The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
About halfway through this intense, thoughtful novel, I had the thought that it may be one of the best books I have ever read.
Then it got better.
So, before I go any further, let me urge you to go out and buy this book. Or borrow it from your local library. Just go read it.
The book explores two issues, one that I was familiar with, and the second I was unaware of but happy to learn about. The book's protagonist, Cussy Mary Carter, is one of the Blue Fugates of Kentucky, mountain people who because of a rare blood condition and much inbreeding, had blue skin.To help survive in the rugged environment of Eastern Kentucky, Cussy joins the Pack Horse Library project, a WPA program that delivered books to the isolated people in the area. (I had heard about the Fugates: I was unaware of the Pack Horse project.)
Martin Fugate moved from France to the Troublesome Creek area of Hazard County, Ky., around 1800. Against all odds, he married a Kentucky woman who carried the same rare recessive gene as he did -- one that lacked a critical enzyme in the blood, causing it to have a chocolate-brown color, which in turn made the skin appear blue. Because of their isolation, members of the family married and had children with each other. This resulted in the recessive gene occurring more frequently, resulting in the condition later identified as methemoglobinemia. (I tried to find a photo of a family member online, but none seemed legitimate. They were either falsely colored, exploitative, or not a member of the Fugate clan.)
President Franklin Roosevelt created the The Pack Horse project as part of the Works Project Administration in 1935. It was meant to bring books to the schools and isolated cabins in Appalachia. It hired mostly women, and a few men, to walk or ride horses or mules across the rugged land. The people receiving the books were grateful for both the visitors and reading material, which they otherwise would do without.
But I digress. Back to the book.
Cussy Mary lives in a two-room cabin in an almost inaccessible holler near Troublesome Creek. Her only human companion is her father, a coal miner suffering from black-lung disease, who is eager to marry her off before he dies. He is active in the efforts to organize the miners, a dangerous position to take in Hazard County in the 1930s. Cussy is a blue woman, perhaps the last of her kind. She is sometimes called Bluet, because her color resembles a wildflower that grows near her home in the Appalachian mountains.
As fictional characters, Cussy and her father are used to give a primer on the poverty in the Eastern Kentucky mountains, and the effect it has on the people of the area. It shows the devastating impact mining coal has had on the beauty and health of the natural surroundings, and on the community.
It shows the barriers Cussy must face because of her color, her gender, and her isolation. For instance, in one anecdote, she is forced to obey the hastily hung "no coloreds" sign in the restroom of the library room where she picks up the books and magazines for the people along her Pack Horse route. Richardson captures how the books she delivers show how Cussy's world, and the world of her neighbors, is sometimes beyond their ken.
The writing is extraordinary, as the above illustrates. It's vivid and sensitive, filled with descriptive phrases. Richardson reaches perfection in her use of dialect -- just the right amount to give flavor to the speech of the people, but not too much that it appears mocking, is annoying, or hard to understand. Richardson has a keen ear.
She also has a keen heart and mind, pulling us in to watch her characters live their lives, allowing us to feel empathy and a certain kinship, even though their circumstance are far different in time and place to our own.
So, before I go any further, let me urge you to go out and buy this book. Or borrow it from your local library. Just go read it.
The book explores two issues, one that I was familiar with, and the second I was unaware of but happy to learn about. The book's protagonist, Cussy Mary Carter, is one of the Blue Fugates of Kentucky, mountain people who because of a rare blood condition and much inbreeding, had blue skin.To help survive in the rugged environment of Eastern Kentucky, Cussy joins the Pack Horse Library project, a WPA program that delivered books to the isolated people in the area. (I had heard about the Fugates: I was unaware of the Pack Horse project.)
Martin Fugate moved from France to the Troublesome Creek area of Hazard County, Ky., around 1800. Against all odds, he married a Kentucky woman who carried the same rare recessive gene as he did -- one that lacked a critical enzyme in the blood, causing it to have a chocolate-brown color, which in turn made the skin appear blue. Because of their isolation, members of the family married and had children with each other. This resulted in the recessive gene occurring more frequently, resulting in the condition later identified as methemoglobinemia. (I tried to find a photo of a family member online, but none seemed legitimate. They were either falsely colored, exploitative, or not a member of the Fugate clan.)
President Franklin Roosevelt created the The Pack Horse project as part of the Works Project Administration in 1935. It was meant to bring books to the schools and isolated cabins in Appalachia. It hired mostly women, and a few men, to walk or ride horses or mules across the rugged land. The people receiving the books were grateful for both the visitors and reading material, which they otherwise would do without.
But I digress. Back to the book.
Cussy Mary lives in a two-room cabin in an almost inaccessible holler near Troublesome Creek. Her only human companion is her father, a coal miner suffering from black-lung disease, who is eager to marry her off before he dies. He is active in the efforts to organize the miners, a dangerous position to take in Hazard County in the 1930s. Cussy is a blue woman, perhaps the last of her kind. She is sometimes called Bluet, because her color resembles a wildflower that grows near her home in the Appalachian mountains.As fictional characters, Cussy and her father are used to give a primer on the poverty in the Eastern Kentucky mountains, and the effect it has on the people of the area. It shows the devastating impact mining coal has had on the beauty and health of the natural surroundings, and on the community.
It shows the barriers Cussy must face because of her color, her gender, and her isolation. For instance, in one anecdote, she is forced to obey the hastily hung "no coloreds" sign in the restroom of the library room where she picks up the books and magazines for the people along her Pack Horse route. Richardson captures how the books she delivers show how Cussy's world, and the world of her neighbors, is sometimes beyond their ken.
"'Aeroplanes and trains,' I said to Angeline. ... 'The world's getting so big, Bluet. Makes a feller feel too small,' Angeline barely whispered. 'It's growing too fast. Right when you're looking smack at it, but you hain't really seeing it neither. Hain't natural.' She tilted her head down toward the dirt, plugging her toes into the earth as if to root herself from being carried off."
The writing is extraordinary, as the above illustrates. It's vivid and sensitive, filled with descriptive phrases. Richardson reaches perfection in her use of dialect -- just the right amount to give flavor to the speech of the people, but not too much that it appears mocking, is annoying, or hard to understand. Richardson has a keen ear.
She also has a keen heart and mind, pulling us in to watch her characters live their lives, allowing us to feel empathy and a certain kinship, even though their circumstance are far different in time and place to our own.
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