The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson Donna M. Crow (bio) Kim Michele Richardson. The Book Woman's Daughter. Naperville, Ill.: Mercer University Press, 2022. 352 pages. Hardover. $26.99. For readers who loved Kim Michelle Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, this sequel offers another visit to the hills of Eastern Kentucky, only one generation after the WPA implemented the Packhorse Librarian Project. Yet, The Book Woman's Daughter stands alone as a simple, sweet story layered with the dark, complicated issues which still haunt Appalachia today. One hundred years after the first large public library was erected in Boston, while library buildings were popping up all over the country, in 1952 Appalachia, books were still carried on horseback across narrow footpaths into hollers, up hillsides, and along high ridges. The lack of infrastructure in difficult terrain has kept the descendants of early settlers regionally isolated, causing Appalachia to be one of the last places in America to obtain modern living standards. In this fictionalized but true Appalachian tale, many struggle for literacy and yearn for news of the outside world, while others fearfully hang on to the only lives they've known. These livelihoods are filled with family values, hardscrabble survival, loyal friendships, and desire for education, yet rife with the racism, miscegenation laws, and misogyny that plague the systems of patriarchy and white supremacy. [End Page 112] In The Book Woman's Daughter, Richardson balances these juxtaposed ideals by challenging stereotypes, utilizing strong female characters, and forging unlikely friendships. The narrator's infectious love of books, the expansion of literacy, the empowerment of women, and the desire for equality, freedom and justice are the emergent themes. "'Freedom. The word rattled my thoughts. I was relieved there might be a chance of getting it without marrying,"' says our protagonist. "'I was grateful…, but even more appreciative for the librarian work. A job and money-and the books-meant I could at least survive, and do it on my own'". Her literary identity provides Honey with a freedom she struggles to find in her everyday life. The novel is set in the early fifties and told through the eyes of Honey Lovett, the child Cussy Mary Lovett adopted in the first novel. Readers will remember that Cussy built her reputation among hill-folk as a "bookwoman" who served as part of the Packhorse Librarian Project and provided valuable access to books for her people. Both women carry a genetic trait that causes the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, which tints the skin blue. Both women also have an insatiable appetite for "book-learning" and prove that books are transformative. Months after reading The Book Woman's Daughter, like The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, what sticks are the characters. These characters include the mountain bootlegger who is a compassionate advocate for women's rights and the female social worker who seems hell-bent on sending a minor to jail mainly because of her skin color. The opening scene sets the stage of trouble for Honey as her parents are whisked away to jail for the legal infraction of having a mixed-race marriage. Being underage and of blue tint herself puts Honey at risk for incarceration as well, so [End Page 113] she must stay hidden while she struggles for emancipation. As she embarks on her freedom journey, she comes across a young woman who is just arriving for her new job as the first woman fire-tower watcher in the region. "Being different here in white or black Kentucky puts you on the lowest rung," Honey explains to her new friend. "'[I]t's not against the law to be a minor,'" her friend replies. "'Shouldn't be against the law to love someone either' says Honey, 'But it sure ought to be against the law for men to decide who you can and can't love'". The two young women become a formidable force against discrimination over the course of the novel. To some, the book may come across as not being "male-friendly," but upon deeper analysis, there are as many female oppressors as there are male and as many male advocates...