Something Rising (Light and Swift) : A Novel

by Haven Kimmel

From the bestselling author of 'The Solace of Leaving Early', a funny, heartwrenching and unforgettable novel following the fortunes of a particulary feisty young female pool hustler.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Adult, Audiobook, Novels

Paperback

First published December 22, 2003

About the author

Haven 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.

Reviews

[Taylor Weaver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've begun to notice that for a lot of readers, Haven Kimmel novels are a little bit difficult to digest. I agree that sometimes her books are written in a style similar to Jack Kerouac's free-flowing form. And while it does sometimes seem that Kimmel's writing lacks specific direction, I feel that it's because of this characteristic that her books are so easy to read. Each sentence doesn't seem calculated and tailored like in most pop fiction pieces, but rather, enters the bloodstream naturally like a stray thought or pleasant daydream. Instead of focusing on one grand, overarching yet ultimately unrealistic plot like some authors do, she chooses to focus on the minutiae of everyday life. It all ties in eventually, but that's really how life is. It's the small things that begin to make sense over time and eventually give our lives meaning that are important. So, because she doesn't write the kind of throwaway fiction that eventually falls between the cracks of the literary world, I think she's one of the most under-appreciated novelists of this generation.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I liked some aspects of this story and in some way could be swept along with the plot, it disturbs me that the author sets up so many dichotomies with her characters, basically along gender lines: bad man (father who gambles and abandons family) versus saintly man (family friend who's always there and never seems to get angry or make a mistake); rebellious young woman (daughter who makes a living playing pool) versus "good daughter/girl/female" archetype (at an extreme--the rebellious woman's sister is a creative genius cum agoraphobic who eventually can't leave her house). What ultimately really bugged me, considering that Kimmel appears otherwise to be a progressive feminist who wants to give her female characters depth and agency, is that the "happy ending" of the book consists of the two daughters being essentially rescued by men. One could argue that the rebellious woman at least shows some active agency, not passive acceptance of a marriage proposal like her sister, but she still ends up needing a man to be her reason to change her life and get out of the semi-dangerous rut she seems to be living in. The friends in her life are also odd characters who don't go anywhere literally and figuratively--they seem to be merely foils or warnings to the main character. I think the author could have done more with them or not bothered to have them in the story at all. Her latest novel, by contrast, at least showed how people could create community without relying on old stereotypes of women needing to be rescued by men, etc.

[Gita Upreti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haven Kimmel's writing really is splendid, but I've followed her characters from "The Solace of Leaving Early" to this one, and I think the discovery of a common theme (perhaps cleverly hidden?) distressed me more than it pleased me. Each of these novels' denouement is quick but hard-won, requiring ages of plot and character development that felt tedious to me at times. This is just probably a stage in her development as a writer that she needs to pass through, but it was surprising to encounter this in her fiction when her other work (memoir-ish) is so stellar, pure, and powerful.

Again, Kimmel is an incredible writer, so this book will remain on my shelves and I'll read it again someday, but for now, I felt like her real intentions for the book were buried in a blur of action, unusual characters, and pretty excellent descriptions of the main character's growing expertise as a champion pool player.

[Theryn Fleming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something Rising teeters on the brink of being brilliant, but never quite makes it there. The writing is great (I suspect if I read an excerpt, I'd give it a higher rating than I would the whole book), so much so that I find myself wanting to like the story more than I do. But if I'm honest with myself, this ends up in the "liked but did not love" pile. The biggest problem is that I have no idea what Cassie wants. She plays pool and does day labor and has never filed a tax return. Ok. But what does she want?! In the end there's a deus ex machina, which combined with a foreshadowed (called it!) development, gets Cassie out of her rut... the end. Essentially, everyone in the story is passive and only ever does anything in reaction to events that happen to them.

[Emily Shearer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title comes from a passage of unattributed “journal writings” that the main character finds in her mother’s notebooks. It’s an image dense and laden, yet streamlined and buoyant, of a rattlesnake kite lifting up into the air until its eventual disappearance. Does this stand for men in the main characters’ lives? Innocence? So much is unraveled at the end of the book, like a rattlesnake kite straightening its tail, or finally alighting, grounded, no longer poised to strike.

