Book 3: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road is one of those powerful books that leaves you thinking about humanity and your place in humanity. Good Guys and Bad Guys...what makes one good what makes one bad and given the situation which side would you choose? The Road takes place in a post apocalyptic world. There are no more cities no more towns just ash and the ruins of modern highways. One of the things that makes this book so powerful to me is that McCarty never fully explains how exactly the world cam to its demise. It left the reader room to wonder and worry what happened could it happen to use. So many of these recent Armageddon types of movies give such wordy explanations as to why the world is going to end that gives you license, to deny the validity of it ever happening to us. The Road offers to comforts how it ended and how it could have been prevented (no green messages) the world is gone and that's it.


The story is that of a man and his son trudging along the road trying to survive anyway they can. There names are never given they are referred to as the man and the boy. It is so compelling, they are all each other has, they only reason they have not given up is each other. They see horrors that are unspeakable. Death and destruction are commonplace to them. All along the road there are melted and charred remains of people and as horrible as they find it they have leaned to live it, it is there reality now, it has been the boys only reality. The other glimpses of people in this new world are horrible. Cannibals who scour the country side searching for people to kill and eat. They happen upon a house, a commune of sorts, where the cannibals have put the other humans in a cellar like hams in a smokehouse. They see a group of people roasting a headless and gutted infant (that scene was tough for me I almost had to stop reading).

Yet through all this the boy remains good, he wants to help others, even though they are starving to death he would give what little they have to someone else. Constantly worried about other people he is a beacon of light in a world that has gone black and he is his fathers only reason to live. They come upon a store of food underground (like a bunker you always hear crazy people building with canned food, blankets, batteries, shoes, everything they need (why they just do not say there still escapes me) and the first thing the boy wants to do is thank the people who died for giving them what they have. There really is no concept of God in this book the man has lost his faith and it leaves you to ask yourself  in a world like that wouldn't you?

In the end the road is long the going is tough and the man dies (he has been coughing blood for a long time and there is no medicine) The boy finds a family to go on with who have a little boy (they have been following them for a while he keeps seeing the little boy throughout the novel and they man does not believe him) Though the book is desolate and it seems there is no recovering from a world that is gone through this boy you think maybe the world can regain itself.

Book Two: Two Rivers by T. Greenwood

Two Rivers by T. Greenwood is one of the best books I have read in a while. It is so beautifully written that even though it toggles back and forth between two time periods you never feel lost. Both time lines are woven together so richly that the tapestry is never broken. So many times in books that switch time periods I have to keep flipping back to keep track of characters and events that happened previously but I did not have to flip back once in this book of course I could barely put the book down.

  Two rivers takes place in Two Rivers Vermont at the scene of a horrific train crash. Harper Montgomery a train station employee rushes to the river to help save however he can. There he meets a mysterious pregnant black girl who reminds him of a terrible event 12 years previous. A even that forever changed his life.

  I really do not want to put any spoilers n this I want you to read this book and be just has surprised and enthralled in this story as I was in the beginning and knowing certain events will ruin events in the story. So I will just give you a few key points that will not ruin anything.

 Harper is a single father to a daughter named Shelly, and he never feels like he has done right by her. Half of the story is the love story of Harper and Shelly's mother Betsy who dies the day Shelly was born (I wont tell you how because that will ruin something later in the story!) On the day Shelly was born and Betsy dies a terrible crime took place that Harper was involved with and ever since that day he has carried a heavy weight of guilt on his shoulders (again can not tell you what because it will ruin future events but I can say it was a racial crime and that is what compels him to take the girl in).Harpers mother was very involved with the civil rights movement despite there realtive isolation from events in Two Rivers.
 
I absolutly loved the love story between Harper and Betsy wich begins ay age twelve and never real;ly ends despite her death. Harper just loves her so unconditionally it breaks your heart to know she dies. When travels back in time and desribes their love story it just takes your breath away. It is not an in your face Romeo and Julliet affair. There love blossoms so slowly an so sweetly you have no doubt they were destuned to be together. They start out as best friends the kind of friends that share every thing together. a kind of friendship so rare many people never have the pleasure of having one. Harper loves Betsy from the very beginning the story is told completley from Harpers point of view so we never know excatly what Betsy is thinking but Harper kind of grows on her. He starts out her best friend and than she realizes he is much much more. There love finally is exactly where you would want it to be, married, baby on the way, tiny starter house and job prospects when Betsy dies and your aches to know how the story would have ended if things had just happened diffferent.

The book is beautiful bittersweet and will keep you awake all night worrying and wondering what will happen next. My husband found me awake at 3 am and assumed the baby had woken up but I just could not stop reading this book.

Book 1 :Gap Creek a story of a Marrige by Robert Morgan

 

 

 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.

Getting Bloggy with it: Blogging with purpose!

OK I have started out this blog with a mishmash of ideas talking about myself and my kids. I got the idea to blog form my sister who is currently blogging abut her trek through the world of health food follow her at http://www.stacycacciatore.com . I will admit I was jealous, that is something to think about something interesting to read, lets face it no one wanted to hear about you and your kids except for you and your family (unless you happen to be extremely interesting which I sadly am not)

What could I do that I could chronicle and might actually be interesting to read about? Dieting is out I am actually happy to be chubby thank you very much, also nix the whole exercising getting healthy thing, one its been done two, I have no interest and I would never stick with it. I could cook, I love to cook, then I saw Julie and Julia and well that was shot to hell. Then yesterday as a gleefully perused books in my favorite thrift store and excitedly squealing when I found worthwhile books I got my idea! I will read 100 books this year then blog about the finished books my honest opinion on them no holds barred.

It will not be easy... 100 book equals out to be roughly about 8 books a month. Starting at the end of this month I have finished three books and that was before I got the idea. I have a few books on my wish list to read ones I have always shied away from but have always been curious about. Top on my wish list is Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, Pride and Prejudice... I am hopeful that I can met this goals. I will be starting out light books I know I can read before I dedicate myself to the hard ones. The first book I read is Gap Creek as of ow I am half way through and I really enjoy the setting of the book and its main character. I will have a blog for you tomorrow as I see myself finishing it today.