Haven Kimmel Books

Orville is one of the best children's books I've dicovered in a long while. It has the wit and soft spoken charm that speaks to children as well as adults. The storyline is no sachharine tale --- instead it uses reality and real characters to illustrate the finer points of love and synchronicity and the need to not judge by appearance. Parents who want their children to grow up with wise and age-appropriate books will want to get Orville. I've also purchased extra copies for my nieces and nephews. A lovely, strong and moralistic tale. The artwork was fresh and evocative as well.

Other titles I recommend are Crictor by Tomi Ungerer and also Moon Man by Tomi Ungerer. The McDuff series is also very fine and lovely (that made me want a dog also) Enjoy!

This book is such a gift -- to animal lovers, to children, to their parents, to book lovers. It tells a moving tale in exquisite prose, and the illustrations are perfect for the story -- they're beautiful and evocative without being overpowering. I can't recommend this book more highly, for both adults and children.

For cat lovers (and others), Margaret Wild's "The Very Best of Friends" (illustrated by the wonderful Julie Vivas) is another powerful heartbreaker about human-human love and human-animal love.

I am a big fan of Haven Kimmel's adult fiction, so I decided to buy this children's book. I LOVED Orville: A Dog Story. I loved it so much that I actually became choked up at the end and could barely read the last two sentences out loud to my son. This has never happened to me before.

Like all of Haven Kimmel's books, this book flows as smoothly as silk. A homeless dog who has been taken in by various people and always chained up. His longing for love, yet anger at being chained up for days on end. His "adoption" by the farmer and his wife who do not understand him and chain him up too. Just when he starts to give up and lose hope, a girl moves across the road and he knows she needs him.

I loved reading the dog's thoughts as he lay for hours on end at the end of a chain. I loved how he could tell how people were just by their smell; how he could tell what their wishes were. I loved how the farmer, his wife, Orville and the girl all got their wishes. How their lives became intertwined with one anothers because Orville came along.

You must read it for yourself. This book is truly a gem for adults and children both. I loved it.

haven kimmel is an extraordinary author of sublime and rare gifts; now she turns her hand to children's fiction/ as a mother who reads, i humbly submit that Orville is superior to what else is out there. in many cases, young children's books simplify emotions and stay pristine, surreal or silly. this one shines : the impressionistic yet spare illustrations and the bright, funny, often surprising story unfolds like a desert flower. lovely and worth purchasing in bulk so that the next time your child attends a birthday party, you're ready with a gift to cherish and be read time and again.

I work in a library and was looking at this book to catalog it. Usually I just look at a few pages of children's books, but I had to read this one from cover to cover. It really is exceptional, and my eyes were tearing up by the end. (Happy tears!) This would be great for any child (or adult) who loves dogs, has been concerned about a stray dog, or who is going through a lonely period.

I have both books on Audio CD. Loved them both, and now I am hoping for another sequel. Ms. Kimmel writes with such love and definition and humor, she is just a joy to read and to listen to. There is never a dry spot in her books. Now I have passed on these books to several friends, and we are all wanting to know more. Thank you Ms. Kimmel for a fantastic journey into your smalltown (but never dull) life. Linda Glick

This is an autobiographical account of a womans' childhood and although 'Zippy' is the main character of the story, the book is also a story outlining her Mothers' transformation from a housewife, making the best of things as they were setup for her by her own preconceived ideas, to a well-rounded person in charge of her own life. Ultimately, the entire family feels the impact, both good and bad from the changes that occur. This book is both entertaining and thought-provoking!

Such a funny book, made my rides to work SO much easier! :o)

A legion of readers responded warmly and enthusiastically to Haven Kimmel's memoir, A Girl Named Zippy. Warmly and enthusiastically may be an understatement as it became a New York Times best seller. If the Times had rankings for audio bestsellers She Got ff The Couch as read by Kimmel would surely be there.

While her second reminiscence about growing up in 1970s Indiana is every bit as witty and affecting as her first, this time we learn a great deal more about her mother, Delonda. Mom's story is one of empowerment for women. She is the "she" who got up off the couch. She did, indeed, and went to college and grad school.

Delonda buys a VW bug that has seen better days without knowing how to drive it. Tales of her learning to operate a motor vehicle are some of the most smile provoking segments.

And, education results in a changed woman - not at all the gal Dad married. How does he react to this?

