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The Used World
It was mid-December in Jonah, Indiana, a place where Fate can be decided by the weather, and a storm was gathering overhead.
So Haven Kimmel, bestselling author of A Girl Named Zippy, prepares us to enter The Used World -- a world where big hearts are frequently broken and sometimes repaired; where the newfangled and the old-fashioned battle it out in daily encounters both large and small; where wondrous things unfold just beneath the surface of everyday life; and where the weather is certainly biblical and might just be prophetic.
Hazel Hunnicutt's Used World Emporium is a sprawling antique store that is "the station at the end of the line for objects that sometimes appeared tricked into visiting there." Hazel, the proprietor, is in her sixties, and it's a toss-up as to whether she's more attached to her mother or her cats. She's also increasingly attached to her two employees: Claudia Modjeski -- freakishly tall, forty-odd years old -- who might finally be undone by the extreme loneliness that's dogged her all of her life; and Rebekah Shook, pushing thirty, still living in her fervently religious father's home, and carrying the child of the man who recently broke her heart. The three women struggle -- separately and together, through relationships, religion, and work -- to find their place in this world. And it turns out that they are bound to each other not only by the past but also by the future, as not one but two babies enter their lives, turning their formerly used world brand-new again.
Astonishing for what it reveals about the human capacity for both grace and mischief, The Used World forms a loose trilogy with Kimmel's two previous novels, The Solace of Leaving Early and Something Rising (Light and Swift). This is a book about all of America by way of a single midwestern town called Jonah, and the actual breathing histories going on as Indiana's stark landscape is transformed by dying small-town centers and proliferating big-box stores and SUVs. It's about generations of deception, anguish, and love, and the idiosyncratic ways spirituality plays out in individual lives. By turns wise and hilarious, tender and fierce, heartrending and inspiring, The Used World charts the many meanings of the place we call home.
So Haven Kimmel, bestselling author of A Girl Named Zippy, prepares us to enter The Used World -- a world where big hearts are frequently broken and sometimes repaired; where the newfangled and the old-fashioned battle it out in daily encounters both large and small; where wondrous things unfold just beneath the surface of everyday life; and where the weather is certainly biblical and might just be prophetic.
Hazel Hunnicutt's Used World Emporium is a sprawling antique store that is "the station at the end of the line for objects that sometimes appeared tricked into visiting there." Hazel, the proprietor, is in her sixties, and it's a toss-up as to whether she's more attached to her mother or her cats. She's also increasingly attached to her two employees: Claudia Modjeski -- freakishly tall, forty-odd years old -- who might finally be undone by the extreme loneliness that's dogged her all of her life; and Rebekah Shook, pushing thirty, still living in her fervently religious father's home, and carrying the child of the man who recently broke her heart. The three women struggle -- separately and together, through relationships, religion, and work -- to find their place in this world. And it turns out that they are bound to each other not only by the past but also by the future, as not one but two babies enter their lives, turning their formerly used world brand-new again.
Astonishing for what it reveals about the human capacity for both grace and mischief, The Used World forms a loose trilogy with Kimmel's two previous novels, The Solace of Leaving Early and Something Rising (Light and Swift). This is a book about all of America by way of a single midwestern town called Jonah, and the actual breathing histories going on as Indiana's stark landscape is transformed by dying small-town centers and proliferating big-box stores and SUVs. It's about generations of deception, anguish, and love, and the idiosyncratic ways spirituality plays out in individual lives. By turns wise and hilarious, tender and fierce, heartrending and inspiring, The Used World charts the many meanings of the place we call home.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2007
31 people are currently reading
1094 people want to read
About the author
Haven Kimmel
17 books563 followersHaven Kimmel was born in New Castle, Indiana, and was raised in Mooreland, Indiana, the focus of her bestselling memoir, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing up Small in Mooreland, Indiana .
Kimmel earned her undergraduate degree in English and creative writing from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and a graduate degree from North Carolina State University, where she studied with novelist Lee Smith. She also attended seminary at the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Kimmel earned her undergraduate degree in English and creative writing from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and a graduate degree from North Carolina State University, where she studied with novelist Lee Smith. She also attended seminary at the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
September 23, 2007
The recommendation on the book jacket from Jacquelyn Mitchard, starts, "No one can evoke a universe with a safety pin holding up its hem in the way Haven Kimmel can. In her third novel, she tells a story of an eccentric collective of women with the majesty of a parable and the poignancy of a country song."
(I can't even write a jacket blurb like that, much less hope to ever be an author. :))
I loved this book. I admit that Haven Kimmel is one of my favorite authors, and that every single time I walk in the bookstore I head to the fiction shelves in the hope that she has somehow written a book a week. And I also admit that some of the coincidences in the book gave me a slight twinge.
But I am a character addict - I love to understand the inhabitants of a book as much as I adore witty dialogue, and to my mind, no one puts the reader in the heads of her people like Kimmel.
As one of the characters - Hazel - states, "Do you know that our lives don't exist, really- or, that's not exactly right, we exist but only as a story and we are the ones who tell it?.........telling the story of your life requires will, and openness, and very often Nature overwhelms our narrative with a narrative of her own." Kimmel allows us to see her characters as they are, even if they find different levels of will and openness to do so.
(I can't even write a jacket blurb like that, much less hope to ever be an author. :))
I loved this book. I admit that Haven Kimmel is one of my favorite authors, and that every single time I walk in the bookstore I head to the fiction shelves in the hope that she has somehow written a book a week. And I also admit that some of the coincidences in the book gave me a slight twinge.
But I am a character addict - I love to understand the inhabitants of a book as much as I adore witty dialogue, and to my mind, no one puts the reader in the heads of her people like Kimmel.
As one of the characters - Hazel - states, "Do you know that our lives don't exist, really- or, that's not exactly right, we exist but only as a story and we are the ones who tell it?.........telling the story of your life requires will, and openness, and very often Nature overwhelms our narrative with a narrative of her own." Kimmel allows us to see her characters as they are, even if they find different levels of will and openness to do so.
