exploring books | THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK
Shades of Blue Mary Ann DeSantis Photography courtesy of Kim Michele Richardson
A moving story about the power of literacy over bigotry and fear, “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” tackles issues as pertinent today as they were during the Great Depression. It would be hard to find anyone as fierce and brave as the Kentucky packhorse librarians during the 1930s and early 1940s. Trudging through treacherous Appalachian mountainsides, overgrown thickets, and isolated settings, the librarians knew the power of reading and how it could make a difference in the lives of the people they served. Inspired by the true story of the Kentucky Pack Horse Library Service during the 1930s, author Kim Michele Richardson took “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” to the next level with its main character, Cussy Mary Carter, a blue-skinned woman (resulting from a real-life genetic blood disorder called methemoglobinemia). Cussy makes her deliveries on the back of her faithful pack mule, Junia, and considers her job necessary and one that will give her “a respectable life” despite her father’s strong objections. Cussy is highly regarded as the “Book Woman,” but as a Blue, she is feared and reviled. She experiences racism, discrimination, and violence, but her will and determination to survive inspire not only the characters who receive her book deliveries but also today’s readers. “When I sold this novel in the fall of 2017, I never dreamed it would mirror today’s world — the themes of sexism, racism, ageism, classism, nationalism, religious 30 DeSoto
prejudice that cripple society and how ignorance and fear breeds hate and toxicity into cultures,” says Richardson. “But every day when writing this book, I was reminded that poverty and marginalization were not so much economics or politics or societal issues as much as human issues that are best grappled with by reaching deep into the lives of those suffering them.” Richardson’s own childhood of growing up in an abusive Eastern Kentucky orphanage that has since closed its doors provided her with empathy that translates to the book’s characters. “As a survivor of abuse, poverty, homelessness, and more, I can relate to marginalized people and have much empathy for Cussy Mary and her family and the people of my state — anyone who has faced or faces prejudices and hardship,” says Richardson, who still lives in Kentucky. “It’s not hard to feel pain deeply, particularly if you’ve gone through hardships in your own life.” Richardson wrote about some of those personal experiences in her best-selling memoir, “The Unbreakable Child.” She also authored the critically acclaimed novels,
