Customer Reviews

The Jump-Off Creek

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A woman homesteads by herself in eastern Oregon. There are the standard dangers, problems, terrors and tragedies. This is saved from being trite by the stoic and undaunted character of the woman. Gloss also avoids the usual romantic happily-ever-after with the man next door.

Gloss has used journals and diaries of women in the West in hopes to draw out some of the nontraditional women's roles in the West, "I hope their strong, honest voices can be heard in this book." Showing that gender roles weren't fixed as many choose to believe, we see Lydia doing hard, manual labor, and Tim cooking and doing the wash. Lydia, the heroine of the book, abandons typical women's roles in the very beginning when she picks up and moves West alone to start a new life. "I'd rather have my own house, sorry as it is, than the wedding ring of a man who couldn't be roused from sleeping when his own child was slipping out of me unborn."

Gloss attempts to break down the Western stereotypes for men. Tim and Blue are like real men we could meet if we were on the frontier, not larger than life heroes that commonly dominate Western myths. Unlike heroes admired for their independence, Tim and Blue are dependant on others and each other on the frontier . They become almost like children in their dependence on others, "He turned and looked at her, ducking his chin." Things don't come easily for them and they struggle like any human being would have, "Tim put the gun down in the mud and went, shaking, across the bloody wallow on his knees." Even being a cowboy is rejected in this book, "He said he'd seen years when a good cowboy couldn't by himself a job, but a good cook could pretty much always find work."

Besides narrations from characters, Gloss utilizes Lydia's journal entries to make the story more real, personal, and familiar. This helps us recognize and remember Lydia's real identity, while the central narration builds the events of her daily life in a flowing form. Dreams of easy success are shot down in The Jump Off Creek. Giving a truer picture of the West, The Jump Off Creek is not a romanticized myth of adventure and easy success. Gloss establishes a view that shows the desperation of lives in a West where there is nothing new and glorious to see and experience every day. We see the miserable and wretched hard lives that one might have encountered. Fantasies of ease and comfort in the West are gone in this novel. It isn't a fairy tale like the traditional Western, where the good guy always wins, and the hero can handle any problem successfully. This book doesn't contain a lot of action, but instead it brings out the monotonous daily life of establishing a new home in the West and centers on the domestic side of the West. Gloss tells us of the every day grind and challenges of lives where sometimes people fail and hours of hard work are only the beginning of more hours of hard work.

The Jump Off Creek: A Book Review The nineteen nineties feminist movement has been slowly permeating every domain of society. Female empowerment has become an increasingly common protagonist theme among all genres of literature as well. The American western novel has become subjugated to a new hero. In Molly Gloss's novel The Jump Off Creek the feminist literature movement finds a graceful home.

Jump Off Creek tells the story of Lydia Sanderson, a widow taking up a claim in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. The text begins with a spring journal entry. This is the beginning of Ms. Sanderson's endeavor. The journal entries are continued throughout the story, not only to keep the reader aware of the time line of the story, but also to provide a unique first person account of Lydia's life story. Lydia says of herself, "I am used to being Alone, in spirit if not in body, and shall not be Lonely, as I never have been inclined that way. I believe what I feel is just a keenness to get to that place and stand under my own roof at last." Lydia's strong and independent character is a careful mix of gracefulness and ruggedness. Her resourcefulness and amazing endurance makes the Ingalls family look passé.

Yet the feminist tones of this book manage to make concessions and include some strong male characters to compliment Lydia. On her way to the homestead Lydia meets Tim Whiteaker. Tim is a John Wayne figure minus the capacity for conversation. Early in the text the model for Tim's behavior is clearly etched. One passage describes him as such: " He stood at the edge of the creek, not looking toward (Lydia), while he pushed his hair back up under his hat with the heel of one dirty hand. Then he gave the dog a word, took hold of the bay's reigns and started off afoot..." Gloss managed to soften this granite figure by making him an excellent cook. Tim even ends up taking up cooking at a nearby ranches when funds are running out. But while his bread baking and cattle branding may be time consuming, Mr. Whiteaker still manages to take time out to pay special visits to Ms Sanderson. It is through these visits that a fragile and special friendship blossoms just as Lydia's wildflowers.