October 22, 2007
Did not love this book. Sad, since I have loved every other Haven Kimmel book until now.
It's not that it wasn't well written. But it was written like a disorienting dream, which is not my favorite style. I like to have at least a smidgen of an idea of what is being referred to in long prose.
Having said that, there were times when the clouds cleared and the poetic nature of the author shone through. And you do have to appreciate a book in which the women are ordinary heroes.
Favorite quotes:
"Finney blinked, her eyelashes damp with tears, and Hazel could see Finney was happy to be so sad, because he had made her sad, he had sent her away. In turning his back to her, he had told her something intimate and they hared it now, and the most Hazel could wish for was to witness it."
"You have somehow come to believe that there's such a thing as 'love,' such a thing as a feeling that is also a priori truth, rather than an invention by the courtly poets. And you've got movies and music and books confirming for you that romantic 'love' is the highest good and it's what everyone is seeking and should be seeking. But it's a meager justification for what you've traded your life for. If there is any such thing as that sort of love, as opposed to the perfectly obvious and real love between parents and children, between friends, this ain't it, Finn, and you damn well know it."
"Whose idea was this, anyway? Who would think that the best way to propagate the species would be to grow a new one inside a used one? She imagined a white-coated scientist in a laboratory saying to another, 'Yeah, yeah- that's a good idea. Let's put it in...what part isn't doing anything else? And it'll be too big to get out? Perfect."
It's not that it wasn't well written. But it was written like a disorienting dream, which is not my favorite style. I like to have at least a smidgen of an idea of what is being referred to in long prose.
Having said that, there were times when the clouds cleared and the poetic nature of the author shone through. And you do have to appreciate a book in which the women are ordinary heroes.
Favorite quotes:
"Finney blinked, her eyelashes damp with tears, and Hazel could see Finney was happy to be so sad, because he had made her sad, he had sent her away. In turning his back to her, he had told her something intimate and they hared it now, and the most Hazel could wish for was to witness it."
"You have somehow come to believe that there's such a thing as 'love,' such a thing as a feeling that is also a priori truth, rather than an invention by the courtly poets. And you've got movies and music and books confirming for you that romantic 'love' is the highest good and it's what everyone is seeking and should be seeking. But it's a meager justification for what you've traded your life for. If there is any such thing as that sort of love, as opposed to the perfectly obvious and real love between parents and children, between friends, this ain't it, Finn, and you damn well know it."
"Whose idea was this, anyway? Who would think that the best way to propagate the species would be to grow a new one inside a used one? She imagined a white-coated scientist in a laboratory saying to another, 'Yeah, yeah- that's a good idea. Let's put it in...what part isn't doing anything else? And it'll be too big to get out? Perfect."
October 31, 2008
Almost immediately, I became totally immersed in the “used world” of the primary characters, all of whom are part of an antiques emporium in this small Indiana town. We have the owner, Hazel Hunnicutt, whose own history is presented to us in flashbacks; her voice is revealed through descriptions of her life – her parents, who are deceased, and her sister, whose drug abuse has complicated Hazel’s life, provide the backdrop for her choices – and now, her employees at the emporium assume the role of family for her.
Claudia, a large woman who is often mistaken for a man, has lived a loveless existence, but then an unexpected blessing arrives in the form of an infant – a new life that she takes responsibility for – and when she adds Rebekah to the mix, she has a family of her own.
Rebekah, abandoned and cast out by her father, a fundamentalist Christian who expects her to abide by his rules and restrictions, accepts the love and support of Claudia – and later Hazel – in order to create an acceptable alternative to the life in which she was born.
These three characters could be metaphors for the “used” goods that they sell in the store – castoff individuals – unwanted, but serving a purpose of their own.
The three women, who support one another, serve as a balm for the ills of the world in which they live.
Claudia, a large woman who is often mistaken for a man, has lived a loveless existence, but then an unexpected blessing arrives in the form of an infant – a new life that she takes responsibility for – and when she adds Rebekah to the mix, she has a family of her own.
Rebekah, abandoned and cast out by her father, a fundamentalist Christian who expects her to abide by his rules and restrictions, accepts the love and support of Claudia – and later Hazel – in order to create an acceptable alternative to the life in which she was born.
These three characters could be metaphors for the “used” goods that they sell in the store – castoff individuals – unwanted, but serving a purpose of their own.
The three women, who support one another, serve as a balm for the ills of the world in which they live.
March 14, 2015
Haven Kimmel is my girl.
This book was astonishing. The mysteries of these women's lives sort of weave in and out of each other so all these different stories pop up and you see, at the end, how they're all connected. Beautiful, beautiful writing. It's not laugh-out-loud funny like "A Girl Named Zippy" or "She Got Up Off the Couch," but there's plenty of wit and quirky character development. The story is so moving and poignant, and the characters are so human that I would recommend this book to anyone who liked her other two novels and the way they explore people's real lives, with all their past baggage and trauma and fears and weaknesses, in a generous and sympathetic way. This book made feel like Haven Kimmel just really loves people. I totally want to be her best friend.
This book was astonishing. The mysteries of these women's lives sort of weave in and out of each other so all these different stories pop up and you see, at the end, how they're all connected. Beautiful, beautiful writing. It's not laugh-out-loud funny like "A Girl Named Zippy" or "She Got Up Off the Couch," but there's plenty of wit and quirky character development. The story is so moving and poignant, and the characters are so human that I would recommend this book to anyone who liked her other two novels and the way they explore people's real lives, with all their past baggage and trauma and fears and weaknesses, in a generous and sympathetic way. This book made feel like Haven Kimmel just really loves people. I totally want to be her best friend.