We're also treated to reunions with some of our favorites from A Girl Named Zippy - sister Melinda and best pal Julie. What a pleasure that is.

A seasoned actress could not have given a better voice performance than Kimmel whose timing is on target and interpretation of other character's voices always entertaining. After all, who knows the speech patterns of her near and dear better than Kimmel?

Quite often, for me, the audio version is more enjoyable than the book That's true in this case.

Highly recommended - enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

Kaline Klattermaster, a 3rd grade boy, shows more imagination than most lads. Kaline Klattermaster's Tree House provides more creative entertainment than can be absorbed in one reading. It's not JUST for ages 7-12, but for all Haven Kimmel readers who have come to love her zany Zippy style of story. Peter Pan and Tom Sawyer would have loved to live beside young Klattermaster.

This book is a good one for teachers to share in a classroom, or an elementary counselor to loan to the shy student, or a kid from a broken home, or some young boy (or girl) dealing with any loss. The book provides no particular answers to fit all situations, but Kaline is a character many pre-teens can relate to. He faced all the above as well as struggling with school and those classroom bullies.

Adult that liked, Kimmel's books, "A Girl Named Zippy" and "She Got Up Off the Couch", will enjoy this book as well. New words of expression are introduced throughout the book. Kimmel is as inventive with words as Kaline is with brothers, and race cars. Like:

.....1...extinguishment, to do with extinguisher drifts
.....2...precisedly
.....3...RUH-ROH
.....4...Super Humongnous
.....5...Pangemonia

There is no doubt going to be a new younger generation of fans reading the delightful silliness of Haven Kimmel. Everyone will want to be Kaline's friend, made-believe or real, and join him in the tree house (which is also another name for an extracessivous dog house.

Parents, teachers, grand-parents: gift this one to a young reader (but read it first yourself).

For third-grader Kaline Klattermaster (who is small for his age and started school early besides), life is full of rules:

1. Do not walk on grass!
2. The chair is not a jungle gym.
3. Placemats on the kitchen table must be exactly two inches apart.
4. Your stuffed dog is not real (even though it's sitting right there).

How he would love to dig in the grass, and how on earth is he supposed to sit still when he's not allowed to talk at the table? Usually, when Kaline ends up sitting upside down, his father goes to the garage for alone time.

Now that Kaline's dad has left, that leaves only Kaline's crazy mom to set the timer on his bath (which she doesn't), and take him to school (which sometimes doesn't happen). It's up to Kaline to take care of things himself until his father gets home, but even he can't handle it himself.

Luckily, he finds aide in the mysterious neighbor, Mr. P, Mr. P's dog, Maestro, and Kaline's two older brothers (who also happen to be in third grade, and who live in a giant tree house with 100 puppies).

Intended for younger readers, I found this book highly enjoyable, fast-paced, and a little crazy, which I think is how it's meant to be.

Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose

Reading Kaline Klattermaster's Tree House will help any parent with a child that has been called ADHD or any parent who has a child suspected of suffering from Asbergers. Clearly Kaline is not an average little boy. He has an amazing imagination and he loves his parents in spite of their obvious differences--from each other and from him.
Neither of his parents is typical, whatever that is, but he can deal with each of them, and both of them love him--a boy who is not typical either. This is a delightful Read-aloud book that will charm the reader as much as the lucky listener.

The book was in perfect condition (said only "good" but looked like it had never been touched) and came at a price so low I was afraid it was too good to be true. Thanks!

I concur with much of the praise that precedes me: "Zippy" is a lyrically written, thoughtful, engaging memoir that I read with great pleasure.

And yet, in the end, it was the very pleasure of my reading experience that troubled me. A reviewer below notes, "It is refreshing every once in a while to read a story that doesn't have murder, major drama, or psychological problems." Yet the book is chock full of every one of those things, and then some: those themes are just so sugar-coated, the reader is hypnotized into overlooking them.

A short list of thematic elements touched on by the book includes: depression, alcoholism, birth defects, child-neglect, child sexual abuse, murder, teenage pregnancy, animal cruelty (in abundance), mental illness, religious fanatacism, grinding poverty, gambling addiction, and the Mi Lai Massacre, for goodness' sake!

And yet these themes are all presented in a filmy, dreamlike way that removes their sting and horror. One could argue that that is the theme of the book: the triumph of one child's powerful sense of self over adversity.

