|
|
 |
 |
[Click To Enlarge]
Email A Friend - Gift Reminder |
The Used World: A Novel
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$14.00
$0.01*
|
| Part No: | 0743247795 |
| Manufacturer: | Free Press |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.0 / 5.0 |
|
|
"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.
| Glad i only spent $4 | 2010-08-17 | 1 / 5 |
| | I could NOT get invovled in this book. I've picked it up at least 6 times and each time I think (I hope, I pray) that SOMETHING wil happen...ANYTHING...but I am more than 50 pages into this story and it is going nowhere. I am actually surprised at the amount of good reviews this book has received |
| Closer, closer...ever closer... | 2010-06-24 | 4 / 5 |
|
I believe that all impassioned, dedicated readers (I'd say that reading a novel a week qualifies you...or maybe anything more than one per month?) subconsciously compare what they're reading with their favourite books. Moreover, that they're looking to have a similar experience to the one their faves provided them. Not identical. Not a repeat. But to be enthralled, moved, transported.
I'm no different. I have my gods-of-writing, I know how I want to feel when reading a novel; I want to be *affected*. For me, one of my 'reference' books is Ann-Marie MacDonald's 'Fall on Your Knees'. Reading it was a powerful experience for me. (So powerful I gave out more than four-dozen copies to friends, relatives...and virtual strangers.) So though I can objectively view each novel on its own merits, I admit that I'm always hoping for the book I'm reading to blow me away, to provide me with a comparable experience.
Of all of Haven Kimmel's fiction efforts, this one has come the closest to that...and also come the closest to what I've envisioned regarding her potential...were she to want to do what I've been building up the hope that she'd do. Which is to write a great storyteller's novel, something that makes the most of her sizable talents, something with depth, breadth...something with scope.
Which, I have to say, she seems interested in presenting...and yet not.
Ms Kimmel examines some things in truly remarkable ways. What she loves to examine, what she loves to riff on, often results in stunning prose. (And while most of this is done in the narrative, there have been some beautiful sections where what her characters say achieves the same goal.) So the scope is there in this sense. But I'm talking more about scope in the sense of...of myriad balls in the air, in a complicated tapestry being woven, of that rare ability to construct fascinating characters, complex storylines, utilizing powerful themes...all fashioned within a suitably 'scopish' tome. At the risk of overlaying an awful bias on my argument, executing a John Irving or Pat Conroy novel.
Though it's too slim an offering to qualify, 'The Used World' had the potential to have been the novel I've been hoping Ms Kimmel would write. (I have to say that a good deal of my hoping actually results from now having read all of her novels; time and again, she's demonstrated the capacity and the talent to write a more 'epic' story. In fact -and again, this might simply be my own needs pushing through- she's often seemed to be champing at the bit, showing hints of wanting to expand her canvas.) From the start, 'The Used World' seemed different from her other efforts. Her approach was different, her pacing was different...and though it was still set in Indiana, the milieu was different.
And I was cheering.
But as the story unfolded, I got the impression that Ms Kimmel missed her philosophical and theological noodling. (They're there, just muted and set pretty much towards the rear of the tableau.) And while she'd upgraded her storytelling a notch or two, she still wasn't wearing a proper 'Storyteller' cap. You know, the kind that results in a novel that accomplishes what I'd proposed earlier, here.
This was confirmed by the final section in the book, 'Six Months Later'. Comprising just under twenty percent of the novel's content, its effect on me was simple: deflation.
Somehow Ms Kimmel managed to negate almost everything the initial portions had accomplished. All of the wonderful elements that had been used previous to this point were orphaned, leaving the reader with-
Well, leaving *this* reader with the sense that the author was either rushed to get to the end, or ran out of oomph, the confidence and vitality required to bring the story on home, and do so in a manner that befitted what had come before.
Disappointed? You bet.
Comparing it all to 'Fall on Your Knees'? Absolutely.
In fact, there were many aspects of similarity between the two novels. There were many aspects of similarity between 'Used' and the better of Irving's novels, the better of Conroy's novels...while never losing what makes a Haven Kimmel novel such a distinct experience. However, it seemed to me like she had been unwilling in the end to learn the new skills required to tell such a tale, as if she'd hesitated to fully commit. And as a result, what was delivered was a disappointing hybrid, neither this nor that...when what could have resulted would have been something monumental, the novel I feel she's amply qualified to write, something memorable. But then, maybe she's just not inclined to go down that road, that the required skill-set isn't one she's motivated to generate. If so, that's her choice, her right to decide...and our loss.
