Gap Creek starts out sad and it never really gets any better. The story unfolds sometime after the civil war and sometime before the turn of the century. Life is was tough back then and Morgan makes this abundantly clear in his clear and unapologetic prose. We meet Julie the stories heroine after the horrible death of her little brother Masenier. While sad about the little boys passing she also seems ever so slightly unaffected , like this kind of hardship is what to be expected from life and there is nothing to be done for it. Masenier dies of some awful disease that gives him a stomachache for months these symptoms too in our times and I am glad).From the very beginning we know life is not easy for Julie she is the families work horse Julies father is stricken with either consumption or whooping cough (again never made clear) and it falls on her as the second eldest of four girls to take the helm of man of the house. She chops wood, plants, and plows without much complaint as her other sisters take on much less responsibility. The only time she refuses any sort of work s when she is asks to stay up all night with her dying father which she usually does quietly she notices him dying and after witnessing the death of Masenier cannot bear to see him die.
It is this hard life that leads Julie to what she does next. After meeting the e tall and handsome Hank while she is sawing logs with her mother she immediately falls in love. Hank ask her to marry him after only knowing her for a week and they are married within the month. Life is not the same now as it was then, Julie had little if any education and no interactions with men except for at church and her father. So of course she would fall for the first boy who showed her any attention and I can see how she would be desperate to be away from the hard life on the farm. Still she really know little of Hank as person but for that he likes to sing in church and that he is kind to her and her mother.
So Julie and hank move down the mountain to Gap Creek and so begin the story of there hardship ridden first year of marriage. They start out hopeful they are living rent free in Mr Pendergasts home in exchange for housekeeping and meals. Hank has a job down at the mill and their lives seem to be unfolding quite nicely for to teenagers from Painter Mountain North Carolina. In eloquent symbolism on their first night in their marriage bed together Julie and Hanks bed splits apart and crashes to the floor with the laughter of Mr. Pendergast below.
With that pretty much everything crashes to the floor. Hanks mother comes to visit form the mountain and ridicules everything that Julie does. Julie has to butcher the hog the one job she was dreading doing at home and was happy to be rid of upon marriage. Julie butchers the hog with the cool indifference she gives all her trials of life. The hog has to be butchered and as disgusting job she finds it she does it unflinching and without complaint. During the rendering of the pork fat to lard (wonderfully described I think I could now render lard) Julie sets the stove and kitchen afire and so sets a chain of events that changes their world.
Mr Pendergast is burned in an effort to save his pension money form the cook stove where the fire started. Burned so horribly that he dies that night (and all for naught because Julie manages to put out the fire with wet blankets). After Mr Pendergast dies their status of tennants is constantly in question. He has no heirs except for stepchildren who no one can reach and with a baby coming (oh yeah Julie gets knocked up to boot) they decide to wait it out and see if the heirs will ever come to claim their property.
The phantom heirs sets a stream of swindlers out to retrieve money and property from the naive and young couple. First Julie gives away the pension money to a man posing has a lawyer for the estate. When Hank finds out he slaps her and tells her he has his job. The someone posing has the step daughter Caroline comes and takes what little money they have left and any property of value in the home. Julie remains as stoic as ever taking was blow as Gods will. Hank however starts to unravel, he was spoiled at home and not used to hard work. I think he thought marriage would free him of his controlling mother and never thought it would be work.
The rest of there first year together is just as horrible, a flood that kills there cow and ruins there property, poverty so extreme that they barely have enough food to keep them alive. Though it is never expressively said I am fairly certain that Hank cheats on Julie with her little sister Caroline (Hanks suddenly happy and kind demeanor and lengthy time alone with Caroline lead you to believe so).
The novel comes to its climax as Julie all alone gives birth to her daughter on the kitchen floor six weeks early. Anyone who has ever gone through childbirth will find this scene heart wrenching. Julie pushes her tiny daughter out all by herself she does not let the pain consume her but rather revels in it knowing at the end of this pain will be her child and in that gives her the strength to do it alone. The baby is born small and Julie gets a terrible fever after giving birth. Hank has to take care pf the tiny baby because Julie is unable to, and in this he grows. Nothing in the book would give you the impression that Hank would be able to care for something so needy but in his daughter he finds strength. Since this books takes place in the 19th century and Julie gave birth six weeks early on a kitchen floor I think we all know what happens next. I wont go into it but even with proper medical care a baby born in these circumstance would be at risk.
In the end the real heirs find out about the house and even though they have been living in the house for a year and tending t they end up owing them a hundred dollars back rent and the house needs to be sold. So penniless and out of options in Gap Creek Hank and Julie trek back up the mountain 20 dollars richer (the find a gold coin) and Julie with a taught strong feeling in her stomach (pretty sure that meant she was preggo again)
I really enjoyed this book, sure it was sad but in its sadness it felt genuine. Life was not easy back then you could not just go up to the store and buy your food neatly packaged, you wanted beans you had to grow them ore at least trade with someone who did grow them, you needed milk you had to own a cow. There were doctors but not everybody had access to one, the infant mortality rate was high and the general life expectancy was low. Many diseases went were never found before it was to late and even if it was found many had no cure.