However, as I turned the final page, I began to feel that I had been tricked into approving, even admiring, the "good old days" that never were. I believe the author could have and should have demanded more of the reader to connect the dots between events as seen from the child's point of view and the more stark light of adult reality. This book makes it all too easy for the reader to condone a world in which very serious issues are treated as light afternoon reading on the front porch swing.

This is the story of Zippy, an imaginative, precocious girl who grew up in the small town of Mooreland, Indiana during the 1960's and 1970's. She tells stories about her family members, childhood friends, eccentric neighbors, and various pets. Through it all, Zippy has a resilience of spirit and a positive attitude that shine through, even in situations that otherwise may not be ideal.

This book is unusual in that it is written with a child's voice, but is interesting and humorous to adults. Haven Kimmel is really able to capture the feeling of being a child, and how even the most minor of events can have major importance. It was refreshing to read a memoir about a happy childhood, and I found myself reciting several sweet and funny passages out loud to various family members. I loved how Zippy shared the stories of the first memory she ever had, the first time she thought about family genes, and the first time she thought about the passage of time. The book is written in very simple prose, but has depth to it as well.

I highly, highly recommend this book. It was an absolute joy, and I loved every minute of it. Do not miss this one!!!!

This was a light hearted and hilariously funny book. It is refreshing every once in a while to read a story that doesn't have murder, major drama, or psychological problems. Zippy's story is from a small town where something you and I take for granted every day is described in a way to make you laugh and appreciate the small things in life. I bought the next Zippy book afterwards and loved it just as much.

Zippy was loaned to me. After I read it, I knew I needed it in my house to savor as needed. The occasion and content of Zippy's first words are priceless, and I'm trying to memorize them. There's no self pity, no self-righteousness or judgment in this story of a self-possessed child sailing through what to others might be considered a precarious childhood. And it made me laugh, again and again.

I laughed so hard. It was so nice to read a memoir that was NOT depressing. Nothing too terribly horrible marred the past of the author and when there are a few set-backs and road-blocks, she chooses to tackle them with humor and a positive attitude. I am amazed at the detail with which she is able to recall and relate to the reader the childhood exuberance and eccentricities we all had but easily forget. Great read!

Since the death of my daughter, I have searched for things that make me want to go on living. I have read countless books, and this is one of the very few that gave me that feeling. I want to thank the author for writing it, from the bottom of my heart. (I immediately went out and bought the Zippy book, but it was not as wise as this one. Buy this one.)

Delonda gets up off the couch to make something of herself. It pulls at your emotion and makes you want to cheer for Mom Jarvis. And her daughter, the author, too. You'll begin to feel like a Mooreland, Indiana neighbor to this family. It's a sequel, and even better than Kimmel's first book (A Girl named Zippy). It stands alone as well. Pure small town life. Pure Hoosier. Pure delight.

A lot of time is spent laughing, and reading to anyone else nearby when trying to get through Zippy's Church Camp experience. Zip's Quaker upbringing didn't prepare her for a teenage church camp at the age of 11. Her own appropriate age camp was filled so her mom forced her into teen week camp with older kids. "I cana't abide any of those things you just named," Zippy informed mom. What a trip camp was. Wonderful descriptions of what took place that can only be explained by copying the chapter. So...get the book. Quaker impact is peppered throughout the events of Zippy's life, usually bringing another smile or laugh.

Haven Kimmel puts you into the picture with her words. Like the page telling of friend Rose's house. In part: "There were some metal chairs still arranged, by accident, as if to accommodate a long conversation over lemonade. The floor was covered with broken Ball jars. Walking on them created a noise that was akin to a whole, dreadful lifetime of tooth grinding. I enjoyed it."

Delonda invited her prayer cell over for coffee. Big mistake. Pride of the new suspended ceiling in the den turned to a nightmare as a billion-herd of mice raced overhead, cats jumped on furniture backs to growl and the dogs watched the cats. Kimmel's words almost put you there in the fracas.

There's Newman's nice car smelling like barnyard, straw waggled in the air vents, corn dust-fertilizer-manure covered dash, with a trace of anhydrous that Zip said she found pleasing. You gotta read the whole page and you'll find the segment pleasing yourself. The story is filled with paragraph gems, Hoosier emeralds in words.

It's full of memories of Hoosier events like the '78 Blizzard. What joy to read about the short list of records Zip's father threatened to break over her head if played once more. It's own chapter. It gets you humming the old tunes.