January 24, 2015
I had a hard time with this book. I almost decided to quit several times out of frustration, but I found there were some parts that really touched me. For the record, this is my first Kimmel book, and might be the last, except that so many here value her work so highly. I listened to this on audio, and mostly thought the narration too cutesy and cheery for the text, although she lent Rebekah an appropriate sense of innocence. The time frames were confusing and sometimes hard to follow, the multiple points of view were sometimes hard to follow as well. I found the overly-flowery writing annoying in the extreme most of the time, I didn't always care about the sound, smell, and sense of every tiny scene. Conversely, sometimes it was perfect. The constant digressions into religious philosophy made the book seem a bit like a soap box for the author's concepts, and although I don't disagree, I didn't want to hear all of that in the middle of a story most of the time. It didn't usually enlighten me as to who the characters were. The most annoying features for me were Hazel's weird dream interludes, and her blatant manipulation of her friends. Her personality and "voice" as a young woman are distinctly different from that as an older woman, and except for the name, I would never have realized the two characters were the same. That was immensely unsettling. Through the whole book, Hazel never mentioned hating her father, or the relationship between her father and mother, which turned out to be important. Vernon's personality also seemed completely out of keeping with certain of his actions as well, which left me very confused. The end of the book bugged me completely, I still don't know what happened with the baby at the end, how Hazel ended up in a relationship with Ruth, why she never told Rebekah..... A very confusing and unsatisfying ending. I also still can't figure out exactly who's gay and who's straight, and while I know that lines aren't always clear, there was enough attention paid to the issue that I would have appreciated a better understanding of what was going on. From the outset, I found that the story had a dreamy and annoying drifting quality, as though it couldn't pin itself down, and I almost didn't bother continuing. With all of the frustrations I still found enough moments of beautifully written and sometimes startling truth and clarity that I can understand Kimmel's following from that perspective. It really left me not knowing how to rate it, a 2 was sort of arbitrary. For the first time in a long time, I found I wanted to come to Goodreads to hear other opinions and try to understand this book from another perspective. And it does help shed a little light, thanks all!
February 20, 2008
To me, reading this book was a little like taking a risk, simply because I love Kimmel's Zippy memoirs and feared that this might lead to disappointment. Turns out it was, in fact, a huge departure from Zippy, but I loved it anyway.
There are some fantastic observations (I loved the part about women plucking their eyebrows until looking like they were in a permanent state of shock), and a plot as eclectic as The Used World Emporium, where the three female characters work. Past and present weave in and out, which can be admittedly frustrating to follow, but eventually pays off. There is a sumptuous twist towards the end that made me yell, "Ah ha!" at the book.
That said, you have to suspend reality a bit to enjoy the story, and I did some skimming when the prose takes off into a theology lesson. There are still a few parts that I didn't ENTIRELY understand, but that didn't injure my appreciation of the book. Now I'm all the more anxious to read the other two books in this "loose" trilogy.
There are some fantastic observations (I loved the part about women plucking their eyebrows until looking like they were in a permanent state of shock), and a plot as eclectic as The Used World Emporium, where the three female characters work. Past and present weave in and out, which can be admittedly frustrating to follow, but eventually pays off. There is a sumptuous twist towards the end that made me yell, "Ah ha!" at the book.
That said, you have to suspend reality a bit to enjoy the story, and I did some skimming when the prose takes off into a theology lesson. There are still a few parts that I didn't ENTIRELY understand, but that didn't injure my appreciation of the book. Now I'm all the more anxious to read the other two books in this "loose" trilogy.
June 18, 2008
i am so excited for this book...haven kimmel read an amazing passage yesterday about the hurt one of the character's experiences in being shunned by her faith community, and how that allows her to experience anew all the memories, good and bad, of that community. it was incredible - everyone was totally silent the whole time...
[edited to add]
I finished this book a week ago and it completely changed my dreams. I had dreams about these characters, about the many intersecting plotlines, and the many challenges they face. That's how real Haven Kimmel makes them - you can utterly believe that they lived on after the end of the book, learning from their mistakes and making their lives better. It's a beautiful and tragic story, but ultimately spiritually uplifting...
[edited to add]
I finished this book a week ago and it completely changed my dreams. I had dreams about these characters, about the many intersecting plotlines, and the many challenges they face. That's how real Haven Kimmel makes them - you can utterly believe that they lived on after the end of the book, learning from their mistakes and making their lives better. It's a beautiful and tragic story, but ultimately spiritually uplifting...
February 27, 2009
I hate it when people who are really smart (and know they're smart) write a fiction book. I am well educated (i.e. perfectly capable of using big words) and I wanted to gouge my eyes out due to the RIDICULOUS amount of large words and complex sentences in this book. It just seemed like the author wanted to use EVERY SINGLE SAT word she ever learned in the course of one sentence.
The plot is long and drawn out, complicated, and overly difficult. I THINK you are supposed to feel sorry for these characters due to their personal struggles, but it was more of a pitying sympathy than anything.
Don't waste your time or your energy on this one....
The plot is long and drawn out, complicated, and overly difficult. I THINK you are supposed to feel sorry for these characters due to their personal struggles, but it was more of a pitying sympathy than anything.
Don't waste your time or your energy on this one....
January 24, 2014
What a lovely change of pace from the critically-acclaimed, beloved-by-the-media-but-highly-overrated dreck I've read lately! Just an interesting, beautifully written novel. Does it change my life? Likely not. Are there a few problems with P.O.V. and time shifts? Sure. But are HK's sentences beautiful and her characters interesting? Always.
October 6, 2011
The Used World is as much about plot as it is about character development, but the characters suffer only a little for it.
Kimmel reminds me of Marilynne Robinson, especially with her focus on religious struggles her characters face, but Robinson is better. For my taste, Kimmel seems to leave the big ideas she delves into (religion, homosexuality, how we view others) hanging, in order to focus on the big climactic moment in the plot. Don't get me wrong, the climax is well done and exciting, but it's not haunting or thought-provoking the way a continued view of the characters' internal struggles could be.