Resonant in fragments, deeply stoked in symbolism, powerful and skilled story-telling but the occasional departure from chronological order did throw me off a little. On the level of the sentence, this writing is taut and rhythmic, flowing and fine-woven, but in just a few sections, the author’s pool-shark sharpness with a level of language raised her characters higher than their portraiture. An absolute pleasure to read, but she (Kimmel) showcases her writing at the sacrifice of her [minor] characters’ believability. The main characters - mother, father, Uncle Bud, Cassie herself - the protagonist- were so well-wrought, tough, fierce, so unbreakable you may want to see them stumble to prove their humanity but you never will. And is that also unrealistic? Not here. Not with these lives. There is nothing lacking, there is strength in what is left out, brilliance under their coal-hard exteriors. The writer guides the reader to pressurize the blackness and find the diamonds.

Here’s a line I loved: — “Cassie didn’t walk quickly; she led with her hips, as Laura would have done, and made her stride as long as possible. You don’t know how to walk, forget it, the world wants nothing to do with you; your genes get lost, and there go all your bright-eyed babies.”

There are elements of other lives here. I know them, grandparents awake all night, teenage girls driving down long country roads. Reading this book connected me to late-night music and a cast of my own youth. No really, I do know some of these people. These stories did bring back memories and afford rekindling of connections. Oh the messy geometry of life, cue ball trying to find the sweet spot, send the eight on the right trajectory. But here’s the secret, it doesn’t matter if you clear the table on the break, pretend to lose the game then win the bet, or stand in the shadows peeling the label off your beer bottle and watching the game unfold. And “Sometimes It Is Difficult To Discern Whether To Move Or Stand Still.” Neither choice is the wrong one. Go towards love. Go towards the something rising. “The Rising, Unencumbered Image Is The Soul’s Image.” And lead with your hips.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something Rising is about a woman named Cassie Claibourne. The book starts off with Cassie as a child. Right away readers realize she's from a dysfunctional family. Her dad is married to their mother but he is constantly leaving to play pool in different states or he is with his other woman. Her mother is depressed. And her sister, while a talented writer is a paranoid schizophrenic. Cassie adores her father but as she grows up her disappointments turn her into a tough, angry teenager and woman. She has to be strong and supports her family. Her sole joy in life is her pool playing and her goal is to beat as many players as possible, but especially her Dad.

I was a little disappointed with this book. I think I liked A Girl Named Zippy so much, and Something Rising just lacks the same charm as Zippy.

[Jami · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was pretty disappointed in this book, especially after reading (and loving) A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch. There didn't seem to be much of a story line in Something Rising, and what was there was very disconnected and a little confusing. The characters were unappealing and evoked little or no sympathy in me.

Kimmel sets up a bit of a mystery with the character Thomas, but we meet him only very briefly, and nothing more is said about him (although we assume that Cassie returns to him). Cassie's whole experience with him also seems highly unrealistic.

I felt Kimmel was trying too hard to be deep and philosophical with this one, but it just didn't work.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say enough times how much I love Haven Kimmel. She is an amazing writer. In this book, she writes about a daughter who idolizes her pool sharp father as a little girl and learns to play pool herself. She's a natural and is playing adult men for money by the age of 12. Her relationships with her father, mother and sister are complicated, but eventually she finds the best in herself through those relationships and is finally able to let herself find love. It sounds lame, but it's really a great story about a strong, independent, admirable woman.

[Renee Wolcott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow, Haven Kimmel's books are more intellectually than emotionally satisfying for me. They're like some bizarre puzzle, and the characters' feelings for each other are often mysterious. They seem to be following some preordained path, with attractions that work like magnetic fields rather than our usual emotional responses. I'm not sure I always believe what I read here, but if my mind isn't convinced, it's at least intrigued.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart, sharp female lead. If you play pool at all, this story will hook you. Loved the tiny story tie-in with The Solace of Leaving early through a photo of Langston and Taos as kids. Definitely into the time spent in New Orleans with Thomas, her visit to Cafe Du Monde and all.

Kimmel does more than write what she knows, she writes who she is into each cell of the story, making it live and breathe.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my favorite Haven Kimmel book, but it was okay. I am not into pool, and that was important to the story. I like the way this author develops characters. I would have given it a higher rating, but the end seemed contrived. The author probably knew where she was going, but I did not care for the last couple chapters.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy the way Haven Kimmel constructs dialogue but this book fell off for me in the last third.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I am often trying to figure out which book I read 25 years ago that kick started my love of memoirs. I thought it was David Sedaris Me Talk Pretty One Day . But it may have been Haven Kimmel's memoir. I have hung on every word that Haven Kimmel has written since the first time I read A Girl Named Skippy . Love that book.