Reading "She got Up Off the Couch" will invite you into the Jarvis house in the 70's just like the story's hitchhiker, George. He was "a treasure". The book's a treasure.

Haven Kimmel is one contemporary author of whom Indiana can be proud to have educated and once claimed as a resident. Still do, she writes Hoosier truth. Let's hope this will become a trilogy. As a male fan, let's hear more of Bob's (Dad) story now. Five stars from another Ball State grad.

I read A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch in rapid succession. SGUOTC is darker, but also more inspiring than AGNZ. That said, I was really overwhelmed by what good reads both books are. I can't believe I hadn't heard of Ms. Kimmel before my sister-in-law loaned me AGNZ. Zippy reminds me of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, but born in a different time and place and with different parents. I look forward to reading Ms. Kimmel's fiction. Thank you thank you thank you.

This book is simply a treasure. You can start at the beginning or in the middle and work your way around. I read it a chapter at a time to make it last as long as possible. Then I started rereading it. I think the book focuses more on Zippy than her mother ... I didn't agree with the cover description. I am hopeful that Haven Kimmel will continue to write about her life ... we need to know about her teen years ... and beyond.

I just finished the sequel to Zippy and loved it. I think the (few) negative reviews or comments I've seen stem from people's lack of understanding of the times, the men, the world as it was in the 70's. The upheaval was unbelievable and obviously was not above touching the lives of small-town America, even as small as Mooreland. The fact that her mother had the will and intelligence to "get up off the couch" might look like she neglected her child to do so - but I think she must have known that her late-in-life little girl was going to be just fine in the end. Haven said herself that she felt loved by all around her. That being said, the part about the rats, when the family seemed to be at it's lowest point, was especially hard to take.
It is hard to understand that level of "benign neglect", until you try to remember how very different it was in those days. We really did leave the house at dawn and not come back until dark. And fathers... they were just sort of absent. No wonder we turned to the fantasy world of TV as a babysitter, and friends and the families of friends were so all-important. Kimmel has such a way with words and is able to put across her childhood with such a sense of wonder that you're able to forgive almost everything.
As you get further into the book, you actually get some insight into the near-deception on her father's part that put her mother in the position she found herself in life, and her inability to do anything about it for so many years. I was able to see all sides through Kimmel's deft writing - her father's, her mother's, her sister's - without too much judgement. She was truly raised by her little community and was able to find humor in almost everything as a way to survive. I'll never get over the resilience of children and marvel at how someone with a very similar upbringing might grow up to become a serial killer while others write novels and lovely little memoirs. And whom among us really knows what it's like to grow up without running water, spotty telephone service, and holes in the walls? For an intelligent woman like Delonda it must have been truly mortifying, but her religion would not let her fight back in the sense we know. Her only hope was to check out, fight back passively, and then take her daughter along for the ride.
Kimmel seems to have done alright by her upbring and even to have thrived. A wonderful book that I'm recommending to all of my friends.

Haven Kimmel has created an everytown in Jonah, Indiana. You feel its deep, rich history as you see it through the eyes of its three main characters. Hazel, the owner of The Used World Emporium, a secondhand store and her two employees, Rebekah, the young and dumped daughter of a cult member, and Claudia, the big, strong 40-ish misfit may be nothing like you, but you will still wish they were your friends.

On the surface, these women live simple, even boring lives in a mundane small town. But, as you read, you'll uncover layers of intrigue and you'll want to discover what makes them tick and how they will react to the challenges they face.

This book is anything but preachy, but you will totally feel Kimmel's seminary attendance in the thorough and compelling religious influence. Claudia and Rebekah both wrestle with questions of faith and church. Claudia's pastor, Amos, is another character you'll wish you knew. I'd buy him a cup of coffee, myself.

If you are looking to read something that gives you a glimpse behind the curtain of our public personas, read this book.

I'm a HUGE Haven Kimmel fan so I devoured "The Used World" even though I kept trying to slow myself down. At the end I almost wanted to quibble that it is a totally improbably love story...but aren't all love stories improbable? The "twist" took me totally by surprise although I also slapped my head and said "Of course!" I love it when an author can surprise me, even though I also can't believe I missed all the hints! I completely understand the reviewer who finished it and then immediately started it again, if only to catch all those hints!