Tim also serves as an avenue for another friendship to develop for Lydia. This being with Blue Odell. Blue triumphantly beats the so-called Indian side-kick role in this novel. He develops more three dimensionally than Tim. This is in part due to the relationship he has with Lydia. While these two characters have more dialogue, it is their physical interaction that speaks the true message.

Of course the standard Western elements are retained in this novel, even though the main characters have been assigned the opposite sex's code of conduct. Man still has to fight nature; the weather and a bear. The conflict of man vs. man is also important. In this case there is only one drunken fight, but the altercations between some unscrupulous wolf hunters and Lydia's male friends nourish the western need for violence.

Another important characteristic of a Western novel is the main character's quest for identity. Molly Gloss obviously wrote in the previous characters to aide in this task. But it often takes a character of the same sex on the opposite end of the personality spectrum to clearly define that identity. The definition comes via the means of Evelyn Walker. She is a young, rotund, bubbly, mother of three. Gloss's careful attention to these two women allow Evelyn's brightly smiling face to enhance Lydia's stern beauty, not diminish it any.

Lydia's character is also enhanced in the story through a series of social gatherings at the Walker's. The reader admires her quiet, near invertedness among the chatty and whimsical fourth of July celebration. This process of the reader identifying with Lydia is a slow process throughout the story. In fact, the nature of the text never moves the reader to feel very strongly about any of the characters, because indeed, Lydia never demonstrates any strong emotions. Perhaps the only persons the reader may ever develop active feelings towards are Lydia's late husband and her parents, who aren't even active in the story!

The simple link that the reader develops with Lydia, and which Lydia in turn shares with the characters, is reflective of the style of prose in which this novel was written. The plain language is honest and appealing. The matter-of-fact narrative is believable. Simply put, the journey the reader embarks on with Ms Sanderson develops into a wonderful meditative exploration of self. I thoroughly enjoyed my journey and strongly suggest that other readers pack their bags for the trip.

Molly Gloss' The Jump-Off Creek is a story about a woman's independence in Western society. It follows the lives of the three main characters; Lydia Sanderson, Tim Whiteaker, and Tim's Indian friend, Blue. Throughout the book, Gloss tells her story by using the different perspectives of her characters. These changes in points of view allow the reader to understand the main characters personalities and to watch them develop. Gloss uses the harshness of the West and its winters to strengthen her characters, and she tries to show her reader that life in the West was not as easy as it normally appears to be in typical western stories. The Jump-Off Creek demonstrates life through hardships and trials. But, through them all, the main characters are able to persevere and are made stronger. It is my opinion that her portrayal of the West was well done and will challenge the reader to think differently about how he or she conceives the West. Gloss' book is a western which shows the reader how a woman saw the West. No longer is the western only about cowboys and Indians. Now, the reader is allowed to see how a woman, and an independent one at that, perceived the West and the trials that she had to go through just in order to survive the first winter. Lydia Sanderson's husband had recently died and had left their farm land to her. With a restless soul and the need for transformation, Lydia is driven West to find a new life. However, Lydia does not go West to find a new husband. She does not need any help from a man, and is rather reluctant to accept any help from the opposite sex. She intends to make it on her own, and throughout the book, she does maintain her independence. She does not conform to the lifestyle of the other women in the West. Gloss uses to reflect women's position in today's society. Gloss intends to prove that a woman and survive without a man. And, what better way to prove this for the young women of today than through a story of the harsh West? Gloss keeps the theme of her abnormal depiction of the West in her portrayal of Tim Whiteaker. Mr. Whiteaker was not a typical cowboy. In fact, none of the men in this story are. The men in this book depend on each other a lot more than the men are allowed to in other westerns. Tim and Blue rely on each other so much that, in the end when Blue dies, Tim becomes so lonely that he begins to rely on Lydia's company. These men are also quite squeamish when it comes to blood and injuries. For example, after Blue is injured during a fight with a bear, Tim calls Lydia to stitch up Blue as he cannot stomach the thought of doing it himself. Tim even feels the need to step outside while she is working. Tim shows that he is not a typical cowboy in many other ways. He is a cook, and he even gets a job cooking at a ranch during part of the story. He never finishes a fight, at one time he falls off of his horse, and many times the reader sees that Tim has bad aim while shooting a gun. None of these are characteristics of a cowboy, and may make one wonder how he has been able to survive the harshness of the West. In her journal entries, Lydia constantly refers to Tim in childlike terms, as she often does while she speaks to him. Throughout The Jump-Off Creek, the weather plays a big part in the characters' lives. Especially during the winters, the reader is able to see how hard a settler had to work in able to get through an ice storm. A settler did not only have himself to worry about, but any animals that he might have, as they could not care for themselves during this weather. If the animals were to die, the settler would have a hard year to look forward to as his livelihood would be gone. The toughness of the land, and the weather that came with it, eventually drew the characters closer as they tried to band together in order to survive. I feel that Gloss's portrayal of the sexes in her book are quite beneficial to young women in today's society. So many times, in literature and other areas of life, women are called upon to take the "back seat," or a supporting role. In The Jump Off Creek, Gloss shows that this secondary role is not necessary. She shows her female readers that they should feel free to take the reigns and strike out on their own adventures. No longer must a woman need a man. Also, Gloss shows her male readers that it is "O.K." to ask for help. They need not "do it alone" as so many men feel they need to do in today's society. I enjoyed this book, and I believe that while it may challenge a person's traditional view of the West, it does so thoughtfully. Now, the reader is allowed to make their own decisions about "how the West was won," and to consider the role of the female. Could the West have survived without the woman? Gloss does not think that it would have. And, she challenges her reader to think the same.

