This is a beautiful book that deals with the effects of prejudice, poverty, and marginalization on not only a community, but also the lives of the inhabitants.
Cussy Mary is a "blue Kentuckian" who faces poverty, abuse and discrimination, and the early death of loved ones. She brings hope by delivering library books on muleback to her patrons in an isolated, despairing community during the depths of the Great Depression. Through their love of books, she and her patrons find a common "language" and begin to forge a tentative friendship that helps overcome differences.
Cussy longs for the deeper connection of a family, but as the last of her kind, she believes that "dreams are for books" and is determined to become self-reliant, finding her purpose in her work.
In an interview, the author observes that "knowing one small piece of this world- the earth, the sky, the plants, the people, and the very air of it- helps us to understand the sufferings and joys of others ourselves." This novel certainly helps readers do just thatl



( )

Truth is stranger than fiction. ( )

Cussy Mary Carter is a Blue, a member of a family in extremely rural 1930s Kentucky that has an inherited genetic disorder causing blue skin. She lives with her father, a miner, and has a job as a Pack Horse Librarian - a federal program that pays local residents to share donated books, magazines, and newspapers among remote homes. Cussy is ostracized from the rural society, with some people thinking her color is a contagious disease, it is a sign of the devil and she needs to be “saved”, or associating her with “colored” (i.e. Black) people. Life in the mountains, in extreme poverty, is very hard, but the joy that she can bring people with a novel or magazine or pie recipe pasted in a scrapbook are worth it.

The true stories behind this fictional one are fascinating. The Blue Fugates of Kentucky were a real family, descended from a real French immigrant in 1820, who carried a real gene that really made their skin blue. The Pack Horse Librarian Program was a New Deal project which really employed women to deliver materials and read to rural people. There is no evidence that any of the Blue Fugates were Pack Horse Librarians. The details of Cussy’s father’s life as a miner were accurate and detailed - the mining company paid the workers in chits that could only be spent at the Company store, thus keeping them in debt, and was constantly threatening to pack up and leave (as one of the few employers in the area). Pa suffers from black lung disease, tries to organize a union with his fellow miners, is forced to take on the most dangerous tasks due to his blue skin, and eventually dies in a collapse. There is no doubt that the blue people of Kentucky suffered real discrimination, isolation, and violence. However, the book (in Cussy’s first person perspective) frequently asserts that the lives of blue people are equal to or harder than those of Black people. The one Black character in the town is another librarian who moves to Philadelphia, leaving Cussy jealous: “Maybe there was opportunity and blessings for her color, but I’d never once seen one for mine.” and Cussy constantly mentions the “No Coloreds” signs which she knows refer to her. In the end, her happily-ever-after is semi-thwarted by anti-miscegenation law, without any concern for who else the law might affect. It’s not clear if the reader is to believe that Cussy believes these things are true, or if the author does. I’d cautiously recommend the book if you’re interested in the real-life subjects, but I wish there was a better book about them. ( )

Grim, beautiful, gut-wrenching, incredibly courageous.

Because I am hypersensitive these days, I soon realized I could not read this at bedtime... too vivid and powerful. Which is usually a good thing, but not when most of the story is so painful.

There were a few details about how things would have worked in those circumstances that I had questions about, since the realism was almost its own character. But that's just me quibbling. It's a most moving read, VERY hard to put down, and 99% rang true.

I am SO thankful that this history was illuminated. And it certainly shifts one's perspective about what matters most in this life. ( )

This touching novel is filled with real historical details and a vivid evocation of the southern Appalachians during the Great Depression. I believe this is going to be one of those books that sticks with me. ( )