"The Used World" is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. The key to enjoying Haven Kimmel's work is to let her stories take their time. Yes, this is difficult in these days of so much to do, not to mention the need for instant gratification! I was ready to give up on "The Solice of Leaving Early" about 50 pages into it because I couldn't figure out who was who and what was going on. However, I decided to stick with it, and it was well worth it. Both "The Used World" and "The Solice of Leaving Early" provide a payout to those take their time to savor these wonderful stories.

Once in a while you read a book that's so multi-layered and absorbing, you just don't want to let it go when it's finished. "The Used World" is one of those books. Other reviewers have said that they finished this book and started straight over again at the beginning, and I can see why: you have the feeling that it's so full of riches, you haven't done it justice with one read.

"The Used World" follows the threads of three women's stories and binds them together into an unexpected and unusual present. Everything you assume about love and family is shaken up and reinvented.

Hazel Hunnicutt, a woman in her sixties who lives alone with her cats, is the proprietor of the Used World Emporium, a warehouse-and-barn full of wares carrying the weight of the past. In flashbacks we learn of Hazel's love for her childhood friend Finney, a girl full of light and fun. The story of Finney's self-destructive love and its sad outcome are an undercurrent to Hazel's present.

Hazel's employees are Claudia and Rebekah. Claudia, forty years old and mourning the death of her mother, is a freakishly tall woman forever disenfranchised from the joys others take for granted.

The younger Rebekah is a refugee from a fundamentalist church, disowned by her family, pregnant by an immature young man who left her for a college girl.

Into this mix come a baby, a dog, a gentler church, some wild sisters, and the unbearable weight of past intentions and actions. Though the redemptive outcome of all these forces is never assured, ultimately there is the chance for more peace than these women have known in their troubled lives. They don't get there easily, but they do get there.

The story is simple but the structure complex, the writing magical. The characters, including the cast of supporting players, are so finely drawn that it took my breath away. About baby Oliver who had kicked his blanket over his head, Kimmel writes: "... Oliver had become so distressed he'd kicked his blanket up over his head. 'What a problem,' Claudia said, uncovering him and lifting him up, his little body still such a surprise in her hands. How could something so insubstantial bear within it Oliver's nature, his character, everything that would compel him into adulthood?"

These three women spent much of their lives on the outside looking in, an isolation Kimmel illustrates again and again with scenes that ring so true. About the young Hazel visiting her friend Finney's family on Christmas Day: "What a treasure they were, these people for whom cakes collapsed, sleepy, normal people who worked hard and loved their daughter, and knew how to take a holiday off and spend it. They SPENT Christmas Day, like a bonus check or a tax return, while at the sterile Hunnicutt Clinic shoes were always worn; sleeping was a private activity conducted only at night, in a bedroom; and everything was hoarded -- money and joy alike."

The dramas of this book, past and present, are woven together with the everyday business of living. If you invest the time to read "The Used World," you'll be rewarded with an unforgettable story, told with humbling beauty. Highly recommended.

Linda Bulger, 2008

Despite being billed as a tender look at small-town Indiana life, this book succumbs to a host of cliches, and, indeed, seeems to despise everything about the Midwest except the subversive or liberal people who live in it.

* If there's a religious fundamentalist, he will not only be a hideous cultist who repudiates his pregnant daughter, but he will turn out to have cheated on his wife, brain-damaged his lover's husband, and contributed to two deaths--three if you count the baby his lover tries to abort.

* If there's a tall, non-feminine woman, she will turn out not only to be a lesbian, but will be good at basketball as well.

* If a couple has a framed print of "Footprints" on their wall, they will turn out to be shallow, bland, and callous and will try to have their grandchild aborted.

* If there's an artistic boyfriend, he will turn out to be a loathsome, cheating, immature slob who nearly kills his pregnant girlfriend through neglect.

* If there is, by some chance, a nice Christian pastor, he will state that the Nativity is practically meaningless and there is no historical proof of the Resurrection. (So become a Unitarian already!)

All this is disappointingly sterotypical, but would be more bearable if Haven Kimmel did not seem totally unaware that she has rescued her lovely character Rebekah from an oppressive father and an oppressive boyfriend, only to consign her to another oppressive relationship: Since Rebekah shows no signs of preferring women anywhere in the book, why are we supposed to rejoice that she now seems fated to be Claudia's lover? Give the woman some autonamy!

I kept deleting stars as I wrote this review. Kimmel is skilled with the words, yes, and I read this book determined to like it because The Solace of Leaving Early was gorgeous. But she could really benefit from an editor who would steer her into originality and add a few "and's" to sentences like "She opened the door, stood in the room." That particular sentence structure, repeated throughout the book, got old fast.