An incredibly poignant novel that reads and feels as sharp and clear as a freezing cold running stream.

The author writes crisply, economically and precisely to reflect the times and circumstances of the lifestyle of Lydia Sanderson. Lydia is widowed and decides to purchase what remains of a forsaken homestead in the Blue Mountains. The challenges that she must face up to are great, being a woman, even greater, still. The work she must do is brutal, the weather a force to break men's souls, the physical labor more demanding than anything she knows. Yet she accepts this completely.

In brilliant detail the author portrays how this woman lived alone and prospered. It is a fascinating accounting of her lifestyle; the items she has in her possession, what she eats and how she transports herself and her animals. All of this is told conservatively as her journal recounts the challenges that unfold before her.

In contrast to her personal life, the reader is introduced to the folk that live nearest to her. These are strong and beautiful characters, tough and tender, strong and bending. In very difficult times, they came together and helped each other. Their spirit is reflected through the accounting of Lydia's story.

The novel Jump-Off Creek, written by author Molly Gloss, is a different kind of western set in Oregon. I really enjoyed this novel but I did not believe it should be classified as a western. Molly Gloss writes a novel in Jump-Off Creek that in many ways in not a western and breaks many norms of the average western. There are a couple reasons why this novel does not really fit the stereo-typical definition of a western at all. The first reason is that it is set in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, which is not the traditional setting for the average western. Most westerns have settings in California or down in Texas where there is nothing but wide open desert with little towns in between. The second reason, one that I enjoyed, is the strong woman in the lead role of this novel. This novel has a female center rather than a male center or theme. The idea of a strong woman presence in the typical western is not usually found. It was something I found interesting in the novel and again enjoyed. This woman, unlike many found in a typical western, is committed to her life of independence. Also, along with the strong woman as one of the lead characters, there was a Native American as the hero of the novel. It you look at most average westerns, either in books or films, you will not find many minority heroes running around. This was a different look at the average western and again one I would like to see more from today's writers. As far as characters go, I felt the author really did not spend to much time developing and making them interesting. I felt the characters in many ways were one-dimensional, and as a reader I did not have a lot of emotion for them or I just did not care about many of the character. The only character I felt any emotion for was the Native American character named Blue. The first reason I found him interesting was because he has a very different name that grabbed my attention toward his character over the others. This can be the key the author needed to get the reader into the novel and start caring. The second reason I found Blue to be interesting was the fact that he was one of the most caring characters in the story and I felt he had a heart. Blue showed emotion though out the novel and was easily the most interesting. He can be described as a rounded character because he is a person with many dimensions while many of the other character are only one-dimensional. In most westerns the fight scenes is one of the reason there is such a huge following and why they are so liked by many. The fight scene is there to show the masculinity of the western. For example, in Hondo the last fight scene is what the reader remembers best and judges the whole novel on. Without the last fight scene many novels are forgotten. The fight scenes are very weak in Jump-Off Creek, which again is not the style of the average western. Lack of action and the boring pace of everyday life furthers this novel from being a western. The masculinity of this novel is never shown through the fight scene and a more femininity is shown with a female as the center character. Something I did really like about this novel which again was a little different from many of the westerns I have seen was the journal throughout the story. About every twenty pages or more there is a short chapter that contains thoughts of the main character about anything. I enjoyed this aspect of the novel and felt it gave originality and creativity. It also stopped the boring pace of the novel and gave the reader something to think about. Overall, I feel this novel is not a western but more of a country tale set in Oregon. It feels more like a country novel because there are no big deserts or little one-stop towns. With the slow pace and weak fight scenes the novel does not set the feeling of a western. Also, with the presences of a strong woman and an Native American hero, many stereo type of westerns are being broken. Although, I really enjoyed the strong woman and Native American as character and overall liked this novel, I still feel this cannot be described as a western.