The heroine Julie is tough as nails but she is never seems over the top. I Softspoken kind, but stronger than all the men around her she was refreshing some many books I have read where the woman is the tough one she just slogs you over the head with it with sassy words and hands on hips letting everyone know exactly how strong she is. In life some woman just are not like that, they may even be thought of as weak because of their meek demeanor but are stronger than anyone
I highly recommend Gap Creek if you like historical fiction then you will enjoy Gap Creek.
It is this hard life that leads Julie to what she does next. After meeting the e tall and handsome Hank while she is sawing logs with her mother she immediately falls in love. Hank ask her to marry him after only knowing her for a week and they are married within the month. Life is not the same now as it was then, Julie had little if any education and no interactions with men except for at church and her father. So of course she would fall for the first boy who showed her any attention and I can see how she would be desperate to be away from the hard life on the farm. Still she really know little of Hank as person but for that he likes to sing in church and that he is kind to her and her mother.
So Julie and hank move down the mountain to Gap Creek and so begin the story of there hardship ridden first year of marriage. They start out hopeful they are living rent free in Mr Pendergasts home in exchange for housekeeping and meals. Hank has a job down at the mill and their lives seem to be unfolding quite nicely for to teenagers from Painter Mountain North Carolina. In eloquent symbolism on their first night in their marriage bed together Julie and Hanks bed splits apart and crashes to the floor with the laughter of Mr. Pendergast below.
With that pretty much everything crashes to the floor. Hanks mother comes to visit form the mountain and ridicules everything that Julie does. Julie has to butcher the hog the one job she was dreading doing at home and was happy to be rid of upon marriage. Julie butchers the hog with the cool indifference she gives all her trials of life. The hog has to be butchered and as disgusting job she finds it she does it unflinching and without complaint. During the rendering of the pork fat to lard (wonderfully described I think I could now render lard) Julie sets the stove and kitchen afire and so sets a chain of events that changes their world.
Mr Pendergast is burned in an effort to save his pension money form the cook stove where the fire started. Burned so horribly that he dies that night (and all for naught because Julie manages to put out the fire with wet blankets). After Mr Pendergast dies their status of tennants is constantly in question. He has no heirs except for stepchildren who no one can reach and with a baby coming (oh yeah Julie gets knocked up to boot) they decide to wait it out and see if the heirs will ever come to claim their property.
The phantom heirs sets a stream of swindlers out to retrieve money and property from the naive and young couple. First Julie gives away the pension money to a man posing has a lawyer for the estate. When Hank finds out he slaps her and tells her he has his job. The someone posing has the step daughter Caroline comes and takes what little money they have left and any property of value in the home. Julie remains as stoic as ever taking was blow as Gods will. Hank however starts to unravel, he was spoiled at home and not used to hard work. I think he thought marriage would free him of his controlling mother and never thought it would be work.
The rest of there first year together is just as horrible, a flood that kills there cow and ruins there property, poverty so extreme that they barely have enough food to keep them alive. Though it is never expressively said I am fairly certain that Hank cheats on Julie with her little sister Caroline (Hanks suddenly happy and kind demeanor and lengthy time alone with Caroline lead you to believe so).
The novel comes to its climax as Julie all alone gives birth to her daughter on the kitchen floor six weeks early. Anyone who has ever gone through childbirth will find this scene heart wrenching. Julie pushes her tiny daughter out all by herself she does not let the pain consume her but rather revels in it knowing at the end of this pain will be her child and in that gives her the strength to do it alone. The baby is born small and Julie gets a terrible fever after giving birth. Hank has to take care pf the tiny baby because Julie is unable to, and in this he grows. Nothing in the book would give you the impression that Hank would be able to care for something so needy but in his daughter he finds strength. Since this books takes place in the 19th century and Julie gave birth six weeks early on a kitchen floor I think we all know what happens next. I wont go into it but even with proper medical care a baby born in these circumstance would be at risk.
In the end the real heirs find out about the house and even though they have been living in the house for a year and tending t they end up owing them a hundred dollars back rent and the house needs to be sold. So penniless and out of options in Gap Creek Hank and Julie trek back up the mountain 20 dollars richer (the find a gold coin) and Julie with a taught strong feeling in her stomach (pretty sure that meant she was preggo again)
I really enjoyed this book, sure it was sad but in its sadness it felt genuine. Life was not easy back then you could not just go up to the store and buy your food neatly packaged, you wanted beans you had to grow them ore at least trade with someone who did grow them, you needed milk you had to own a cow. There were doctors but not everybody had access to one, the infant mortality rate was high and the general life expectancy was low. Many diseases went were never found before it was to late and even if it was found many had no cure.
The heroine Julie is tough as nails but she is never seems over the top. I Softspoken kind, but stronger than all the men around her she was refreshing some many books I have read where the woman is the tough one she just slogs you over the head with it with sassy words and hands on hips letting everyone know exactly how strong she is. In life some woman just are not like that, they may even be thought of as weak because of their meek demeanor but are stronger than anyone
I highly recommend Gap Creek if you like historical fiction then you will enjoy Gap Creek.