The theme that was particularly fascinating, despite its incomplete handling, was the idea that who we see other people as or who we want them to be isn't who they are. I liked the phrasing the characters used: that the Rebekah Claudia sees is just "a story that Claudia is telling about Rebekah," for example. Ultimately, Hazel is the one telling the story about everyone else in the novel and, despite her misgivings toward the end, I think that she ultimately succeeds. The story she is telling about Rebekah and Claudia does become them. This is interesting, and confirms Hazel's hope (and fear) that she holds a lot of power. However, I think Kimmel intended to show how people differ so dramatically inside from how we see them, and this intention is lost in order to allow for a satisfying ending as far as the plot.
Themes: women, family, love, support, religion, homosexuality, mysticism, the past, loneliness, how we perceive others
Kimmel reminds me of Marilynne Robinson, especially with her focus on religious struggles her characters face, but Robinson is better. For my taste, Kimmel seems to leave the big ideas she delves into (religion, homosexuality, how we view others) hanging, in order to focus on the big climactic moment in the plot. Don't get me wrong, the climax is well done and exciting, but it's not haunting or thought-provoking the way a continued view of the characters' internal struggles could be.
The theme that was particularly fascinating, despite its incomplete handling, was the idea that who we see other people as or who we want them to be isn't who they are. I liked the phrasing the characters used: that the Rebekah Claudia sees is just "a story that Claudia is telling about Rebekah," for example. Ultimately, Hazel is the one telling the story about everyone else in the novel and, despite her misgivings toward the end, I think that she ultimately succeeds. The story she is telling about Rebekah and Claudia does become them. This is interesting, and confirms Hazel's hope (and fear) that she holds a lot of power. However, I think Kimmel intended to show how people differ so dramatically inside from how we see them, and this intention is lost in order to allow for a satisfying ending as far as the plot.
Themes: women, family, love, support, religion, homosexuality, mysticism, the past, loneliness, how we perceive others
October 8, 2012
I bought this audiobook because I like Haven Kimmel so much, and I'd just reread The Solace of Leaving Early. Listening to it over the course of two weeks was a little tricky, since Kimmel's structure is convoluted: flashbacks, dream sequences--I'm sure in the book some were even in my much-despised italics!--and antecedent-free discussions about "him" or "her" plus the usual and much-in-vogue varied narrator approach. However, the story is Kimmel's usual blend of funny one-liners, straight-on grappling with the dark corners of human nature, and subtle inclusion of plotlines from other books, topped off with a strong helping of belief in human goodness and resiliency.
If I were Kimmel's editor, though, here would be my advice: 1. Don't use CJ Tritt as a narrator. Kimmel is a dry, understated writer, and Tritt's over-the-top delivery is grating. If I'd known she narrated, I'd've chosen the print edition. 2. Pare down some of those Hazel dream sequences. Yikes. How weird were they? The woo-woo astrology crap clouds the focus of the story, and the dreams don't help. 3. Give Amos, the one good man in the book, something to do. That might counteract the fact that all the other men are weak and annoying, or strong and downright terrifying.
I guess I'd also like to reread the book in print. It's a mixed bag as an audio experience, but it has kept Haven Kimmel's reptuation as an interesting and rewarding writer intact. I'm curious what she'll come up with next!
If I were Kimmel's editor, though, here would be my advice: 1. Don't use CJ Tritt as a narrator. Kimmel is a dry, understated writer, and Tritt's over-the-top delivery is grating. If I'd known she narrated, I'd've chosen the print edition. 2. Pare down some of those Hazel dream sequences. Yikes. How weird were they? The woo-woo astrology crap clouds the focus of the story, and the dreams don't help. 3. Give Amos, the one good man in the book, something to do. That might counteract the fact that all the other men are weak and annoying, or strong and downright terrifying.
I guess I'd also like to reread the book in print. It's a mixed bag as an audio experience, but it has kept Haven Kimmel's reptuation as an interesting and rewarding writer intact. I'm curious what she'll come up with next!
December 23, 2018
Fourth time I've read it, and it's still my all-time favorite book. I get something new from it every time.
Previous reviews:
I've re-read this once this year already, but as I was going through a difficult time, I most definitely needed it again. This was comfort reading, and as always, the very last line--"what seems like the end of the world never is. It never is"--is something that brought me hope in a very difficult time.
My original review:
Loved, loved, loved it. If I have another girl, I am going to name her Haven. I was blown away by Kimmel's writing in this book. I know a lot of other regular readers of her books were disappointed in this one, but I honestly can't see why. The ability to write some of the most beautiful prose you have ever read was hinted at in her other novels, but this was where it truly came to life. I know some people did not like her more surreal, stream-of-consciousness passages, but to me they were the sort of beautiful, languid words that you feel yourself being hypnotized by. The plot was brilliant, and had some great twists--although I admit I figured out pretty quickly the identity of Finny's lover.
Previous reviews:
I've re-read this once this year already, but as I was going through a difficult time, I most definitely needed it again. This was comfort reading, and as always, the very last line--"what seems like the end of the world never is. It never is"--is something that brought me hope in a very difficult time.
My original review:
Loved, loved, loved it. If I have another girl, I am going to name her Haven. I was blown away by Kimmel's writing in this book. I know a lot of other regular readers of her books were disappointed in this one, but I honestly can't see why. The ability to write some of the most beautiful prose you have ever read was hinted at in her other novels, but this was where it truly came to life. I know some people did not like her more surreal, stream-of-consciousness passages, but to me they were the sort of beautiful, languid words that you feel yourself being hypnotized by. The plot was brilliant, and had some great twists--although I admit I figured out pretty quickly the identity of Finny's lover.
