A review by nghia
The Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss
4.0
I was fairly equivocal about Anna North's [b:Outlawed|50997696|Outlawed|Anna North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1588469822l/50997696._SY75_.jpg|70941655] alt-history, post-apocalyptic, Western meets Handmaid's Tale story. But I saw another lukewarm reviewer mention [a:Molly Gloss|265964|Molly Gloss|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1479729755p2/265964.jpg] and [a:Paulette Jiles|70102|Paulette Jiles|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1346771427p2/70102.jpg] as better "feminist Westerns" (though without the speculative fiction twist) so I decided to give both of them a try in an effort to broaden my reading a bit.
...And I really liked The Jump-Off Creek!
This is low-key, almost plot-less, slice-of-life about homesteaders in very remote Oregon circa 1895. It is primarily centered on a single woman, Lydia Sanderson, who is recently widowed and has had enough of being tied to a man and craves a life of her own. She uses her entire, meager, life savings to buy a very marginal homestead and makes a go of it on her own.
Somewhere or other, it mention that Molly Gloss based a lot of this on unpublished diaries of actual women homesteaders in Oregon. And it feels quite a lot like a set of diary entries. There's not really a big plot or character arc. Yes, Lydia's life isn't easy but this isn't a story of her struggle and eventual triumph making a homestead, discovering herself along the way.
The closest thing to a "plot" is the simmering confrontation between her closest neighbors (Tim & Blue) and some wolfers (people who hunt wolfs for the state-sponsored bounty), which doesn't actually affect Lydia in any way whatsoever.
Instead we mostly get a series of vignettes about homesteading by Lydia, Tim, and Blue. It is all pretty interesting and makes crystal clear how hard scrabble life was for many homesteaders. That part is all very interesting but what really drew me in was how Gloss made clear that all of these people are...pretty uncomfortable being around other people. There's kind of a reason they're all homesteaders in the middle of nowhere.
Nearly all of the characters are not distant and awkward with one another...they are distant and awkward with their own feelings. Tim & Blue have worked and lived together for 20 years but in many ways barely know one another. The book is full of their terse conversations, rarely more than a handful of words exchanged, and never about anything other than the work of staying alive in a hard frontier.
There's one scene late in the book that shows this exquisitely. Tim & Blue have a pair of dogs that it is clear they care about. One of the dogs is dying, slowly, either poisoned or sick. Blue brings it to Lydia on the hope that maybe she can do something. She can't and the two of them watch the dog slowly, painfully, die.
Even here, Blue is so stoic it almost hurts your heart. You wish you could give him a hug.
...And I really liked The Jump-Off Creek!
This is low-key, almost plot-less, slice-of-life about homesteaders in very remote Oregon circa 1895. It is primarily centered on a single woman, Lydia Sanderson, who is recently widowed and has had enough of being tied to a man and craves a life of her own. She uses her entire, meager, life savings to buy a very marginal homestead and makes a go of it on her own.
I shall not see Mrs Mailer nor perhaps any woman, at least until the Fall if I am still alive then and able to come out for my Winter’s nec. But 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.
Somewhere or other, it mention that Molly Gloss based a lot of this on unpublished diaries of actual women homesteaders in Oregon. And it feels quite a lot like a set of diary entries. There's not really a big plot or character arc. Yes, Lydia's life isn't easy but this isn't a story of her struggle and eventual triumph making a homestead, discovering herself along the way.
The closest thing to a "plot" is the simmering confrontation between her closest neighbors (Tim & Blue) and some wolfers (people who hunt wolfs for the state-sponsored bounty), which doesn't actually affect Lydia in any way whatsoever.
She counted ridges, guessing out where the Jump-Off Creek cut its gully. But from here there were no marks of human society, the trees owned the world.
Instead we mostly get a series of vignettes about homesteading by Lydia, Tim, and Blue. It is all pretty interesting and makes crystal clear how hard scrabble life was for many homesteaders. That part is all very interesting but what really drew me in was how Gloss made clear that all of these people are...pretty uncomfortable being around other people. There's kind of a reason they're all homesteaders in the middle of nowhere.
She had been months encountering people singly or by twos: her heart turned over when she saw there were already six men or seven standing about in the yard as she rode the mule slowly up the narrow track off the Oberfield Road.
Nearly all of the characters are not distant and awkward with one another...they are distant and awkward with their own feelings. Tim & Blue have worked and lived together for 20 years but in many ways barely know one another. The book is full of their terse conversations, rarely more than a handful of words exchanged, and never about anything other than the work of staying alive in a hard frontier.
There's one scene late in the book that shows this exquisitely. Tim & Blue have a pair of dogs that it is clear they care about. One of the dogs is dying, slowly, either poisoned or sick. Blue brings it to Lydia on the hope that maybe she can do something. She can't and the two of them watch the dog slowly, painfully, die.
He [ed: Blue] kept looking at the dog with no particular feeling in his face. “Well then if you don’t mind, I’ll let him stay where he is until there’s a change.”
Even here, Blue is so stoic it almost hurts your heart. You wish you could give him a hug.