I think I need to re-read this book multiple times and absorb Cassie, her friends and her troubled, broken family into my bloodstream. I don't know why, but I love Cassie, her brilliant, brilliant, schizophrenic sister Belle and her deeply depressed mother, Laura. Love all of them. Love Poppy, who lives out back in a trailer. Love his wife Buena Vista, who is only in Cassie's memory. Maybe not so enthusiastic about her father Jimmy, but he is who he is and he is a very important part of the story of Cassie's life. Whether you realize it or not, you carry the ghosts of people (living or dead) with you throughout your life. You can come to terms with it or you can be haunted by them. Read this story to see which way Cassie's life turns.

[Tory Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is nothing particularly good or bad about this book. Those who spend time playing pool may enjoy the descriptions of the main character, Cassie, who makes a living as a pool house hustler. After the death of her mother, she travels to New Orleans in search of the man who broke her mother's heart. They battle over a pool table with a predictable outcome.

[Linda Broussard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her style of writing is unique. hard to follow at times as her thoughts bounce around, as thoughts do, as in fever or a dream. I couldn’t put the book down and cared very much about her character. After finishing I went back to re-read passages. I’m definitely going to check out her other books.

[Devon Flaherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have now read six books by Haven Kimmel, this summer. I have two to go. I don’t know why, but I saved the novels till last, and I am in the middle of the “loose trilogy” of her first three (of four) novels. The (very) loose trilogy is The Solace of Leaving Early, Something Rising (Light and Swift), and The Used World. I am reluctant to look up how exactly these three books hold together, at this point in my reading, because I am afraid I’ll find out too much. As it stands right now, the majority of the way through the second book I read a sentence and was startled into what is so far the only way I see the connection. I like surprises like that, so I won’t ruin it for you and I don’t want to ruin any further surprises for myself. But when I’m done with the trilogy I will look it up and see if there are things I’m missing. It seems likely. I’ll mark them with a spoiler alert in my next review.

And now I am going to deal with Something Rising (Light and Swift) as a stand-alone book, because it is, essentially, its own book. Something Rising is the story of Cassie Claiborne, a girl born and raised on the flat fields of rural Indiana. Her mother, Laura, was from New Orleans and had quickly veered off the trajectory of her life (about to marry a man of means and local notoriety) when she chanced to meet the gambler, Jimmy, and follow him (unbidden) back to Indiana. Jimmy then led a double life—the one he had been living before and the one Laura brought to him, while she spent the days and even nights staring out the window toward the (unseen) life she had destroyed in fashioning this new mess of one. But this is all about Cassie, about the genes she is given (a temper, practicality, gambling, talent in math and at the pool table) and about what else comes from her rocky childhood (secrecy, codependence, anger, abandonment issues). And while her friends and sister (and other supporting characters) deal with the Midwest cards they are given, Cassie tries to figure out how to carve a life for herself instead of being a reaction to someone else’s choices. Is it even possible?

Let me tell you: reading Kimmel’s novels right after reading her memoirs is illuminating. I mean, writers all write from their experiences and end up with themes, even if they don’t think they do or don’t want them. Kimmel’s past and themes are abundantly clear from reading her real life up against her fiction. The people from her past haunt her stories, including, most importantly, her mother and father. Haven is also in each story, clearly, and often divided into multiple characters (which is really normal for writers to do, on purpose or not). There’s always higher education and at least one character who is highly academic. There are family characters who do not function. Gambling. Drinking. Many questions about motherhood and fatherhood and, of course, the father who abandons the family. And all of these things come straight up out of Kimmel’s childhood and even her young adult years in academia. Rural Indiana as a place always plays a super important role, too, as well as small town personalities (which at least she gives tons of texture, having actually grown up there and affording the characters actual humanity instead of charicature).
Just like in the first novel (The Solace of Leaving Early) I did wonder if I was missing things because of the depth of some of the scholarliness. In The Solace of Leaving Early¸ I felt a masters (at least) in theology and philosophy (and also English) could have helped me understand what the heck the two main characters were talking about half the time, but with Something Rising¸ it was more subtle; I suspect there are layers of metaphor here related to Greek mythology and other classical mythologies and stories. I mean, not only is this part of the way the three women of the household relate to each other (even that! Is that trilogy important?), but the main character’s name is Cassiopeia. (In Solace, the main character is Langston, which is downright weird.) Surely…? It is possible that a deep approach to Kimmel would yield much, is what I am saying. Am I going to approach it this way? Not at this time, not yet.