I love this book, but I seem to love all things Haven Kimmel, from ZIPPY to SHE GOT UP OFF THE COUCH to ORVILLE (picture book), and now this. I started SOLACE on a Saturday morning, resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't get anything done until I finished it, so read all day & savored the final chapters on Sunday morning, appropriately, as the book was a spiritual experience. I know better than to read Haven Kimmel without a pen nearby, so now I have the pleasure of going back, say a week from now, and thinking anew about the sections I check-marked. I adore the characters in this book and the author's insights. I especially love knowing more than the characters know about their feelings for one another. Knowing that Langston thinks her mother loved Taos more, for example, is hard, yet I live with the knowledge. The story resolves itself, but all the loose ends are not tied up, and I like that about Kimmel's stories; they reflect life as we live it, even with its uncertainties.

I loved this little book. In the back Kimmel says that it's really a book about ideas, but thank goodness all of the academic philosophies which you have to wade through in the reading were summed up in the preface as "a fool's thoughts". The plot bore that out--you don't have to subscribe or even care about them to see how they crumble to dust under the weight of things that are real. The title is deliciously ironic: the solace of leaving early is the comfortable habit of both protagonists, and you get to see how, in the end, there's something mercifully more compelling than the promised solace of insulating yourself from relationships.

I wholeheartedly agree with Bruce's and Customer's reviews. The book is painfully dull with unbelievable dialogue, especially between the protagonist and the girls. The Marian apparitions didn't even have that much to do with the story. It was mostly about the protagonist's unhappiness with small-town life We learn that she had an affair with a cad whilst at graduate school. She walked out of her exams because she couldn't stand to see the cad with his new woman, married and pregnant. It took me forever to finish this book. Do yourself a favor and skip this book. You're not missing much!

Having previously trashed "A Girl Named Zippy," I had very low expectations for "The Solace of Leaving Early." Zippy made Kimmel famous, got her a spot on The Today Show, but Solace is much superior.

Amos Townsend is a thoughtful preacher suffering a crisis of fault in a small Indiana town. One of his parishioners has been murdered, leaving two daughters orphaned and witness to her death. Langston Braverman, a washed up PhD candidate caught in a haze of existential contemplation, has returned to childhood bedroom to hide from the world. Langston's wise and affecting Mother, AnnaLee, knows just the medicine the egocentric Langston needs. The orphan girls need guidance and AnnaLee won't rest until Langston starts thinking of someone other than herself. There's a quirky grandma, a pillar of strength father, and a town of oddballs so real I can attest to their existence (I'm from close to the same place as Kimmel). The story progresses as we find out, along with Langston, what happened to the girl's mother and the fate of the two orphans.

Kimmel certainly has a kind pen. There were so many passages of simple beauty in this little gem; I've a page full of quotes. One thing Kimmel does especially well is limiting words while keeping the most thoughtful of meaning. However, her characterization is a bit uneven. I hated Langston for the first half of the book and wanted to throw fire on Amos to get him excited. They were developing into nice little souls. And then she dropped the ball. The last third is too contrived, with a neat little bow and all. The plot is assisted by a `who-done-it.' There are just enough hints and secrets to keep us guessing as to the circumstances of the murder.

One imperfection in the novel is one of the things I found most interesting. Kimmel uses lofty philosophers and authors like adjectives. All the name-dropping can be distracting. Some might have difficulty believing that Indiana farmers sit around reading Kierkegaard and John Donne; but I know that not everyone in a small town is a peabrain. And her analogous use of lofty ideals does a good job juxtaposing the simplistic nature of small town life.

My favorite thing about the novel was Kimmel's faithful rendering of small town folks. They live their lives without question, in application and not theory. Langston's life has been one of theory, her Mother's one of application.

This novel is worth a look for anyone interested in the nuances of small town life or the human implications of our choices, consequences and flawed perceptions.

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend that described it as "reading like a poem."

While the language and flow of the book were easy to follow and smooth, the plot was extremely weak.

The whole thing reads like a Lifetime Movie and has all the hallmarks of such a movie:

Troubled girl leaves school

Small-town murder/suicide leaves orphaned children

Lonely pastor

Lonely pastor spars with troubled girl over care of orphaned children

Lonely pastor and troubled girl are left as guardians of orphaned children, fall in love, get married, raise orphaned children.

