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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.6 EAN: 9781400033348 ISBN: 1400033349 Label: Anchor Manufacturer: Anchor Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 288 Publication Date: May 13, 2003 Publisher: Anchor Release Date: May 13, 2003 Studio: Anchor Editorial Review: Product Description: Using small-town life as a springboard to explore the loftiest of ideas, Haven Kimmel’s irresistibly smart and generous first novel is at once a romance and a haunting meditation on grief and faith. Langston Braverman returns to Haddington, Indiana (pop. 3,062) after walking out on an academic career that has equipped her for little but lording it over other people. Amos Townsend is trying to minister to a congregation that would prefer simple affirmations to his esoteric brand of theology. What draws these difficult—if not impossible—people together are two wounded little girls who call themselves Immaculata and Epiphany. They are the daughters of Langston’s childhood friend and the witnesses to her murder. And their need for love is so urgent that neither Langston nor Amos can resist it, though they do their best to resist each other. Deftly walking the tightrope between tragedy and comedy, The Solace of Leaving Early is a joyous story about finding one’s better self through accepting the shortcomings of others. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - The solace of being able to stop reading this book earlyI just passed the halfway mark on this one, and I've decided that I've closed the cover for the final time. I really don't like giving up on books, but I just can't put myself through this one any longer. It is so disappointing because there is a really good story hidden amongst the philisophical ramblings, religious references, pretentious characters and unbelievable conversations. But I simply cannot bear witness to another one of Langston's temper tantrums or Amos' inability to write a sermon ... Read More Rating:  - I expected moreI have read some of the other reviews and thought my gosh were we reading the same book? I really liked the style of Zippy and She Got Off The Couch, but this novel was written in a completely different style. I like substance in what I read, but the use of truly uncommon words, overuse of religious material and literature references was too much to be enjoyable. I also didn't feel that I was able to get to know her characters or relate to them in any way. In addition, the last few chapters tied everything ... Read More Rating:  - AN HONEST LOOK AT HOW DIFFERENT PEOPLE DEAL WITH LOVE IN VERY DIFFERENT WAYS.Five stars again for Hoosier author, Haven Kimmel. Love, it's loss, it's search, it's dangers, it's control, it's beauty are all present in this interesting "love story" that doesn't read at all like a love story at first. Everyone in the book seems to be having difficulty dealing with life and relationships. Every one of them needs serious counseling. Kimmel takes you through their lives, their memories, and their struggles that made them who they are just in time for the final pages and chapters ... Read More Rating: - Wonderful FindI love this book, but I seem to love all things Haven Kimmel, from ZIPPY to SHE GOT UP OFF THE COUCH to ORVILLE (picture book), and now this. I started SOLACE on a Saturday morning, resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't get anything done until I finished it, so read all day & savored the final chapters on Sunday morning, appropriately, as the book was a spiritual experience. I know better than to read Haven Kimmel without a pen nearby, so now I have the pleasure of going back, say a week from now, and thinking ... Read More Rating: - Charming!I loved this little book. In the back Kimmel says that it's really a book about ideas, but thank goodness all of the academic philosophies which you have to wade through in the reading were summed up in the preface as "a fool's thoughts". The plot bore that out--you don't have to subscribe or even care about them to see how they crumble to dust under the weight of things that are real. The title is deliciously ironic: the solace of leaving early is the comfortable habit of both protagonists, and you get to see how, in ... Read More |
