This is a far darker book than Kimmel's first memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, and I loved it for that darkness, because while I'd sensed it simmering under the surface of that first book, it never quite broke through—Kimmel hewed closely to portraying her world as she felt it was when she was a young...
This SO should have been a 4 star book. I loved the characters, as implausible as they are. (Really, really long example: Main character Langston is named Langston. She theorizes that she hopes her parents didn't name her after Langston Hughes as it would be ridiculous considering she is a white ...
The Used World is Haven Kimmel’s latest novel. The title comes from a flea market called The Used World Emporium, located in Jonah, Indiana, owned by one of the novel’s three main characters, Hazel Hunnicutt. The other two characters, Claudia Modjeski and Rebekah Shook, both work for Hazel. Th...
I really liked this book but I think reading Haven Kimmel's A Girl Named Zippy, and She Got Up Off the Couch give this book more of a grounded feeling. I'm not sure if these were suppose to be a trilogy as Zippy & She Got Up were autobiographical, while Something Rising is 'fiction', but Somet...
The very first time I mentioned her to Mom I almost said, “Have you seen that Big Fat Bonnie woman?” And once when I was riding my bike and passed her getting into her car (a totally surprising dark blue VW Beetle, about half the car necessary for such a person), I just about shouted, “Hey, Big F...
Some people liked to go camping even though their daily lives already resembled camping; once I saw two people honeymooning in a pup tent smack in the middle of the bride’s parents’ yard. The bride was a biggish girl, and as I passed the tent on my way to the post office, I saw her bare feet stic...
She remembered these hours after Poppy’s death, too, the way her mind struggled against the information and wouldn’t let her sleep; the strange doubling of consciousness that lasted for months. She might be driving or measuring a piece of hardwood for flooring, and she would be driving but also t...