A book about books and a heroine named Cussy Mary??? I am IN.
Based on true stories, this book was fascinating. Cussy Mary is one of the last of the Kentucky Blues. That's right - blue skinned people. It is a real thing and even has a big scientific name now - methemoglobinemia. But back then, they were just colored.
Still, Cussy Mary becomes one of the women who carry books to the mountain people and they await her arrival with high anticipation. Little children, starving children, come running when the Book Woman comes up on her horse. It is a rough job plodding through the mountains in all sorts of weather and with mean people about, but she is proud to have it. Her father has other ideas for her, trying to protect her future by marrying her off. But no one good wants to marry a Blue. And she can't keep her job if she marries. She is the last of her kind on this mountain and she faces discrimination at every turn. She finds a few friends, and in them, a purpose for life.
The author does a great job of writing "as it is" - the vernacular here is lyrical and you really feel Cussy's deep sadness about her life, along with her determination to make the best of it all. She definitely goes through trials - she is abused verbally and otherwise by people who consider her a lesser human. But Cussy Mary is a survivor. Plus, ya know, BOOKS. ;-) Great book club book and for lovers of historical and regional fiction.
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