July 31, 2008
I imagine books are all like old wardrobes, or the newer invention, closets. The front cover is a door behind which we never know what exactly we'll find. In her latest novel (new in paperback!) Haven Kimmel delves into the hidden lives of three women living in Jonah, Indiana. These women all work at the Used World Emporium. As the Christmas season ramps up their lives become entangled in ways none would guess. Haven Kimmel writes beautifully of people living 'normal' lives who are going through periods of transition wherein they must open doors behind which the past and future stories of their lives await them. After reading Haven I am always left wishing for more time spent getting to know her protagonists. The Used World completes Haven's loose trilogy of Hopwood County, Indiana. The first two installments are The Solace of Leaving Early and Something Rising. All are achingly beautiful investigations of lives everyone can recognize, and after reading no one will forget.
----Recommended by David Felton
----Recommended by David Felton
May 22, 2009
Most of the time I was reading this it bordered on two or three stars, but now that I'm finished I just can't give it more than one. I just didn't like it. I tried to like it. I tried to get into it. I just couldn't. I was disappointed. I love the other books by Kimmel that I've read,
A Girl Named Zippy
and She Got Up Off the Couch. These are laugh-out-loud great reads that I'd recommend to everyone.
I don't feel like all books need to be wrapped up in a nice, neat package by the end, but A Used World left me feeling a bit disconnect by the last chapter. I felt like there was too much of the story that didn't get told and I didn't really like any of the characters by the ending. I felt like Kimmel was trying to hard to make some social statements and forgot to write a good story.
I'm sad that I didn't like it more.
I don't feel like all books need to be wrapped up in a nice, neat package by the end, but A Used World left me feeling a bit disconnect by the last chapter. I felt like there was too much of the story that didn't get told and I didn't really like any of the characters by the ending. I felt like Kimmel was trying to hard to make some social statements and forgot to write a good story.
I'm sad that I didn't like it more.
January 10, 2008
I am a fan of Haven Kimmel’s, and was excited to read her latest novel The Used World. It follows several women who live in a smallish Midwestern town, chronicling their adventures (or lack thereof) while showing them coming to terms with who they are. The imagery here is - as always with Kimmel - beautiful; every word is necessary, which is all too rare in books these days.
If you haven’t read any of Kimmel’s fiction, I would recommend Something Rising Light and Swift to give you a sense of what you’re getting into before you start The Used World. Her non-fiction and fiction are both incredibly well-written, but are very different from each other. If you like her fiction, you won’t be disappointed here.
If you haven’t read any of Kimmel’s fiction, I would recommend Something Rising Light and Swift to give you a sense of what you’re getting into before you start The Used World. Her non-fiction and fiction are both incredibly well-written, but are very different from each other. If you like her fiction, you won’t be disappointed here.
August 1, 2009
Another miraculous book by Kimmel. Again set in east central Indiana (probably Muncie), this is the story of 3 misfit women with pasts that haunt them. Like Kimmel's other books, it takes religion very seriously, with a Church of the Brethren pastor of a very small congregation (about 30 attend worship) who quotes Stanley Haurwas & Martin Buber in his sermons. (It's the same pastor who was the one of the two main characters in The Solace of Leaving Early.) But it takes on other big issues, too: abortion, gay assimilation, etc. It gets off to a slow start, & all the men except for the aforementioned pastor are jerks or worse, but once you get involved in the lives of these women--and Kimmel is a master of characterization--the novel is heart-rending.
September 2, 2013
3.5 stars. I would've rounded up, but just when it was getting really good there was a jump six months into the future and it just got muddled and less enjoyable from then on.
Also, on a random note... in one of the nurseries at my old church there was a dollhouse that's the same as the one on the cover of this book. I was perhaps a little too excited when I realized that.
Also, on a random note... in one of the nurseries at my old church there was a dollhouse that's the same as the one on the cover of this book. I was perhaps a little too excited when I realized that.
August 21, 2009
Again I am blown away by the sheer brilliance of Kimmel's writing and insight into the human heart and condition.
Perhaps the most likable of her loose trilogy and perhaps mostly because of nearly completely female cast, this story is unforgettable and paradigm-shifting.
While there were several paragraphs I needed to read multiple times, and were sometimes even then didn't completely understand, I felt like this book, those sentences, those thoughts were a call for me to rise to the intellectual challenge that is Kimmel's hallmark.
Perhaps the most likable of her loose trilogy and perhaps mostly because of nearly completely female cast, this story is unforgettable and paradigm-shifting.
While there were several paragraphs I needed to read multiple times, and were sometimes even then didn't completely understand, I felt like this book, those sentences, those thoughts were a call for me to rise to the intellectual challenge that is Kimmel's hallmark.
August 22, 2013
I'm listening to this and I'm disappointed. I'm constantly trying to figure out which decade the story is in now. Interesting setting and characters but I can't keep the time frame straight.
Imagine that--we have the mandatory coming out moment.....
Oiy, this book needed a much better editor! I don't know why I'm finishing it--I guess the "good parts" are compelling enough. If I'd got caught in a Church with THAT Christmas sermon I'd have a coughing gag and flee to the car!
It's down to TWO stars.
Okay--WHO was Rebecca's mother?? I'm so confused. The end was unsatisfying.
Imagine that--we have the mandatory coming out moment.....
Oiy, this book needed a much better editor! I don't know why I'm finishing it--I guess the "good parts" are compelling enough. If I'd got caught in a Church with THAT Christmas sermon I'd have a coughing gag and flee to the car!
It's down to TWO stars.
Okay--WHO was Rebecca's mother?? I'm so confused. The end was unsatisfying.
May 11, 2009
This was my first Haven Kimmel book. I didn't know what to expect, but her lyrical language, her troubled and sympathetic characters and her interesting twisting story had me hooked. I have already lent this book to a friend. The story will stay with you. I enjoyed reading the acknowledgments, which then made clear where her deep spiritual background came from, that so strongly influenced the book.
