Book review by Jill Hedgecock
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (2019, paperback, Sourcebooks Landmark, 322 pages, $9.75) by Kim Michele Richardson, was inspired by the real life “blue people” of Kentucky, and a little known literacy program. The Packhorse Librarians of the Appalachians was a unique program funded by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression. The narrator is 19-year-old Cussy Mary Carter, a woman whose skin turns blue when she is agitated or excited. She is considered colored and suffers the prejudices of a small coal mining town in the 1930s Kentucky. Cussy lives with her ailing father who works in the local coal mine. Cussy was named after the village in France where her family originated, but most people call her Bluet or Book Woman.
She doesn’t mind being called “Book Woman.” She loves riding her mule into the backwoods to hand-deliver library materials to her patrons. Her father, however, wants to marry her off. Cussy’s blue coloration resulted in marriage to an unsavory man. Her husband’s untimely death results in her inheriting a sure-footed mule named Junia. Junia is a cantankerous animal and, like Cussy, a survivor. The pack horse’s fierce loyalty to Cussy makes the creature an endearing character.
The historical details on the library materials, which are donated, offer an interesting sidebar, particularly the scrapbooks created by the Packhorse Librarians. These books contained recipes, fabric swatches, and practical guidance from the local community.
Cussy’s grit and determination to reach her library patrons under extreme hardships will endear readers, and the bigotry she endures makes her a sympathetic protagonist. The extreme poverty and hunger she and her book patrons endure is startling and reeks of realism. Cussy is both despised and feared for her condition, which is eventually diagnosed as methemoglobinemia, a rare genetic blood disorder. After the discovery, Cussy takes methylene blue pills which make her very sick and doesn’t result in community acceptance.
While some characters in this book display ignorance, many of the country-folk are kind. As the mountain people overcome their reluctance and suspicion of the library materials, their lives are enhanced as they embrace the knowledge in them.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has earned a 2019 LibraryReads Best Book, a 2019 Forbes Best Historical Novel, 2020 PBS Readers Choice, an Oprah’s Buzziest Books pick and a Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads selection.
Kim Michele Richardson is a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today bestselling author. She has written four works of historical fiction, and a bestselling memoir, The Unbreakable Child. Richardson was born in Kentucky and lives in the northern part of the state, She rented a cabin near the Appalachian Mountains in South Carolina for a year in order to conduct research for the novel. She is a book critic for the New York Journal of Book. Her novels include: Liar’s Bench, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field, and The Sisters of Glass Ferry. To learn more, visit www.kimmichelerichardson.com.
Fans of The Book of Lost Names by Lisa Wyngate, Where the Crawdad’s Sing by Delia Owens and The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd should enjoy this novel. Infused with meticulous research, inspirational prose, and compelling characters, this novel ranks one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time.
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