The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a historical novel by American author Kim Michele Richardson. Published in 2019, the book takes place in the Kentucky hills during the Great Depression in 1936. In its depiction of prejudice and community in 1930s Kentucky, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek touches upon themes including the distrust of authority, the random and dangerous nature of prejudice, the power of community, and the importance of caring.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide include discussions of rape, sexual abuse, prejudice, and suicide.

Plot Summary

Set in a hilly area of rural Kentucky, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek focuses on Cussy Mary Carter, a 19-year-old librarian with a genetic condition that turns her skin blue. She lives alone with her father, who made a promise to her recently deceased mother that he would see her respectably married. However, no suitor wants to marry Cussy Mary, despite her generous dowry, because of the color of her skin. Eventually, Charlie Frazier does marry Cussy Mary. On their wedding night, he beats and rapes her before dying of a heart attack.

Cussy Marry returns to work after a self-induced abortion. She visits her patron, Angeline Moffit, a young woman who is pregnant by her husband, Willie, who has been shot in the foot and is dying. Shortly after her visit, Preacher Vester Frazier (Charlie’s cousin) assaults Cussy Mary in the woods. She meets a new patron, Jackson Lovett, and they bond over their shared love of books.

Cussy Mary continues with her work, going into town to the Library Center, where the White women discriminate against her, but where she has become friends with a Black librarian, Queenie. As Cussy Mary’s relationship with Lovett grows, Pa becomes increasingly involved in the miners’ union, and his involvement worries her; it is dangerous to work against the company that oversees the mining in their town.

When Pa finds Vester Frazier in their yard, he shoots and kills him. Doc pronounces Vester dead but warns that people will be suspicious because they are Blues. He tells them he won’t talk about what happened if he can do medical tests on Cussy Mary in Lexington. She agrees, though the experience is painful; she is drugged to get the samples. However, Doc gives her medicine and food in return. She takes the medicine to Willie Moffit and gives the food to hungry schoolchildren nearby.

Doc finds a medicine that can turn Cussy Mary’s skin white. However, the townspeople still reject her, and the medicine gives her unpleasant side effects. Eventually, she stops taking it. On her route, Cussy Mary finds a live baby hanging under a blue body: Willie Moffit, who had the blue gene. Inside the Moffits’ house, she finds Angeline, dying after giving birth. Willie hanged himself after seeing the baby was blue. Cussy Mary promises to care for the new baby. Angeline dies.

Jackson proposes to Cussy Mary. She accepts, but before she can tell Pa, the miners bring back his body from the mines, where he was killed when a pillar collapsed. Several months later, Jackson and Cussy Mary get married in town, but the sheriff arrests Jackson as they leave the courthouse: He has broken the state’s miscegenation laws. Despite Doc’s protests about Cussy Mary’s genetic condition, Jackson is arrested. Four years later, Cussy writes to Queenie, revealing that Honey is now four. Jackson was released from jail but can no longer live in Kentucky, though he still visits in the night, coming over from Tennessee. They are now thinking about moving to Ohio.