October 2, 2014
Nothing close to "The Solace of Leaving Early" or "Zippy", but good in its own rite. (is that the right rite?). Not too many laughs, but good. I would really love to know Haven Kimmel's background. Zealous religious types show up all over. She also seems to know an AWFUL lot of history, philosophy, religion and more. And then you read a book like zippy... she's also hilarious and quick and sarcastic. Man... I'd love to have her over for dinner and beers.
April 7, 2016
I just love Haven Kimmel!
June 29, 2016
Could have used the print version or audible for this. Used CD and difficult to re-listen.
December 25, 2022
I really did not enjoy this at all. I had liked another book by the same author. It's a book about Claudia, Hazel, and Rebecca. They all work together at a giant flea market. They all have different lives, but yet they are all miserable in their own way.
It was a book that was light on plot, but long on sermons. Just pages and pages of thoughts about God and the Christian life and also some weird ghost visions. I was interested in the story, but there was so little of it.
And I could never like Hazel. Just never like her. I think the author was trying to give her some of that "magic old lady" vibe, but she just came off as mean and thoughtless. I would have liked her better if she had talked more. Instead of just doing things, but explaining and talking about feelings and trying to connect to the other ladies.
These ladies kept talking about loneliness, but they didn't do much to make it better. I get a little tired of characters who get stuck in ruts and just wallow in their misery.
It was a book that was light on plot, but long on sermons. Just pages and pages of thoughts about God and the Christian life and also some weird ghost visions. I was interested in the story, but there was so little of it.
And I could never like Hazel. Just never like her. I think the author was trying to give her some of that "magic old lady" vibe, but she just came off as mean and thoughtless. I would have liked her better if she had talked more. Instead of just doing things, but explaining and talking about feelings and trying to connect to the other ladies.
These ladies kept talking about loneliness, but they didn't do much to make it better. I get a little tired of characters who get stuck in ruts and just wallow in their misery.
July 10, 2009
What an interesting book...I had to pay attention to what was happening with the back stories.
Mysterious and suspensful...never knew what was going to happen next.
Thought provoking and deeply woven as if threads of the past from each protagonist were intertwined and yet I wasn't sure how they would all fit together. Hard to imagine that it was all important but as I grew to love the characters the meanings started to come to life for me.
We all have pieces of our life that are shattered and broken, as if used and/or out-of-date. Wondering how and why life has been so difficult at times we may think that we are broken and used up. But there is meaning and purpose in life, there are things that happen to all of us that seemingly don't amount to anything but somewhere along the way they could be the keys to our finding what really matters to us personally.
I found so many things within this novel that were easy to identify with yet there were even more illuded to that I understood completely because I related to the situation and choices.
Yes, we all make choices that we cannot change after-the-fact. But they are what constitutes our character and we should never be ashamed for what has gone on during out tenure here on earth. As the storms of life sometimes take us by surprise, we are not caught off guard for we're ready for anything.
The resilience in the human spirit is universal...some of us just don't know that we have the strength to make it another day. I've felt used up and broken beyond repair. I've felt that I was going to die because of grief and at other times wanted to die because of circumstance...this is reality for most of us at one time or another in our lives.
This story will enlighten you if you've been traveling a lonely road. There are others out there just like you and in one way or another you probably will relate as well as be able to encourage the other.
Don't be afraid to reach out if you feel it deep within you that someone may need your assistance. Don't be afraid to love even though you know that loving almost always causes great pain. It is in loving that we find our true purpose and meaning in life. There will be choices but just do the best you can and eventually things will work out on their own.
Try not to regret the past but learn from it. Embrace your memories and don't let them go to the wind...everything happens for a reason.
I feel alive after reading this book. I have a greater purpose. I'm not ashamed of the broken places for that is where I am the strongest! My heart is very large and has much love for others. Although most aren't sure how to take me I don't worry for their time hasn't come. One day they will understand...it may be just when they are broken themselves that the revelation will come that all of us are important and we have found ourselves on the same path for a reason.
Rejoice in the life you have been given and forge ahead...there are new horizons to discover and everything is beautiful!
Mysterious and suspensful...never knew what was going to happen next.
Thought provoking and deeply woven as if threads of the past from each protagonist were intertwined and yet I wasn't sure how they would all fit together. Hard to imagine that it was all important but as I grew to love the characters the meanings started to come to life for me.
We all have pieces of our life that are shattered and broken, as if used and/or out-of-date. Wondering how and why life has been so difficult at times we may think that we are broken and used up. But there is meaning and purpose in life, there are things that happen to all of us that seemingly don't amount to anything but somewhere along the way they could be the keys to our finding what really matters to us personally.
I found so many things within this novel that were easy to identify with yet there were even more illuded to that I understood completely because I related to the situation and choices.
Yes, we all make choices that we cannot change after-the-fact. But they are what constitutes our character and we should never be ashamed for what has gone on during out tenure here on earth. As the storms of life sometimes take us by surprise, we are not caught off guard for we're ready for anything.
The resilience in the human spirit is universal...some of us just don't know that we have the strength to make it another day. I've felt used up and broken beyond repair. I've felt that I was going to die because of grief and at other times wanted to die because of circumstance...this is reality for most of us at one time or another in our lives.
This story will enlighten you if you've been traveling a lonely road. There are others out there just like you and in one way or another you probably will relate as well as be able to encourage the other.
Don't be afraid to reach out if you feel it deep within you that someone may need your assistance. Don't be afraid to love even though you know that loving almost always causes great pain. It is in loving that we find our true purpose and meaning in life. There will be choices but just do the best you can and eventually things will work out on their own.
Try not to regret the past but learn from it. Embrace your memories and don't let them go to the wind...everything happens for a reason.
I feel alive after reading this book. I have a greater purpose. I'm not ashamed of the broken places for that is where I am the strongest! My heart is very large and has much love for others. Although most aren't sure how to take me I don't worry for their time hasn't come. One day they will understand...it may be just when they are broken themselves that the revelation will come that all of us are important and we have found ourselves on the same path for a reason.
Rejoice in the life you have been given and forge ahead...there are new horizons to discover and everything is beautiful!
