture. Maybe most outstanding here are the moments he creates when his narrator has a charismatic Christian experience. Morgan's approach to this "backwoods" religion is sympathetic and never heavy handed. Highly recommended. Our students had a great time with this book in the fall, first in the class and then discussing it with Morgan when he came to our campus.
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