I grew up in a medium-sized town in Indiana.
My idyllic childhood was filled with endless summer days of bike riding, Dairy Queen root beer floats, water balloon fights, camping in the backyard, and begging to stay on your roller skates for just a few minutes past the time the street lights came on.
I had a lot of great days, great friends, and great stories, some still sharp in my memory as though they happened yesterday and some hazier than others, but nothing of my childhood, nor my storytelling ability, compares to that of Haven Kimmel.
Kimmel, or Zippy as she is more widely known, is truly a force of storytelling nature.
Kimmel’s debut memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, and its follow up, She Got Up Off the Couch, are hard to characterize or summarize, and don’t shine as brightly when you just say they are simply “memoirs about growing up in Middle America”.
Because they are so much more than that.
True, these two memoirs contain stories of Kimmel’s life growing up in Mooreland, Indiana.
Population?
300.
But Kimmel’s voice perfectly evokes simple stories as told through the eyes of a young girl, from the adventures of a pre-teen girl to observations on her family and friends to life changing events in her orbit. Her stories are by turn thought-provoking and downright hilarious, but always told with a deft touch and with the wide eyed imagination of a child.
I most recently read She Got Up Off the Couch, which contains further stories from Mooreland in the 1970s, but this time focuses more on Kimmel’s mother, Delonda. In Zippy, Delonda was permanently ensconced on the couch, eating pork rinds and reading endless novels while Zippy barreled through the world with spirit and an inquisitive nature. In She Got Up Off the Couch, Delonda does indeed get up from the couch, buys herself a VW bus, goes to college, loses 150 pounds and eventually gets a master’s degree and begins teaching, all while remaining a presence in her family’s life – and serving as an inspiration for Zippy. Delonda is truly an "against all odds" success story, despite the lack of support from her husband, whom she married while still a teenager.
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Zippy also weaves in tales of her sister and her subsequent marriage and children, adventures with her closest friends, as well as the complicated relationship Zippy had with her father during this period of her life. Though the tone of this memoir is a bit more serious than her last, there are still so many genuine laugh out loud moments, as well as some that make your heart hurt. I can still vividly remember the story of Zippy and her friend being trapped in a tree by a raging bull (no, seriously), as well as the horrifying roller skating accident that destroyed Zippy’s arm and left her in cast for months and months, lucky not to have lost her limb altogether. I can still hear the echoes of her tale of her (mandatory) attendance at church camp, and of her riding around town in her father’s deputy car.
These memoirs are often described in reviews as being “a love letter to her hometown”, but I think Kimmel as captured the essence of every small town, of every child growing up, and of every hazy summer night where we try to stay out past the street lights flickering on, just with more verve, heart and ability than most of us can capture.
These memoirs are what I would best describe as a “gentle read” – no course language, no car chases or gunfire, just…stories. Warm stories to sip one at a time, to savor, and then to replay in your head again and again.
The only drawback to reading these books is reaching the end, where a hole will suddenly reside where the storytelling used to be. Here’s hoping there is another memoir in Kimmel, just waiting to be put into written word for all to read.
Kimmel has also written several fiction works, including her “loose trilogy” that takes place in a small town in Indiana. The trilogy includes The Solace of Leaving Early, Something Rising (Light and Swift) and The Used World. Kimmel also has a new title due for release in August 2008: Iodine. Haven Kimmel’s website is: www.havenkimmel.com.
If you enjoy reading the books of Haven Kimmel, you may also enjoy the fiction novels of Anne Tyler, Amy Tan, Elizabeth Berg or Alice Hoffman.
Looking to ask the Loud Librarian a question or comment on one of her reviews? Email her at marissa.priddis@crucialpop.com.
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