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The Solace of Leaving Early : A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Haven Kimmel
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $11.91
You Save: $12.04 (50%)
New (4) Used (8) from $8.52
Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 911560
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: lst
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.8
ASIN: B0006HQLQE
Publication Date: June 18, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In her rich and nuanced debut novel, Haven Kimmel brings to life two irresistible people at odds with their small-town lives and with each other.
Langston Braverman does not come home to Haddington, Indiana, because she is searching for a simpler life. Having just walked out of her Ph.D. oral exams and abandoned the remains of a disastrous affair, she has retreated to her parents’ attic to nurse a bruised heart and maybe even write a great American novel. It does not escape her attention that the town is abuzz with the death of her childhood friend, Alice, but not even this morsel of intrigue can rouse Langston from her self-imposed existential dilemma.
A few houses down Plum Street, Amos Townsend is obsessed with Alice's murder and his inability to stop it from happening. A preacher struggling with his role as a spiritual leader after suffering a profound crisis of faith, he finds comfort in helping Alice's two small girls, who have renamed themselves Immaculata and Epiphany. When the children claim to speak to the Virgin Mary in the backyard tree, Amos and Langston become adversaries in their attempts to protect the girls, failing to recognize that they are on the same side.
Told with remarkable wit and sweeping empathy, The Solace of Leaving Early is the story of finding our better selves through accepting the shortcomings of others. With gentle humor, beautiful prose, and a warm empathy for the buried wounds of the human heart, Haven Kimmel has created an unforgettable and wise debut.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 The solace of being able to stop reading this book early September 30, 2008
I 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 (isn't that what ministers do?) I just cannot relate to any of the characters, and I feel more irritation towards them than anything else. Several of Kimmel's other books look interesting, so I won't write her off yet. However, this one's going back to the library today.
 I expected more July 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I 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 up in a rushed, unbelievable package. I was disappointed.
There were a few positives, so I will give Ms. Kimmel another try. The passage describing the events leading to the demise of Alice interspersed with the wedding was exceptional. Some other passages were astonishingly wonderful, as well. I liked how they ended as a family, I just wish the author had spent more time getting to that end in a more realistic manner.
 AN HONEST LOOK AT HOW DIFFERENT PEOPLE DEAL WITH LOVE IN VERY DIFFERENT WAYS. June 9, 2008
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 when...well...read the book. Love is not always just sweetness, so hang in there with the characters to the book's end--you will be glad.
You will eventually love most of the characters you decided to hate in the beginning. The change in emotion is also a part of the story of love that Haven Kimmel presents in such a different light. This story is nothing like the two previous Zippy stories, even though this fiction takes place in Indiana.
Wonderful Find March 9, 2008
I 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 anew about the sections I check-marked. I adore the characters in this book and the author's insights. I especially love knowing more than the characters know about their feelings for one another. Knowing that Langston thinks her mother loved Taos more, for example, is hard, yet I live with the knowledge. The story resolves itself, but all the loose ends are not tied up, and I like that about Kimmel's stories; they reflect life as we live it, even with its uncertainties.
Charming! November 2, 2007
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 the end, there's something mercifully more compelling than the promised solace of insulating yourself from relationships.
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