The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

The book opens with two journeys: the first is Margery O’Hare’s treacherous climb in the dead of winter up Arnott’s Ridge on her trusty mule Charley to deliver books to distant cabins, the second is newly married Alice Van Cleve's, who has moved to the small coal town of Baileyville, KY from England.  Their paths eventually intersect in this compelling adventure about the WPA Packhorse Library in eastern Kentucky during the Depression.

Independent and courageous, Margery lives life by her own terms in this coal town and is alone except for the persevering love of Sven Gustavsson.  Raised in the most brutal of circumstances, she finds her calling in delivering books and magazines out to the many poor and isolated families in her area, checking in on widows and young families and encouraging the education that books can bring to resistant recipients in the backwoods.

The journey that the elegant Alice Van Cleve makes when she fell in love with handsome American Bennett Van Cleve takes her a long way from her English home.  His marriage proposal seemed like the perfect escape from the stifling atmosphere for this headstrong young woman, but Baileyville isn’t the imagined destination and neither is married life to the wealthy but distant man.

Alice tries to blend in to the small community, but housekeeper Annie has things well in hand, the interminable meetings attended by the local women bore Alice, and the intrusions into married life by her father-in-law frustrate and anger her. When Alice volunteers for the newly established packhorse library, Margery is more than a little skeptical but Alice is determined and Margery has few other choices.

Alice and Margery come from worlds apart, but their travels up and down the Appalachian hills bring a new respect for each other as they cobble together the library service with several other women in town: Mrs. Brady, who oversees the operation, quiet and polio-stricken Izzy, brash Beth who comes from a household of men, and the efficient Sophia who organizes everything hidden behind locked doors, because she is black.

Author Jojo Moyes builds her world with lovely descriptions of the seasons, harsh commentary on the lives of miners and the ecological devastation that mining brings, a heart-pounding scene of a substantial flood—all tied up with the developing sisterhood of this group of women and the education that their library brings.  It is inevitable that conflict arises when these librarians surreptitiously provide information to women about “married love” and also share important legal advice concerning the mine’s intended land grab. 

When Alice’s relationship with her husband and father-in-law takes a turn for the worse because of these issues, she leaves and stays with Margery, but her father-in-law (and mine owner) is out for revenge which puts her, Margery, and the library project into serious trouble.  The story is such a compelling one, and the journeys that the characters take are not only out into the hills but are ones of self-awareness and empowerment.

I was reluctant to read this at first, because the very fine novel “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kentucky scholar Kim Michele Richardson covered this same topic earlier in the year.  The books are similar in this theme, but each are unique in tone and detail, and I highly recommend both (Richardson’s book is reviewed below on April 17, 2019).  The theme of cultural change through the efforts of a small group of women is beautifully rendered here, and the plot includes some really gut-wrenching and emotional scenes.  This is a place and time in American history that is good to be remembered.

(Viking, October 8, 2019)