I loved how she was willing to get dirty with the multiple stories addressing multiple characters. I loved how she was willing to do justice to something that -for the most part- is anathemic to her Christian upbringing, astrology. (Now *there's* a discussion, huh?) And I loved how she put a different spin on the consistent themes in her books, hyper-intelligence, The Lost Male, and the displaced/fragmented/dysfunctional female lead (in this instance, a double-lead...or triple...or quadruple. I just wish she'd done more with what she was willing to work with.
I'd pay twenty bucks to find out why Ms Kimmel wanted to write this book the way she did...and if it turned out the way she'd hoped. For an additional tenner, I'd ask her what her dream novel to write would be. Maybe her answer would stop me hoping for more, allow me to appreciate what she does offer to us. But then, maybe she'd say what I'd be longing to hear. She is, after all 'that good', and I do wish for 'that much'. |
| Story has an interesting ending | 2010-05-13 | 5 / 5 |
| | Contemporary setting in small town about three women and the relationships in their lives. Fast, easy read with twists and an interesting way of life in small town USA today. The story has an interesting ending and all is well. The author's use of descriptions in her story makes for good reading flow. A person should read this book 30 years from now to know the terminology and setting of life in the beginning of the 21st century. |
| I couldn't put it down...... | 2009-12-10 | 5 / 5 |
| Zippy was hilarious, and being from a small town myself, it hit so close to home that I read it over and over; it's almost like a security blanket when I'm feeling homesick.
Haven Kimmel's fiction is NOT Zippy; don't go buying them if you're hoping for the hilarity found in Mooreland. They are wonderful, however, and if you're interested in thought-provoking reads, go for it. I enjoyed both "Solace...." and "Something Rising....." but totally ate up "The Used World". And if you're paying attention, you'll catch some of that tongue-in-cheek Zippy wit within the pages, too.
I was pleasantly surprised to "see" Amos and Langston reappear (from "Solace") although they are minor characters. Of course the main characters in this book are compromised in various ways....how boring would it be if they were all vanilla? Where would the story be??? Besides, I think that even the most *vanilla* among us has, if not a whole skeleton, at least a bone or two in the closet so let's not approach this with minds closed. Nowhere does the book suggest that ALL Midwesterners are spouse-hating, bigoted, religious extremists; Kimmel simply picks a cast (out of millions of possible scenarios) who happen to display some unfortunate or unusual traits. Again I ask: what would the story be if the characters were all so-called normal?
To wrap things up, I loved this book. Some of the religious/existential pondering can get a little tedious, but it seems to be a running theme throughout Kimmel's novels.....and with her background, it's understandable. Even so, it's a great book with characters you can truly care about. Recommended. |
| Not as enjoyable as I had hoped | 2009-06-07 | 3 / 5 |
| This novel started very slow for me. The author attended seminary school, so it should not come as no surprise that she adds religion into the book, which was fine by me as I usually find the religious views of others somewhat interesting. However the first 50 pages or so of this novel read almost like a sermon. I felt that the author was trying too hard to fit religion into the book and thus was piling it into spots where it did not neatly fit.
I was also disappointed that the author thought she needed to put so many similarities into the characters. All were trying to find their footing in the world. All has issues with their relationship with their fathers. All had similar lifestyle preferences, which I can not discuss further without giving away too much of the plot. Considering this was set in a small town, I felt that this abundance of similarities lend to the story being somewhat unbelievable.
All that being said, I did find the novel to contain some very thought-provoking moments. One of my favorite scenes has Hazel speaking to Claudia about her deceased mother. Hazel says to Claudia "You didn't know everything about your mother. You only know yourself in relation to her... You're just telling a story called Ludie. You've made up a character who stands in a spot and fulfills certain needs and is rounded by your perfect imagination of her." It really made me think about how we all just make up the characters in our lives around who they are in relationship to us and also of the story we tell others about ourselves.
The redeeming of this book came in the last 50 pages. This is the point where almost all the threads were tied together in an unexpected twist (with the exception of one of Hazel's visions that I still can't figure out where it ties in). I could not put the book down when I arrived at this point and I was left wishing for more when the book came to a close. I am still thinking about the characters in this novel and have come away really enjoying them. |
* Current Price/Avail/Qty displayed on website may be delayed by up to 24 hours. Items added to cart and into the checkout process will reflect current price and status of product. |
|
 |
|
)
