REVIEW: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

 This time, for the Southern Literature Reading Challenge, we travel to the hollers of Depression era Kentucky. 19 year old Cussy Mary (named after the region in France where her family hailed from) and her widowed father live in the isolated woods of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. Cussy's father, Eli, is a miner and Cussy works for the WPA as a librarian with the Pack Horse Library Project to help make ends meet. They are also the last of the blue people of Kentucky (they really existed - their family is based upon the Fugate family) and are considered "colored," and as such, have to deal with the racism associated with that.  We follow Cussy on her journeys on the circuit, riding on Junia - her mule - and meeting the people that she meets. 

I loved Cussy - she's kind of a badass travelling through hard conditions to deliver books to her patrons. But she's a lot of other things besides: compassionate, giving, smart, thoughtful, determined, brave and a difference maker.  She helps the children that go to the school on her circuit and administers first aid, as well as companionship (her relationship with a nearly blind older woman is particularly touching). In addition to the books that she delivers from libraries, she creates her own scrapbooks with items that she thinks are interesting - poems, recipes, first aid ideas and a whole lot more - to distribute amongst her patrons in the hopes that it will make their lives a little bit easier. 

There were a number of different themes in this book that were important and hooked me.  Cussy experiences racism and we see the tragic impact of its action on her - everything from disease and abuse to arrests.  The impacts have other tragic ends as well. I also was hooked by the coal miner and labor struggles that were occurring at the time - Cussy's father was a labor organizer and occasionally talked about it to Cussy. Additionally, Cussy experienced some medical "treatment" and experimentation at the hands of the medical community that was very eye opening - it reminded me in some ways of Henrietta Lacks (in the sense that it wasn't voluntary or always knowing). We learn a lot about love, loss, poverty, and interracial relationships.  

Definitely recommended.