Finally, a Western that does not sugar-coat frontier life or turn it into a non-stop/action-packed gun fight! This novel is a refreshing, well researched, trip back to the frontier days of the Pacific Northwest. Gloss presents us with characters that feel very real and very ordinary, but somehow adds a rare grace to their lives. The flow of her writing is delightful (as always) and I found myself very disappointed to reach the end of this novel--I didn't want to stop reading!

I should add, though, that this is not a novel for those who require books to be jam-packed with action--you will not find much adrenalin in this story! On the other hand, if you are looking for a really good historical fiction read, this is a great book for a rainy afternoon.

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

This story felt like I was living there...feeling, tasting, sweating, right along with the characters. I would have sworn Gloss was taking this word for word from the woman's diary. Being thrilled by such everyday struggles like getting a mule down the hill..now thats what I call virtual reality. I was so enthralled by the "cowboys"...kept thinking I never would have dreamed I'de love a book like this so much...but it was so true and delicious. Thanks for taking me to Oregon in the 1890's. It was a thrilling, amazing adventure. The struggle's the pioneers endured were incredible...so much more so for a woman, and a woman alone at that!

The Jump-Off Creek The American West: a place of fun and excitement, action and adve nture. These stereotypes often come to mind when thinking about the West. However, do these terms ideally describe the real American West? In her novel, The Jump-Off Creek, Molly Gloss offers an opposing perspective of the Western frontier. Instead of focusing on the excitement of the West, she shows the struggles and hardships that may give a more realistic picture of the frontier. The Jump-Off Creek gives the reader a well-rounded portrayal of the West. Contrary to most Western novels, The Jump-Off Creek allows the reader to see the West through the eyes of a woman. Lydia Sanderson travels to the West alone where she makes her homestead. Lydia is not a glamorous woman but a woman of the land. Her life is not simple. It is a daily struggle for her to survive on her own. Unlike most Western novels the hero in the book is not a male. In fact, Lydia is definitely the heroine in The Jump-Off Creek. She represents the strength most women wish they could achieve but are afraid of being alone. Lydia ignores fears of being without a man and follows her dream of traveling West. Her courage is admirable and it is that which kept me turning the pages of the novel. The focus of The Jump-Off Creek is not on action or adventure and its scenes are not glamorous and beautiful. Instead it shows the often overlooked and sometimes ugly side of everyday life of the frontier and the strength it took just to survive. Although the traditional West is not always prevalent, in small passages throughout the text there are some glimpses of the West. A native American and his cowboy friend, Blue and Tim, are involved in two scenarios that are familiar to former Western novels. The two major characters are intertwined in both a bar fight and a struggle with a bear in the wilderness. However, the endings of the two scenes contrasts with the fights of typical Westerns. In both instances, the two "heroes" are defeated. After the quarrel behind the bar, Blue and Tim are left in pain. "Tim lay where he was, drawn up protectively around his genitals. His ears rang. He breathed carefully through his mouth. After a long time he heard a Pianola playing through the wall of the building next to him, and after that Blue said, 'Sh*t,' on a high coughing gasp. Tim made a small sound too, meaning it to be a laugh, but it came out soft, a sigh." Blue and Tim are not invincible like typical Western heroes. They are mortal. Unlike the heroes of many Westerns they do not escape a brawl without a bruise or scratch. Blue and Tim show the realistic human qualities of pain and suffering. Throughout the novel Gloss thoughtfully includes journal entries written by Lydia to display the dialect of real women of the West. "8 April Lost the way on poor directions but I am here now and glad for it, tho it is bad as I knew it would be, the stove rusted clear through, the roof rotted, the logs poor fitted and mildewed, the yard where the Animals must stand all Mud and stones." Through Lydia's journal we feel as if we are beside her in her adventures of surviving alone and we realize the harshness of her situation as she is making her own home on the frontier. While Lydia's views are most prominent throughout the text, Gloss uses smooth transitions to also write in the perspective of other characters. For example, Blue's viewpoint emerges in one chapter beginning with the following sentences: "A woman rode out of the trees and stopped at the top of the hill to let down the fence rails. Blue saw her before Tim did." Although Gloss does not come right out and tell the reader that she is writing from Blue's perspective, it can quickly be inferred. While writing from the perspective of other characters one can get a feel for the distinct personalities of these characters. The use of many perspectives is a very beneficial literary device that Gloss thoughtfully uses to give the reader insight to each main identity. The conclusion of The Jump-Off Creek left me with a sense of disappointment. However, realistically, the ending contained a truth about the West that is often glamorized in most novels to leave the reader with a sense of false belief of the real frontier. Gloss reminds us that in the West not every story ended "happily ever after." The question remains for the reader of The Jump-Off Creek: what is the real West? Is it the West of John Wayne in Hondo or is it the harsh life of Lydia Sanderson in The Jump-Off Creek? The answer is ambiguous: we cannot define it in simple terms. No doubt, both the excitement of Hondo and the reality of The Jump- Off Creek existed simultaneously. The Jump-Off Creek is a fast reading novel that offers a contrasting perspective of the frontier and leaves the reader with a more troubling, complex, and real picture of the American West.