The truth is I don’t have to understand all of the allusions in Something Rising in order to enjoy it. I loved this book. I always love Kimmel’s writing, and out of the six books of hers I have read so far, this one is my favorite. (They may continue to get better, actually. I think that Iodine, the fourth novel, had been my favorite when I read them a couple decades ago.) I love this: the language; the imagery; the characters; some of the insight. How to make this longer? Kimmel’s writing is beautiful, even breathtaking, always clear (though sometimes bogged down by high-level academic stuff), always transporting. Her use of carefully-chosen detail takes the reader right into each scene and then the way she develops the people in the scene really endears every single character, no matter how flawed or obnoxious. These people and places really breathe, and Kimmel has something to say about all of it. I don’t always agree with what she seems to be saying, as a narrator, but I can always appreciate the story as a story, the characters on their own terms, and the places as a sort of historical artifact, though fictional.

My issue with this book is essentially the only issue I had with Solace, which can be said “plot” or “pacing.” As literary fiction, there isn’t a real clear hero’s journey, and that’s okay. However, her character development and plot development are lopsided in the same way in Something Rising as in Solace. There is tremendous build-up (without, remember, a conventional (or as my friend would say it, modern, Western) plot. We don’t know what we’re asking or where we’re heading, exactly, we’re just getting to know the place and the characters and the circumstances) but then when it resolves, it does so entirely too quickly. Another way to say it: Kimmel is a bit of a tease with the more traditional elements of plot, especially romance. Last time I said that if she had added a few more scenes with the “romantic leads” along the way, the ending would have been much more satisfying. In Something Rising, sure, I would have loved more time and clues leading up to the two eventual romances, but my real complaint is in the sudden changes in Cassie, which I don’t feel are gradual enough. Pages before the end, she is still the same old Cassie in so many ways, enough that I, as a reader, want to challenge the changes that we do see. I don’t think Kimmel ushered us through the process of the change. The ending, again, is too abrupt, and since it’s literary fiction, we don’t get to hang out there much, if at all. Endings can only be implied in literary fiction, you can’t really look them straight in the face. Fine. But I have to believe what is cropping up obliquely and gradual change is key.

This might be the sort of thing you will feel if you read Something Rising (Light and Swift), so I am pre-empting your disappointment, but not to discourage you from reading it. Ultimately, I love Kimmel’s books and I really enjoyed Something Rising. If you do literary fiction, it’s a great book. I have yet to understand why Kimmel isn’t more well-known. As far as the genre goes, she is a bright light on the close-backwards horizon and I actually felt like I spent the last couple days in Indiana with Cassie, Puck, Emmy, Laura, etc, even though they aged more than ten years during the story. A recommended read.

QUOTES:

“…I didn’t know that the heart can make grave mistakes and that who you end up married to is largely a matter of accident and then you’re stuck with it forever…” (p51).

“An infinite number of props are necessary to shore up a serene family life, that’s what Laura would have said, and once Emmy’s parents, Mike and Diana, had gathered those props, they didn’t change them” (p66).

“Laura saw no good end. ‘I would have cared for you if the situation were reversed,’ she wrote. ‘I would have seen you through to the end. But to bargain for my life at your expense is untenable’” (p159).

“When you were little, and I think this is true of almost every mother of young children, I was less afraid that one of you would die than that we wouldn’t all be together” (p161).

“I am tired of flossing, of hand lotion, of the food pyramid. Years before I knew I was ill I had already felt every single morning, rising from bed, that I had to get up and do something about my corpse” (p164).

“Then there had been no limit to how far she could ride, not because she was stronger but because she thought differently” (p175).

***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 Something Rising reads better as the third book.

The story takes place primarily in rural Indiana, a place where girls were girls and men were men. The story is told from Cassie's point of a view, a girl who at a very early age learned about betrayal and disappointment. Her older sister Belle is brilliant but pyscholigcally damaged, their mother Laura seems to be a mostly loving but distant parent whose anger simmers for days. The father is a pool shark and though he isn't featured often in the story his presence looms because Cassie too is a gifted pool player. Much better than her father it would seem. The story eventually has a 30-something Cassie traveling to her mother's home town of New Orleans to visit the landmarks in her parents unhappy love story.

Very well written, Something Rising really does bring up universal questions of love, trust and personal delusions.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up from the thrift store because I liked A Girl Name Zippy. This novel, however, I didn’t like. One. Bit.