November 9, 2012
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. The Used World Emporium is a massive warehouse-like building filled with cubicles of items that people are selling. Hazel, Claudia and Rebekah run the flea market.
Hazel is in her 60s, and much of her story is told in flashbacks. She is unmarried with a sister who is a long-time drug addict. Her mother is still alive living in a nursing home. Claudia, in her late 40s or early 50s, is a woman who is often mistaken for a man. She dresses in lose clothing, is extremely tall at 6 feet 5 inches, is broad-shouldered and very strong. She now lives alone in her family’s home after the passing of her mother a couple of years previously. Claudia is still grieving the death of her mother. She has a younger sister who is married with two children. However, Claudia doesn’t have much use for her sister. Rebekah is in her late 20s. She has grown up in a strict, fundamentalist Christian sect. Since the passing of her mother, she has rebelled against the sect. She lives in an uneasy truce with her father, Vernon.
The flashbacks of Hazel’s life reveal her strong friendship with another woman, Finney. The flashbacks follow Hazel’s relationship with Finney as Finney becomes enamored with a married man, becomes pregnant and has a tragic death in childbirth. Claudia, alone and suicidal is dragged along with Hazel to see Hazel’s sister and in the process is given an infant to raise, and later on, a pit bull to keep. These events cause great changes in Claudia even leading to a reconciliation of sorts with her sister. Rebekah, meanwhile is involved with a guy who abandons her. She then discovers she is pregnant. Her father throws her out of her home and she eventually comes to live with Claudia.
From there, events, like the weather in rural Indiana, swirl out of control leading eventually to a kicker of a climax. Along the way, besides the stories of these three women, are ruminations of the presence and purpose of religion in their lives. This is not too much of a surprise given Kimmel’s attendance at a seminary.
I would recommend the novel for anyone looking for a novel with interesting characters, leading lives as best they can under difficult circumstances. The characters are well-developed. The plot captures the reader as we learn to care for these women. The integration of religious beliefs and/or disbeliefs fits in well with the characters and only adds to our appreciation of them. If you read this, and enjoy it, I’d recommend Kimmel’s two volumes of memoirs: A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch.
Hazel is in her 60s, and much of her story is told in flashbacks. She is unmarried with a sister who is a long-time drug addict. Her mother is still alive living in a nursing home. Claudia, in her late 40s or early 50s, is a woman who is often mistaken for a man. She dresses in lose clothing, is extremely tall at 6 feet 5 inches, is broad-shouldered and very strong. She now lives alone in her family’s home after the passing of her mother a couple of years previously. Claudia is still grieving the death of her mother. She has a younger sister who is married with two children. However, Claudia doesn’t have much use for her sister. Rebekah is in her late 20s. She has grown up in a strict, fundamentalist Christian sect. Since the passing of her mother, she has rebelled against the sect. She lives in an uneasy truce with her father, Vernon.
The flashbacks of Hazel’s life reveal her strong friendship with another woman, Finney. The flashbacks follow Hazel’s relationship with Finney as Finney becomes enamored with a married man, becomes pregnant and has a tragic death in childbirth. Claudia, alone and suicidal is dragged along with Hazel to see Hazel’s sister and in the process is given an infant to raise, and later on, a pit bull to keep. These events cause great changes in Claudia even leading to a reconciliation of sorts with her sister. Rebekah, meanwhile is involved with a guy who abandons her. She then discovers she is pregnant. Her father throws her out of her home and she eventually comes to live with Claudia.
From there, events, like the weather in rural Indiana, swirl out of control leading eventually to a kicker of a climax. Along the way, besides the stories of these three women, are ruminations of the presence and purpose of religion in their lives. This is not too much of a surprise given Kimmel’s attendance at a seminary.
I would recommend the novel for anyone looking for a novel with interesting characters, leading lives as best they can under difficult circumstances. The characters are well-developed. The plot captures the reader as we learn to care for these women. The integration of religious beliefs and/or disbeliefs fits in well with the characters and only adds to our appreciation of them. If you read this, and enjoy it, I’d recommend Kimmel’s two volumes of memoirs: A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch.
March 20, 2014
I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. I like it very much.
I became captivated by the three main characters, complex women born about 20 years apart, and representing very different aspects of Midwestern America. The book illuminates religious separatism and fanaticism, sexuality, morality and evil, America's changing character from farm to dead- end small towns. Rich and poor have secret lives, and the sordid coexists with the noble. In Haven Kimmel's novel, the bad guys are human-- they operate from a world view that vindicates them in their own eyes. We are invited to see through their eyes as well.
When big box stores drive away those in the heart of this small town, there are mourners, but also some who are scornful of the folks who do: One character is overheard saying, "You show me a place downtown where I can get new tires for my truck, bullets for my rifle, and a six-pack of briefs all at once and I’m there. Oh, and don’t forget the popcorn and Slushie I’ll need on the way out the door.’” He is one of the once- strong men who grew up on farms but have grown slack and bewildered within their own culture.
I've seen criticisms that the novel skips around in time. I feel that those skips are essential to the plot's suspense. I did sometimes find it confusing, because the transitions between plot segments weren't always immediately clear. It's possible that may be a characteristic of the e-book version I read and not of the print novel.
With some modern writers, I wince at poor choices of words or a weak description that is out of character. Kimmel's writing has no hint of that: her use of language is both elegant and eloquent. She creates a moving meditation on the difficulties of consigning people and their choices to tidy categories of good and evil.
I became captivated by the three main characters, complex women born about 20 years apart, and representing very different aspects of Midwestern America. The book illuminates religious separatism and fanaticism, sexuality, morality and evil, America's changing character from farm to dead- end small towns. Rich and poor have secret lives, and the sordid coexists with the noble. In Haven Kimmel's novel, the bad guys are human-- they operate from a world view that vindicates them in their own eyes. We are invited to see through their eyes as well.
