The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of rape, sexual abuse, prejudice, and suicide.

The “book woman,” a librarian, finds a hanged body in the mountains. There is a live baby beneath the body in the dirt. The librarian checks the color of the corpse, noticing that it is blue.

At the beginning of 1936, Pa adjusts the courting candle outside the house where he lives with Cussy Marry, who narrates the story. Used for timekeeping, the candle measures the length of a suitor’s visit based on how long it burns. Pa wants Cussy Mary to get married and quit her job as a librarian for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). He promised her mother that he would ensure their daughter was respectable. However, she says that she is respectable: She makes $28 a month delivering books.

Pa, who works as a miner, thinks that Cussy Mary’s job could be dangerous for her. She could get sick, and he worries it’s not respectable. She argues that the books help educate people and that they do good. She learned about the place her name comes from, Cussy, France, from reading about it in National Geographic. And though people need food more than anything, books improve the quality of their lives.

Cussy Mary provides background on her job. Formed as part of the New Deal, the WPA created the first library in the mountainous area of Kentucky where she lives. She applied for the job a month after her mother, Mama, died, sending her application directly to the program to bypass the local supervisors. These supervisors would discriminate against her because she has blue skin; Cussy Mary is the last of the “Blues.” When she told her father that she got the job, he worried she would never get married, but she believes that nobody would marry her anyway because she is blue. She considers her family history, which is not as inbred as people believe and contains white people as well. The fact that she is the last Blue scares her. Her father’s skin color is hidden by the coal dust. Cussy Mary hates how her feelings show in her skin, darkening the color when she is embarrassed, for example. She thinks about the benefits of her job, including the education she’s received from it, which her supervisor, Eula Foster, commented on. However, Eula added that if a Blue could learn, anyone could, showing her condescension and prejudice.

Currently, Pa is worrying about another librarian, Agnes, whose packhorse left her stranded in the snow. He is so determined for Cussy Mary to find a husband that he has offered her a $5 dowry and 10 acres of woodland. However, she has been working for seven months and would not be allowed to continue, according to the rules of the program, if she had an employable husband. She thinks again how she doesn’t want to marry, but her father thinks that they live in a cruel land and she needs someone to care for her. A horse approaches, and Cussy Mary lowers the time on the candle so she will have to spend less time with her suitor as her father goes into the woods. She notices her skin color fading slightly.

A week later, Cussy Mary has another suitor. She has had around 12 now—24 counting those who never showed up. She lights the wick of the candle for Hewitt Hartman, the suitor. He sits, asking to see the land deed. Pa is sick and feels he must marry her off immediately. Hartman admits that the deed is generous as he chews tobacco. Holding a candle to Cussy Mary’s face, Hartman blows out the flame.

A week later, Pa puts the courting candle back out, and three more suitors come. One smells bad and is old, but Pa insists that Cussy Mary must marry him. He is a Frazier, which worries her: He is related to Pastor Vester Frazier, who does bad things to people like the Blues. Pa tells her not to worry, saying that Charles Frazer doesn’t associate with the pastor and will protect her. He urges Cussy Mary to go with him. Although Cussy Mary is scared, her father eventually convinces her, telling her he will bring her trunk later as he goes inside. Cussy Mary is left with Frazier, and her hands turn dark blue.

On their wedding night, Frazier assaults Cussy Mary. She strikes out at him, but he hits her back. The second time he tries to assault her, he turns gray, and she faints, unable to talk. After she comes to, Pa arrives to find that she’s injured and calling for her mother. The local doctor, Doc, arrives and explains that Frazier’s heart gave out. Pa buries Frazier in their yard, along with Cussy Mary’s courting candle.

That spring, Cussy Mary has healed from the injuries Frazier gave her. She has gotten her job back, now owns a mule named Junia, and is pregnant from her wedding night. She uses tansy tea as an abortifacient, not wanting to have Frazier’s baby.

On the trail, Junia hesitates at the path to Frazier’s place. Cussy Mary has received the mule, $3, a spittoon, and a new last name as her inheritance from her husband’s death. She found the mule on his property, mistreated and wounded. Pa tried to get her to sell the mule to get a horse or a donkey, a less-obstinate animal. However, Cussy Mary nursed the mule back to health, though one of her ears will never heal and she is still wary around men.

Today, they are riding their long Monday route. It is Cussy Mary’s first book drop since her marriage, and she savors the freedom of going on her route. She dreams about what it would be like to find other Blues. 

Cussy Mary arrives to find Angeline Moffit, who calls her “Bluet.” At 16, Angeline is one of the youngest library patrons. She asks Cussy Mary about the mule and recognizes the Bible verse from which her name comes: Junia was a female apostle. Junia is clever and has saved Cussy Mary many times; she thinks she’s a better choice than a horse because she’ll fight, but Pa is still not convinced. Angeline briefly touches Cussy Mary’s hand, reminding her of her mother.

Angeline’s husband, Willie, is 30. He was shot the other day while stealing a chicken, so the women go inside to see him. Cussy Mary sits by the bed; he calls her Widow Frazier, but she corrects him, calling herself Book Woman. He has a wound that won’t heal, and Cussy Mary notices that he has blue fingernails. Scanning his body, she sees that he also has a blue and white toe. Seeing this reminds her of her mother explaining that blueness can take different forms in a person. Cussy Mary reads him articles about airships, though he does not like having her in his house because she is blue. Eventually, he falls asleep, and Cussy Mary goes back outside.

Angeline is writing words that Cussy Mary taught her in the dirt. She gives Cussy Mary back Little Red Hen, which is beat up because Willie threw it when she couldn’t read him his book. Willie is prejudiced against Cussy Mary, and initially he did not even allow her in the house. Angeline admits that she’s scared of him and hopes that Harriett and Eula at the library aren’t upset about the book. Privately, Cussy Mary thinks they will be but suspects they’ll still fix it because they need the books. Harriett yelled at Cussy Mary last time about another torn book coming back from Angeline, telling her that there was not enough money for new books and she’d take the cost from Cussy Mary’s pay next time, as well as suspending her from her route. Cussy Mary decides to re-bind the book herself. Angeline asks Cussy Mary to read her the new book before she leaves, and Cussy Mary does. Angeline offers Junia half a carrot, which Cussy Mary knows she can barely afford, but she doesn’t want to offend her, and Angeline gives it to Junia.

Angeline asks Cussy Mary if she will pass some corn seeds to the doctor so he will come see Willie. Normally, the doctor charges $4 because it’s such a long journey. Angeline is expecting a baby in the summer and has already picked out its name: Honey. Willie, however, doesn’t like the name. Angeline says he promised to take her to a dance but probably won’t now, and Cussy Mary suggests that she could dance here. Angeline does, singing. She notes that the seeds are valuable. Cussy Mary says that she is going to town in May, but Angeline suggests that she give them to Jackson Lovett, a new client on her route, to take into town before then.

As Cussy Mary prepares to leave, Angeline warns her to be careful; she also heard about the other librarian, Agnes, who was left in the snow. Agnes had a particularly difficult route, and her rented horse broke his leg on the route. She took her supplies, left the horse there, and stopped at a nearby cabin, asking them to go shoot the horse before walking 16 miles home. Nearby, a rain crow caws three times, worrying Angeline. It is a warning of death, according to the people in the mountains.