Ms. Cussy is a true blue gem!
The Fugates of KY, carriers of a rare gene called methemoglobeinemia, had blue skin due to red blood cells carrying methemoglobin at levels higher than 1%. In laymen’s terms, the hemoglobin can carry oxygen but it’s not able to release it effectively to body tissues. This also makes the blood look like chocolate. Thanks medline plus! This book is based loosely on that family and the struggles they faced, as they were considered “colored” in those times, as well as the WPA, the government’s Works Progress Administration, which was instrumental in helping create the book women in Kentucky, who rode miles on horseback, on mules, through hollers, up creeks, and anywhere they were needed in Kentucky to ensure that the library program was reaching people that had little been exposed to reading before. Most rural schools didn’t have a library so these women were exposing children and families to books and bringing the outside world to Appalachia in a way it had never been before. Ok, enough history, onto The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.
Troublesome Creek is a real place (about 113 miles southeast of Lexington), as was the WPA, the book women, and the blue Fugates. Ms. Cussy Mary, her patrons, her pa, her patrons, and the like are all a work of fiction, but it brings the region and the tale to life in an absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking, and sometimes rage inducing way. Her pa is a coal miner, because of course he is. There was very little other gainful employment in the region back then, and we get emotionally drawn in as his health and well-being is sacrificed in favor of others since he’s “just a blue” and isn’t considered as high value as the white miners. Richardson creates in Cussy (our protagonist, and a beautifully rendered woman of her time that values books above all else) a true gem. She knows just how to draw out each patron, what will work to get that recalcitrant patron’s interest in the library program, how to get that moonshinin’ father to let his boys read her books, how far one kind gesture can go in getting nearly an entire town to support her in a moment of need. But deep down, she still feels less than at some moments. She still wants to know what it feels like to not be considered less than because of the color of her skin. Doc offers her that when he discovers that she suffers from a gene disorder related to oxygen after a particularly violent visit to the hospital. Cussy has a choice to make at this point. Is she willing to accept herself as she is? As a certain patron of hers sees the inner beauty that she already holds? Or will she given in because of the hateful taunting and disgust that she sees on the faces of townsfolk when she visits the library center in town?
I got utterly sucked in by this book. Richardson has painted a picture from the unique characters, to the heartbreaking pain and poverty that ransacked the Appalachian region in the 30s. It’s a little bit history book, a little bit love story, some pain and some joy, all interwoven into the perfect kind of story for people that can share a kinship with the kind of woman that would ride miles to share her love of stories. If you love to read as much as I do, and would do just about anything to share the joy of books, this story is for you.
Troublesome Creek is a real place (about 113 miles southeast of Lexington), as was the WPA, the book women, and the blue Fugates. Ms. Cussy Mary, her patrons, her pa, her patrons, and the like are all a work of fiction, but it brings the region and the tale to life in an absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking, and sometimes rage inducing way. Her pa is a coal miner, because of course he is. There was very little other gainful employment in the region back then, and we get emotionally drawn in as his health and well-being is sacrificed in favor of others since he’s “just a blue” and isn’t considered as high value as the white miners. Richardson creates in Cussy (our protagonist, and a beautifully rendered woman of her time that values books above all else) a true gem. She knows just how to draw out each patron, what will work to get that recalcitrant patron’s interest in the library program, how to get that moonshinin’ father to let his boys read her books, how far one kind gesture can go in getting nearly an entire town to support her in a moment of need. But deep down, she still feels less than at some moments. She still wants to know what it feels like to not be considered less than because of the color of her skin. Doc offers her that when he discovers that she suffers from a gene disorder related to oxygen after a particularly violent visit to the hospital. Cussy has a choice to make at this point. Is she willing to accept herself as she is? As a certain patron of hers sees the inner beauty that she already holds? Or will she given in because of the hateful taunting and disgust that she sees on the faces of townsfolk when she visits the library center in town?
I got utterly sucked in by this book. Richardson has painted a picture from the unique characters, to the heartbreaking pain and poverty that ransacked the Appalachian region in the 30s. It’s a little bit history book, a little bit love story, some pain and some joy, all interwoven into the perfect kind of story for people that can share a kinship with the kind of woman that would ride miles to share her love of stories. If you love to read as much as I do, and would do just about anything to share the joy of books, this story is for you.