The Jump-Off Creek: A PEN/Faulkner Finalist – A Modern Western Classic of Survival in the American West

This book got very high reviews, and it left me wondering why. It's well-written, and as you get to know the characters, you want to know more about them. And then...the book ends. In the middle of winter. You have no idea what happens to the people in the book, or if the main character even makes it through the first winter homesteading. I looked to see if there was another volume or something, but didn't find one. Maybe the author was working against a deadline and ran out of time? I don't know, but it felt unfinished, and I found it dissatisfying.

I really like the way she writes, but it was a little too graphic and gory for me. There was no tenderness or feeling.

The main character is a widow who has traveled alone and seemingly poorly equipped to Oregon in the earliest pioneer days to establish herself as a settler in the wilderness. She and the few other characters of The Jump-Off Creek are a taciturn lot, who communicate in monosyllabic ways whenever they briefly encounter one another. But that type of personality is probably accurate to the almost hermit type of lifestyle, in which the simple solo life seems almost impossible to sustain, if one has any social inclinations..The main "character" of the book is the incredibly rugged pioneer life in which this handful of people are immersed. They are seemingly undaunted. It is described in detail which Author Molly Glass has researched for authenticity..I can not imagine suffering through that lifestyle. Her pathetically few belongings seem insufficient to live in the deep forest where freezing ice storms, bear attacks and wolves, as well as violent neighbors are everyday reality. The snow blows through the spaces in her log cabin walls, her means of getting around is on the back of her touchingly spavined old mule, she has only one warm garment which is her deceased husband's old coat and gloves, she bathes infrequently, and the author describes the smell of the people in detail. Death is a reality, viewed dispassionately.I was hooked into completely finishing the book, when it ended quite suddenly. It would make a good movie...probably a silent film since there is so little dialog, and little exploration of the inner feelings of the characters, which must generally be ascertained mostly by observing their behavior.

This book may not be for everyone. But it certainly was for me.

I probably shouldn't be reading Molly Gloss. I'm a guy, after all. But maybe, at 64, some of the nastiness of being a guy has finally worn off. Because I love the way this woman writes. The Hearts of Horses hooked me, Wild Life wowed me, and now, this earlier absolute gem of a novel just blew me away. How does she do this thing where the essence of the story lies in what is not said? Lydia Sanderson, Tim Whiteaker, Blue Odell. None of them say very much of any real significance. All are stoic and uncomplaining of the "narrow circumstances" life has dealt them. In fact they are nearly inarticulate; yet all these feelings - of yearning and loneliness, of sorrow and regret, they are all somehow laid bare in the pauses. The descriptions, the gestures, the sidelong glances, the facial expressions - all become muted dialogue. Even the one character who seems unabashedly bad, the angry bigoted boy that is Harley Osgood, has an element of humanity in him that doesn't quite let you hate him. There are no simple black-and-white characters in Gloss's fiction. There are, instead, infinite shades of gray, and an attention to descriptive detail that makes you understand implicitly much of what is left unsaid. The years-long friendship between the two cowboys Whiteaker and Odell is perhaps one of the best portrayals of love between men that fiction has to offer. And I'm not talking about any "Brokeback Mountain" kinda stuff here either. These are just two men who have stuck together through thick and thin, mostly the latter, and a bond has formed that is stronger than most marriages. Enough said. This is simply a superb story. There oughta be a ten-star rating for books of this caliber. And by the way, what a wonderful film for thinking adults this could be. Thanks again, Molly. I'll be watching for the next book, so please, Write on! - Tim Bazzett, author of ReedCityBoy

THE JUMP-OFF CREEK is the third Molly Gloss tale I've read over the last two days, after  The Hearts of Horses  and  Falling from Horses . That should be your first clue on how highly I am enjoying these books.Lydia Sanderson, widowed, leaves Pennsylvania and moves across the country with two mules and two goats and all her worldly possessions to homestead a small piece of property in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. It is during the Depression of 1895 and times are very hard for most everyone.She meets her close neighbors, ranchers Tim Whiteaker and Blue Odell, right away and they are able to help each other out. But Lydia is determined to make it on her own.Lydia is a strong, determined female protagonist - one who I would love to meet in real life. The details of living in this bygone time are interesting and bring this era to life for the reader. The dialogue flows effortlessly. It is not surprising that this first novel of author Gloss won literary awards.I highly recommend this unique tale of a single woman, battling the elements and braving life alone in a run-down shanty - to history buffs, lovers of Western dramas and advocates of self-sufficient women.

The book was for my wife and she enjoyed it immensely.