The Kentucky Packhorse Library

The Giver of Stars

by Jojo Moyes

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Alice Wright is an Englishwoman in the 1930s. She feels stifled and unhappy with her strict, conventional life. She is swept off her feet by handsome American Bennett van Cleve, who is on a European tour with his father. Alice and Bennett marry and return to his home in Kentucky. After a whirlwind courtship, Alice is shocked to find that her marriage is loveless. Bennett seems to care only about his father, a rich and selfish coal baron. She hates living in the stuffy and stifling van Cleve family home.

Alice gets the chance to join the Kentucky Packhorse Library, a WPA project that brought books and other materials to isolated rural communities. Alice finds fulfillment in this project and develops deep and lasting friendships with the other librarians. She finds that she loves the Kentucky hill country and its tough but loving residents.

The Giver of Stars is about the importance of relationships and searching for your own happiness. The story is based on the real Kentucky Packhorse Library. I found the story to be gripping, and it kept me enthralled to the end. The female characters in the book are excellent and well-written. However, the male characters are caricatures. We never learn much about Bennett, Alice’s estranged husband. I wondered if he was a closeted gay man, which would have been reasonable because he never touched Alice sexually. The reason for his apparent lack of sexuality was never explored or explained. 

All that we see of Geoffrey van Cleve, Bennett’s father, is his scheming, racist, misogynistic ways. We learn nothing about his thoughts and motivation. He might as well have been Snidely Whiplash from the old Rocky & Bullwinkle comics.

I rated The Giver of Stars four stars out of five for the strong female characters and interesting story. I took off one star for the lack of background and motivation of the male characters.