From the beginning, I was trying to figure out what Kimmel was trying to do with the choppiness of the language and randomness of the plot. It didn’t flow, I couldn’t get lost in it. She might have been trying too hard to be literary. Or relevant.

The motives of her characters flummoxed me. One minute, Cassie, the main character, is mollycoddling her frail sister, the next she’s crowbarring the windshield of a stranger’s car (with the lady still inside) in a bit of ferocious road rage. She travels to New Orleans on some sort of healing/revenge trip for her mom who only recently died of cancer. In the Big Easy, she picks up some guy at a coffee shop, sleeps with him, decides she loves him (in 2 hours), but then leaves because staying would have been too trite for this literary masterpiece. Next, she finds the man her mother jilted thirty year earlier (to follow Cassie’s good-for-nothing dad to Indiana) and pockets five thousand from him in a pool duel before announcing her lineage and kicking in his jaw.

The ending drizzles with some sort of tired redemption. Cassie’s dilapidated sister marries the old bachelor in town so she is free to pursue her dreams in New Orleans: Opening a swanky pool hall. It’s going to be one heck of a Mardi Gras.

[cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really like this, but am due for a re-read, because I can't remember exactly what i liked about it, just that i did like it...
[update]: oh good lord - claire and i saw haven kimmel read last night, which was glorious. I have a total girl-crush on anyone who talk about the eschatology of john ashcroft one minute, and the next minute tell a hilarious anecdote about being on the morning show and trying to make katie couric look smart. which brings me to this book (which is now autographed "To Cat from the Flat Green Fields of Indiana - Haven Kimmel") - this book contains some of the most heartbreaking, character-building lines ever. This is one of my favorites: "This was a mystery to Cassie, how the true nature of a person can be so thoroughly concealed in youth that he does humiliating things. It meant Cassie herself could do them, and later someone would hold out the offending object - a dress, a party favor, an unsent letter - and convict her." please read it - you won't regret it!

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haven Kimmel, how I love her. I want to give this book four stars but it kind of lost me in the last third. The beginning is amazing, though. The main character is a pool-playing tomboy who is nearly fearless. The description of how she plays her no-good drunk of a father for his most precious possession, a work-of-art pool cue, is one of the finest revenge fantasies I have ever encountered. Sweet. Also Haven Kimmel is hilarious. If you haven't read The Solace of Leaving Early, you should check it out. I mean, the title alone tells you something about how Kimmel writes. Funny and smart.

Here's a quote:

For we have agreed that there are two different ways to come to knowledge: either we set out seeking the intelligence, or the intelligence seeks us. Sometimes It Is Difficult To Discern Whether To Move Or Stand Still: This Is A Discrepancy.

Here's another:

It is a law of game theory that any game allowing for a bluff will eventually give rise to a bluff.

[treehugger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is on the NC shelf bc Kimmel lives in Durham :).

Ok - something about the way she writes her novels (but NOT her memoirs) make her a bit inaccessible - I feel REALLY dumb sometimes, like I'm WAY not picking up on some undercurrent or innuendo or something...It's frustrating, and I feel as though I'm not enjoying her novels as much as I COULD if I were, say...understanding what she's getting at.

This one was pretty bleak, although Cassie's anger was AWESOME, and she is our generation's TOWANDA!! without a doubt. Belle was a puzzle to me, as was the sisters' relationship to each other and well...all the characters, really. Laura was PLAINLY modeled after Kimmel's mom, which was neat and sad at the same time.

This book will leave you rather brokenhearted, but if you don't finish it feeling like you've missed something, we need to talk, cuz you figured out something I didn't.

Note: DO NOT try to win a fight with a turkey vulture while driving with your windows down. *shudder*

[Jennie Menke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book. THIS book is a disappointment. Disjointed. Confusing. Dark. If I didn't know it for sure, I'd say it was impossible -- impossible! -- that it was written by the same author as The Solace of Leaving Early (and Zippy, obviously). Oh well, you win some, you lose some. What absolutely blows me away is that they have almost identical ratings. Which only goes to show you: 1) everyone is different and 2) we shouldn't be so beholden to the ratings.

I'll hang in there and check back when I am done.
_______
OK. I'm done. This had only minor redemption for me between when I wrote the first blurb above. I usually love haven kimmel's characters. I didn't really like any of these characters. It was hard to follow. I didn't laugh once. Cannot recommend, which is just crazy, given my adoration of Zippy and the Solace of Leaving Early. I'm not giving up. I'm going to give The Used World a try.

[Aubrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very excited to finally read the second in the "trilogy" by Haven Kimmel.(The first book, The Solace of Leaving Early.) Every character feels raw to me. (Is that the right way to put it?) Since the books are loosely related, I was eager to see how she would tie them together. I did not know if there would be a common theme, or if the setting, small town Indiana, would be the common trait, or if the characters would be. All three are interwoven, but I do not want to give anything away.
(Buehner, I can't wait for you to read this, when your life is less hectic, and we can discuss.)

Often I do not pick up on the obvious, so I was assured of my hunches in the brief interview with the author at the back of my edition. (I was very excited about this!)

I can't wait to start the third book, The Used World.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

Kimmel developed a diverse fan club after the success of her smart, funny, and best-selling memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, and her poignant novel, The Solace of Leaving Early. In Something Rising, Kimmel both varies and adheres to these forms, chronicling the everyday events and dramas of a determined young woman living in a small town and aching for another life. Critics praise Kimmel's complex, unsentimental style and convincing plot. The rather slow pace in the middle detracts slightly from this intelligent narrative about family responsibility and the quest for purpose in life. But Cassie is worth spending time with.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Karlyne Landrum]

I give this three stars, because I did finish it and parts of it were brilliant. But, I found the consistent run-on sentences distracting, they bugged me. (See? Isn't that annoying?) Cassie's life is interesting, but somehow, even in all of the detail and description of her life, she stays elusive and cold and not accessible. The neat and tidy winding up of the plot seems to say that she's on her way to becoming a real, feeling, giving person, but it doesn't ring true with me.

Is that what the point of this whole story is? Nasty childhood, rotten father, neurotic sibling, bitter mother ... they all lead to Happy Ever After Land where Prince Charming shows up right on time and boxes of money magically appear? If you suffer as a child, you deserve a good adulthood? I like the idea of it, but I just don't buy it.

[Coleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/30/07 - Read the audiobook version of this, since I knew I'd get to it sooner that way. Although I'm sure there was supposed to be some sort of deep meaning in this novel, it really didn't do it for me. Living in Indiana myself (which is the setting of the majority of the book), I was both interested & somewhat disgusted by the references to the way of life characterized in the book. I would hope that readers wouldn't assume that all Hoosiers live the way that Cassie & her friends/family did. Anyway, the novel seemed rather disjointed to me...I never really could get a grip on the characters and found myself slogging through to get it finished. However, I will say the last few chapters of the book are the best, and redeemed the whole story a bit. I don't know....hard to describe this one.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is Kimmel's attempt at the standard coming-of-age-in-a-dysfunctional-family trope, but even here she twists it almost unrecognizably. It begins fairly typically but strays further & further from the mold as it goes along. Like The Solace of Leaving Early, which I admired, this book is set in rural central Indiana, but whereas that one focused on an intellectual elite, this one is about more stereotypical rural Hoosiers who live apparently meaningless lives in a trailer. (But, of course, Kimmel again gives this a twist as we gradually learn that the main character's--a teenaged pool shark--mother writes poetry & her sister studies classical mythology.) I didn't connect with this one as much as her other one.

[Cathy Day]

This book is about all the things that conspire to keep us rooted in one place--the needs of our family, our friends, our community--and what it takes to truly live a life on your own terms. Especially if you a woman. Especially if you're from rural or small-town Indiana. The discussion of the "woman chipper" of female life, oh my, this alone is worth the sticker price. If you read Zippy and wondered what that book would have been like if not for the insistently cheerful child's point of view, if it hadn't stopped when the female character turned six, then you should read this. This is that book's dark sister, and it's fearless and complex.

[Sira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just re-read this recently and remembered why I thought it was the least of the trilogy. While Cassie is an interesting character, the rest of the story doesn't quite rise up to support her in the way of The Solace of Leaving Early and The Used World.

The first time I read this I rushed through it looking for traces of Taos. I think that the part of The Solace of Leaving Early that resonated most with me was the focus on sibling relationships, so I read the scenes in New Orleans a few times over, glad that Taos was there, if only briefly.

[Laurel Wicke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. What a disappointment. Since Ms. Kimmel wrote one of my favorite books of all time, A Girl Named Zippy, I expected to connect with this book so much more, but instead I felt very much like like the main character described conversing with her sister: As if they spoke different languages. Maybe it's a difference in viewpoint, experience, or opinions, but I just didn't get nor did I really want to. Sorry. I can't recommend it.