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Title: Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh, Martha Plimpton ISBN: 0-06-053097-9 Publisher: HarperAudio Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 6 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.03 (36 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Original, subtle, and interesting debut novel
Comment: The story of three women who marry an elusive con man. Ken Kimble is a human amoeba capable of morphing into whatever shape pleases the woman he wants. The novelist's focus is on the three very different women who are his victims, and each portrayal is subtle and all too real. The skill with which the women are drawn is amazing in so young a writer, as is her perceptive and never sentimental picture of Kimble's three children. The dialogue is as real as life. One could only wish for a bit more depth in the description of the women's background and character. As for Kimble, such a person could never be made understandable--revinvention of himself to suit the moment is his very nature.
A highly original work from a writer who promises much.
Rating: 5
Summary: Which Mrs. Kimble will you like the best?
Comment: I loved the book! It is a fascinating character study and story that I just didn't want to put down. Each of the women is unique, and yet by the end of the book I could find the common link that allows them all to be duped by charming and decietful Mr. Kimble. I found the so-called holes in the book quite intentional and quite functional. The "holes" are part of Ken Kimble's personna; they stopped me from dwelling on Ken Kimble, and they kept my focus on the wives and the families. The book is aptly titled Mrs. Kimble, not Mr. Kimble. A fine story, with a well joined beginning and end! Jennifer Haigh did a great job with this novel!
Rating: 3
Summary: Highly Readable, But Little Depth or Complexity
Comment: Given the premise of this novel, I expected much more from it than just an enjoyable, quick read. And it IS highly readable--Haigh is a good storyteller and her pacing is fast (short episodes, crisp sentences). And yes, you do keep turning the pages, even though the novel begins a bit slowly with Birdie, the least engaging of the three Kimble wives (maybe partly because you never get to see Kimble with her or relating to her, except a snippet long after they're divorced).
However, I wished for more than just a story--I like novels that make you think, and in which you really identify with or come to love the characters, novels which have detail and some complexity to them. This one has little of any of the above, in my opinion. I know some readers felt the three Mrs. Kimbles were really well-developed, but I felt just the opposite. All of them seemed a bit like stick caricatures to me--there just wasn't enough there. Dinah, the last wife, is perhaps better drawn, simply because more pages and time are spent on her, and therefore I felt I knew her a little better than the other two--but not as well as I'd have liked to.
Ken Kimble--the selfish, opportunistic and supposedly chameleon husband who we see solely through his three wives' eyes--was a real disappointment (and not only to his wives, but to me as well!). I was married for a number of years to a man who, while not a criminal 'con' man like Kimble, is definitely someone who changes a great deal in relation to whoever he's with. However, my ex is highly complex and very interesting, and Kimble is neither. Haigh loses a chance to help us understand this kind of personality, I felt, as Kimble is presented so one-dimensionally, so simplistically, really. And I don't buy it that the wives couldn't have given us at least some of this information, that they didn't know him themselves, so thus we readers don't know him either.
In the years I was married to him, I spent a great deal of time trying to understand my narcissistic, chameleon husband--and I do feel I came to understand him maybe better than he understood himself (I made it a point to learn about his family, asked many questions about his background, for heaven's sake, read his old childhood diaries, made it a point to meet his old friends and girlfriends). Maybe Kimble's young wife, Birdie, wouldn't have done these sorts of things, but certainly smart, savvy Joan could have (why she was ever attracted to him for very long didn't wash for me--and we never do see how Ken copes with her dying, which must have been pretty interesting...). And Dinah, who did know deep down that her husband had some pretty big flaws, also was capable, I think, of presenting us with a more complex picture of this man, especially since she was married to him for many years.
The ending of the novel jives with the rest of it--it will make those of you who like a basically entertaining read happy. Well, I didn't mind the ending, as I'd long before realized I wasn't reading a novel that I found in the least bit thought-provoking, and so just took it for the satisfying ending that it was.
I can see why this novel appeals to many readers--it's a good, light 'mainstream' novel; it's just that I'd longed for a little more meat, a little more substance. If you're just looking for a quick summer read, though, you no doubt will love this book as much as many others have.
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Title: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah's Book Club) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ISBN: 0060740450 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 20 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan ISBN: 0670032069 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 10 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty ISBN: 1401300316 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 02 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Amateur Marriage: A Novel by ANNE TYLER ISBN: 1400042070 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Family History by Dani Shapiro ISBN: 0375415475 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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