When big box stores drive away those in the heart of this small town, there are mourners, but also some who are scornful of the folks who do: One character is overheard saying, "You show me a place downtown where I can get new tires for my truck, bullets for my rifle, and a six-pack of briefs all at once and I’m there. Oh, and don’t forget the popcorn and Slushie I’ll need on the way out the door.’” He is one of the once- strong men who grew up on farms but have grown slack and bewildered within their own culture.
I've seen criticisms that the novel skips around in time. I feel that those skips are essential to the plot's suspense. I did sometimes find it confusing, because the transitions between plot segments weren't always immediately clear. It's possible that may be a characteristic of the e-book version I read and not of the print novel.
With some modern writers, I wince at poor choices of words or a weak description that is out of character. Kimmel's writing has no hint of that: her use of language is both elegant and eloquent. She creates a moving meditation on the difficulties of consigning people and their choices to tidy categories of good and evil.
January 6, 2008
Book about the friendships of women had many interesting interactions between Hazel and her two employees in the antique shop, Claudia and Rebecca. It was a funny and a sad book. I don't think there was one man in the book that had any worthiness at all--they were all impaired and the women were constantly dealing with their ineptides.
The author wrote "A Girl Named Zippy" which I have not yet read.
"Kimmel (Something Rising (Light and Swift); A Girl Named Zippy) returns to rural Indiana in her expansive third novel. Hazel Hunnicut is the proprietor of Hazel Hunnicut's Used World Emporium, the station at the end of the line for myriad antiques and junk in Jonah, Ind. With her passel of cats and distaste for convention, Hazel is eccentric but grudgingly beloved by her two employees: Claudia, a tall and lonely woman ostracized for her androgynous appearance, and Rebekah, who is still recovering from an oppressive Pentecostal upbringing. With a nudge from Hazel and the appearance of an abandoned infant (whose junkie mother, a friend of Hazel's junkie sister, is dead), the two women form a relationship, providing momentum as an unlikely family takes shape and hidden connections between the characters are revealed. The story has many satisfying layers, but melding them requires Kimmel to jump around in time, sometimes to confusing results (among the pasts visited are Rebekah's childhood; Hazel's upbringing and the backstory on her relationship with the locals; and dreamlike visions of a long-ago romance between a black groundskeeper and a white judge's daughter"
The author wrote "A Girl Named Zippy" which I have not yet read.
"Kimmel (Something Rising (Light and Swift); A Girl Named Zippy) returns to rural Indiana in her expansive third novel. Hazel Hunnicut is the proprietor of Hazel Hunnicut's Used World Emporium, the station at the end of the line for myriad antiques and junk in Jonah, Ind. With her passel of cats and distaste for convention, Hazel is eccentric but grudgingly beloved by her two employees: Claudia, a tall and lonely woman ostracized for her androgynous appearance, and Rebekah, who is still recovering from an oppressive Pentecostal upbringing. With a nudge from Hazel and the appearance of an abandoned infant (whose junkie mother, a friend of Hazel's junkie sister, is dead), the two women form a relationship, providing momentum as an unlikely family takes shape and hidden connections between the characters are revealed. The story has many satisfying layers, but melding them requires Kimmel to jump around in time, sometimes to confusing results (among the pasts visited are Rebekah's childhood; Hazel's upbringing and the backstory on her relationship with the locals; and dreamlike visions of a long-ago romance between a black groundskeeper and a white judge's daughter"
July 4, 2011
I listened two the first 2 CDs of the unabridged audio book. The prose and level of detail is marvellous - evocative, inciteful, metaphors and characterizations that make you think. Everything is very finely drawn. I stopped after 2 CDs (out of 11) because while teh language was good and the author clearly has a talented voice and imagination, nothing really happened. In 2/11ths of the book, almost no events, other than some conversations, some flashbacks, one person realizing her condition and feeling sad about a breakup, this was not enough to keep me interested. The characters were interesting, I suppose, but none of them unique enough to make me want to follow her. It was just too much detail, too much description, not enough plot. I can imagine plenty of people who would love this book and this type of storytelling, but I am not one of them.
Plus, personally, the Christian discussions bogged it down a lot. I'm all for people of deep faith appearing in the novels I read and even some philosophical discussion, but that's not why I read novels. That plus the nothing happening plot were enough to make me stop.
Plus, personally, the Christian discussions bogged it down a lot. I'm all for people of deep faith appearing in the novels I read and even some philosophical discussion, but that's not why I read novels. That plus the nothing happening plot were enough to make me stop.
June 11, 2013
If someone were to ask what The Used World is about, the most prominent word that comes to mind is: loneliness. How the people we are closest to are often those we know the least. How we bury secrets, often from those who would delight us with the depth of their understanding. How- old or young, gay or straight, married or single- we females share a bond that transcends labels, stereotypes, beauty, age, etc. We nurture, we love, we desperately seek acceptance (mostly from ourselves) and want merely to have a place of belonging.
This novel also speaks to the folly of loving the one that you can never have; to dedicate one’s soul to a fragmented, half-lived life, half-lived inside the desire for the one who cannot give you what you need. It is sad. It is bittersweet. It happens. The women in this story are a testament to perseverance, and to finding a piece of joy in the friends that come our way, even in the most unlikely shapes.
Kimmel is a bit wordy. There is no doubt that she paints a thoroughly descriptive portrait. However, the message of the book is beautiful, and The Used World is well worth the read.
This novel also speaks to the folly of loving the one that you can never have; to dedicate one’s soul to a fragmented, half-lived life, half-lived inside the desire for the one who cannot give you what you need. It is sad. It is bittersweet. It happens. The women in this story are a testament to perseverance, and to finding a piece of joy in the friends that come our way, even in the most unlikely shapes.
Kimmel is a bit wordy. There is no doubt that she paints a thoroughly descriptive portrait. However, the message of the book is beautiful, and The Used World is well worth the read.
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