Sadly it has turned me off of Kimmel. I won't be reading anything else by her.

This is a really interesting book. The main character, Casey is evolving in the story. Keeps your attention.

After reading both of the Zippy books, I decided to give Something Rising a try. I read it cover to cover (with ease) and loved it. The theme is the same (but different) from the Zippy books. Still present is the absent and utterly selfish father, along with the despondent mother, who feels her life has been ruined by her marital union with this man. The main character loves them both but, as she matures, grows to despise her father. A new twist from Zippy is a mentally ill sister, whose mind the reader cannot even begin to follow or understand.

The book was full of deep thoughts and observations and many times I did not completely understand them, but I was impressed by the author's talent for telling this story. Never once was I bored.

I guess the coming of age part is addressed in many ways in this book, but certainly the losing of one's mother is key and was approached so beautifully in this book. As one who has recently lost a mother, I was touched and so much understood the last quarter of the book.

I must disagree with some...this is a wonderful book, by an extremely talented writer. Not one to be missed.

Compared to Kimmel's brilliant first novel,"Solace..." this reads like a labored Writing Class assignment: "Write a piece about a woman pool hustler, and make her an angry, masculine, drywaller whose redneck mother alludes to Kundera, Randall Jarrell, Marianne Moore, Anne Sexton, Martin Amis in the space of 2 pages."
Kimmel has a thing about frustrated intellectual housewives (the mothers, Laura, here and Annalee in "Solace...") who never went to college yet worship at the alter of Thought and Literature. Usually one kid goes to Bloomington to become a neurotic pointy-head while the other makes meth in the barn or practices tire-iron road rage while Seeking The Absent Father. Throw in some depth psychology and pages of pointless and unbelievable STRIFE, and you eventually get to the end of the exercise.
The pasted-on New Orleans Good Ending is OK only because we can hope that Hurricane Katrina has wiped out Haven's fictional Pool Hall Heaven paid for by deus ex machina. By the way, Cassie, the lumpy heroine whose outlawry consists of having uninteresting pot-smoking friends and never paying income tax, supposedly inherits a $300G stock and insurance settlement and the lawyer hands it over in cash and takes out no taxes?
Haven needs to have people who aren't in awe of her to read the drafts of her future novels. She is way too talented to wing it just because she had a great first novel. She needs better advisors/editors.

For a book about hustling pool, this book contains an awful lot of discussion about the role of feminine mythology in literature. This book felt less like a story than a justification of the tuition money spent on a Lit degree.

Not only is there the bizare out-of-place discussions about the protagonist's sister's college dissertation, but the book is chock-full of ham-fisted literary devices. I actually laughed out loud when Cassie won her father's prized pool que in a bet. Gee, what could that possibly be a metaphor for?

Early in the story, Cassie is instructed to study geometry and physics textbooks in order to understand pool. This made me wonder whether the author had ever seen a pool table or a geometry textbook. Most pool sharks don't need to know how to calculate the area of a tetrahedron. The amount of geometery that one must know to play pool well could probably be written in large letters on one side of a 3x5 index card.

The characters are dull and one-dimensional. Everybody dutifully plays their part without acting like an acutal person. We are treated to road-worn cliche characters such as the gay best friend, the absentee father, and the kindly grandfather. Cassie, the protagonist, is cold and unlikeable. She's like a Holden Caufield without the charm. I found myself wanting bad things to happen to her.

I suspect that my assignment was to analogize the Cassie character to some mythological godess that the author discussed. But it just wasn't worth the effort.

This was one of the very few books that I was not able to finish. Not because it's awful, or poorly written...actually, I thought it was written quite well, which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. Its just that I didn't get it. After getting more than halfway through this book I realized...I didn't care about any one of the characters, I didn't care what happened to them, didn't fully understand who they were, nothing at all. I skimmed the last 1/3 of the book just to see if it would get a little more exciting...it never did.

Cassie was likeable enough, but I found her to be to hard and empty, and her sister Belle obviously had some serious problems, but what they were I couldn't tell you. And Puck and Emmy...what a bizzare pair. What it comes down to is this book just wasn't for me. The reading is extremely choppy, and difficult to follow in some places. What I got wasn't quite what I expected when I started reading. It's not that I don't recommend the book, I personally didn't take to it, but I really like Haven Kimmel, and have high hopes for the next book of hers I pick up.