The Giver of Stars

The Giver of Stars (2019) by JoJo Moyes is a work of women’s fiction that can also be categorized as historical fiction. Not long after its publication, The Giver of Stars became embroiled in controversy when another author, Kim Michele Richardson, noted similarities between her book about the WPA Pack Horse Librarians, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, and Moyes’s novel. Moyes is the bestselling author of Me Before You, and The Giver of Stars is a Reese’s Book Club pick.

Set in Depression-era America, the novel chronicles the lives of female librarians in Baileyville, a town in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains. The real-life WPA Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky program, part of the New Deal and a project spotlighted by Eleanor Roosevelt as beneficial to women and children, lasted from 1935-1943, delivering books via horseback to rural inhabitants of Kentucky. The women face the adversity of a town hellbent on determining what women can and can’t do, both in their public and private lives. Themes of friendship, the effects of misogyny, corporate greed, inequality, and rebirth fill the pages of this novel. This study guide refers to the Penguin Random House hardcover first edition.

Alice Wright moves from England to Baileyville, Kentucky, with dreams of getting married and starting a fruitful life. She marries Bennett Van Cleve; Bennett’s father, Geoffrey Van Cleve, owns Hoffman Mining Company. Despite the family’s riches and Bennett’s initial charm, Alice soon finds herself in a loveless marriage in a boring town. Hope springs, however, with a town initiative to create a mobile library. Despite her new family’s protestations, Alice volunteers.

Alice soon finds herself thrust into learning a new way of living and learning how to deal with some of the town’s more peculiar inhabitants. These characters include Margery O’Hare, the no-nonsense woman who runs the Pack Horse Library. Margery suffers from the stigma of her name: The O’Hares are a notorious family locked in a blood feud with the McCulloughs. (This generational fight is alluded to in the prologue, which takes place three months before the narrative begins, when Clem McCullough attacks Margery). Alice also befriends, or attempts to befriend, many of the mountain families that those more fortunate call “hillbillies.”

As Alice becomes more comfortable in the mountains, she finds purpose in her new role as a Pack Horse librarian. Her newfound freedom, however, doesn’t rest well with her father-in-law, Mr. Van Cleve. He believes she should be at home having babies. Moreover, he strongly dislikes Margery and fears her negative influence on Alice. Though Alice would like for her husband to love her, her marriage fizzles. She finds comfort and purpose in delivering books—and welcome attention from Fred Guisler, the man who donates his milk barn for the library facilities.

When Mr. Van Cleve finally snaps and beats Alice in front of a slow-to-respond Bennett, Alice flees the house and finds shelter with Margery. This plot point sets in motion a hatred on the part of Mr. Van Cleve that results in various hardships for Alice and the others. When Clem McCullough, who attacked Margery in the prologue, dies mysteriously, suspicion falls on Margery, especially because he’s found with a copy of Little Women from the Pack Horse Library. Margery, now pregnant, gets arrested, and Alice and the others try and figure out how to save their friend. While in jail, a despondent Margery gives birth to a healthy baby girl named Virginia Alice (after Alice).

Through the unlikely help of Bennett, Alice and the others seek out McCullough’s daughters, one of whom lies about her father’s love of books to get Margery off the hook for a murder she didn’t commit. Margery later marries Sven, her longtime boyfriend; Alice, after having her marriage quietly annulled, marries Fred. The women lead fulfilling lives without Mr. Van Cleve’s influence (he’s afraid of his son’s annulment embarrassing the family name), and as the library grows, they continue delivering books to those who need them.