The Solace of Leaving Early : A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Haven Kimmel
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $11.21
You Save: $12.74 (53%)
New (5) Used (6) from $5.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 1451519
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
A heart-rending story of the lives of a few inhabitants of a small American town and the massive effect of one very violent death Langston Braverman has just walked out on her PhD oral exams and returned home to Haddington, Indiana in a fragile emotional state. She retreats to her parents' attic, unsure what to do with the summer or the rest of her life, but with vague plans to write the great American novel. But it's hot, and she is distracted beyond capacity to think by the banality of this small-town home she has returned to, and plunged deep in the trauma of a self-imposed existential dilemma from which not even news of the death of her childhood best friend, Alice, can rouse her. A few houses down Plum Street, Amos Townsend, the local preacher, is suffering from a crippling crisis of faith, wondering how he can continue in the role of spiritual leader of this community. Traumatised by Alice's violent death, guilt-ridden over his inability to prevent it, he feels a responsibility for the welfare of Alice's two suddenly orphaned young girls, altered beyond recognition from the shock of having witnessed the bloody end to their parents' marriage. Langston's mother, meanwhile, has forced her into the role of carer, and the developing relationship between the damaged children, and these two slightly hopeless adults helps all four embark on a process of recovery and redemption that is heartbreakingly poignant and utterly convincing. The Solace of Leaving Early is a remarkable novel - generous, warm-hearted, smart and ambitious. It is a novel of people and ideas, of family ties, and of how those ties endure for better or worse, of grief and love, of leaving home and returning, of the overwhelming secrets that rest quietly within us. It is so sweet and smart, it's a present.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
Not another Zippy, but still great December 20, 2008
Kimmel is a totally different author in this book than she was in Zippy or it's sequel She Got Up Off the Couch. She shows here that she is a gifted fiction writer and novelist, and the book is wonderfully written.
 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.
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