The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek Themes

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek follows 19-year-old Cussy Mary Carter, a Pack Horse librarian in rural Kentucky in the 1930s. She and her Pa are the last members of their “kind,” a family with a rare genetic blood disorder that tinges their skin blue. Cussy faces discrimination and abuse for her blue skin. Her place and time are deeply segregated; she and her colleague, Queenie Johnson, are labeled “colored” and treated poorly…

Cussy Mary Carter, the Book Woman of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, is a 19-year-old Pack Horse librarian. The Pack Horse library program, funded and administered by the WPA, brought books to extremely rural and impoverished Kentuckians. In providing a window into the lives of Cussy and her patrons, the novel celebrates the power of books and reading to improve people’s lives, expand their minds, and help them make sense of…

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is set at a time when many things were changing in America. Cussy Mary and her patrons are aware that they live in a time of technological and scientific revolution. Patrons want Popular Mechanics magazines to read about new equipment and farming practices; women are trading their mountain home remedies for the latest cures described in Woman’s Home Companion. Yet, their lives don’t look very modern. Most people…

The people who populate the rural Kentucky mountainsides in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek must be fiercely independent to eke an existence from the harsh environment and to survive the hardships of the Great Depression. Autonomy—being in charge of one’s life and oneself—is highly valued in this community. Miss Loretta lives alone despite being nearly blind (although she accepts Cussy Mary’s companionship and help once a week); Devil John refuses to send…