Molly Gloss's The Jump Off Creek is a Western, but not a typical one. The first contrast to a typical Western is that this book is female centered, not male centered. Gloss has used journals and diaries of women in the West in hopes to draw out some of the nontraditional women's roles in the West, "I hope their strong, honest voices can be heard in this book." Showing that gender roles weren't fixed as many chose to believe, we see Lydia doing hard, manual labor, and Tim cooking and doing the wash. Lydia, the heroine of the book, abandons typical women's roles in the very beginning when she picks up and moves West alone to start a new life. "I'd rather have my own house, sorry as it is, than the wedding ring of a man who couldn't be roused from sleeping when his own child was slipping out of me unborn." This isn't what we would expect to read had this book been written in the 50's when gender roles were fixed. What we see is the 80's ideology that a woman can make it without a man by her side, "She changed off, sawing through a butt and then splitting it, piling up the shingles on a tarp and dragging the hillock behind her back to the house before she bucked the next one." Gloss attempts to break down the Western stereotypes for men. Tim and Blue are like real men we could meet if we were on the frontier, not larger than life heros that commonly dominate Western myths. Unlike heroes admired for their independence, Tim and Blue are dependant on others and each other on the frontier . They become almost like children in their dependance on others, "He turned and looked at her, ducking his chin." Things don't come easily for them and they struggle like any human being would have, "Tim put the gun down in the mud and went, shaking, across the bloody wallow on his knees." Even being a cowboy is rejected in this book, "He said he'd seen years when a good cowboy couldn't by himself a job, but a good cook could pretty much always find work." The central narrator is constantly shifting in this book. While this is unexpected for a Western, I enjoy the build up of different stories and thoughts that can emerge from this style of writing. Besides narrations from characters, Gloss utilizes Lydia's journal entries written in her actual voice making the story more real, personal, and familiar. This helps us recognize and remember Lydia's real identity, while the central narration builds the events of her daily life in a flowing form. Dreams of easy success are shot down in The Jump Off Creek. Giving a truer picture of the West, The Jump Off Creek is not a romanticized myth of adventure and easy success. Gloss establishes a view that shows the desperation of lives in a West where there is nothing new and glorious to see and experience every day. We see the miserable and wretched hard lives that one might have encountered. Fantasies of ease and comfort in the West are gone in this novel. It isn't a fairy tale like the traditional Western, where the good guy always wins, and the hero can handle any problem successfully. This book doesn't contain a lot of action, but instead it brings out the monotonous daily life of establishing a new home in the West and centers on the domestic side of the West. Gloss tells us of the every day grind and challenges of lives where sometimes people fail and hours of hard work are only the beginning of more hours of hard work.