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Summary: The incredible tale of the quintessential creep
Review: "Mrs. Kimble" follows the life of serial husband Ken Kimble, but it's the stories of the women he ruins that this book tells about in tragic detail.1969 (Virginia): Birdie is an 18 year old girl who is captivated by Reverend Kimble, 13 years her senior. After he impregnates her, the two are married. But it isn't long before Ken's late night shennanigans come full circle when Birdie opens her front door to a teenager named Moira Snell that claims to be having an affair with Ken. The next thing she knows, Birdie is left high and dry with barely any money to stay alive and pay the bills- and she has 2 children to boot; Charlie, age 6 and Jody, age 4. Birdie's answer is to find solace in one bottle of wine after another, while Family Services continues to seek her out. Charlie and Jody grow up with an alcoholic Mother, who never quite gets over the shock of having her husband walk out on her. 1969 (Florida): Joan Cohen meets Ken Kimble through her friends, the Snells. Their daughter Moira brings him home from college, intorducing him as her fiancee. Joan can see Ken is distinctly older than Moira, even though he appears to be a hippee. When Joan's gardening services sends Ken over to spray her oleanders, she too falls under Kimble's spell. It doesn't help that she's already lost one breast to cancer, because she begins to melt under Kimble's complements and charm. Pretty soon, they're married. But it isn't long before things go sour... 1979 (Washington D.C.): Dinah Whitacre, who used to babysit for the Kimble's back in Virginia, has lived her whole life with a purple birthmark covering half her face ("It's in the shape of Minnesota", she tells us). Incredulously, Kimble shows up to dine at the restaurant that she is a chef at. At a traffic light weeks later, Dinah is struck by a car (Kimble's, of course)and her ankle is broken. She cannot work for months, and Kimble offers to let her move in with him, becoming her Knight in Shining Armor. He offers to pay for her to get laser surgery to correct her birthmark. Here, the book jumps to years later, after she and Ken are married with a teenage son and she's become his young armpiece (she's 39, he's 65). The holes in this story revolve around Kimble himself, because we never really get to know anything about him. Then again, that seems to be the central theme with each Mrs. Kimble: none of them really know anything about him when they marry him. From pretending to be Jewish with Joan, to stealing funds from HUD, each revelation is a mystery, but not really a surprise. Kimble's absence from their lives makes his sons see him for who he is, yet the women can't see the forest for the trees. "Maybe that's what it took to see through a fraud like Kimble", a 27 year old Charlie tells us, "maybe you had to be his son". Excellent first Novel by Jennifer Haigh. I eagerly await her next.
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Summary: Three very different women marry the same enigmatic man
Review: A great first novel despite its shortcomings, Mrs. Kimble is almost three separate novellas about three different women who marry the same enigmatic man, Ken Kimble. There's young, impressionable Birdie, who becomes a dysfunctional drunk unable to raise Charlie and Jody, her two kids, when Ken leaves her for a college student. And then we have Joan, a savvy single woman who somehow succumbs to Ken's charms and stays married to him until she dies of breast cancer. Lastly, there's Dinah, who used to baby sit for Jody and Charlie. The stories of these women seemed to flow so effortlessly; the wives were very well drawn characters. That said, there was a major flaw: Mr. Kimble himself. There was no back story, no explanation of why he was so disconnected and unfeeling, or exactly what about him was so irresistible to women, particularly intelligent ones like Joan and Dinah. Kimble remains as enigmatic to the reader as he does to the women he marries. He seems like such a blank character that it is hard to imagine anyone falling for him. Very rarely did I see any qualities that would endear him to women, or keep them standing loyally by him. It was all rather depressing, really, to think these women loved this man and he was so cold and distant and unknowable, especially to his children. It was nice, at the end of the book, to see that at least one Mrs. Kimble and Mr. Kimble's children, had finally found a little happiness.
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Summary: A book that I could barely put down that made me think
Review: Admittedly, "Mrs. Kimble" isn't a perfect book. As I read it, I wanted more explanation at the same time realizing that one of the strengths of the book is its ambiguity. Because Haigh leaves actions and personalities (especially Ken Kimble's) open to interpretation, the reader is able to make the sometimes seemingly distant story more personal. The beginning was rather slow, I think because Birdie is the first character we meet. She is also (apart from Ken Kimble) the character we know the least about. As a character she doesn't change much, though the reader does get a sort of resolution to her story in the end. As we learn about each of the Mrs. Kimbles, we find each one to be more sympathetic and dynamic. Joan, the second wife, was to me the most sympathetic because I think we get to know her best, in terms of her fears and vulnerabilities. However, I rooted most for Dinah. She is unique, not only in being the last and youngest Mrs. Kimble, but because she realized the truth about her life and marriage, and was able to act on it more than either Birdie or Joan. It is reasonable, however, to assume that Joan learned some version of the truth about her life with Kimble, but we never really know if she acted on that realization. In fact, it is probably safe to assume that she did not. Prior to reading "Mrs. Kimble", I read a blurb that mentioned that its style allowed the reader to observe how each Mrs. Kimble aided in their own deception about their husband. I think this is also a strength of the book, but really only apparent in Joan and Dinah's stories. Probably the greatest strength of the book is the often irritating ambiguity of Ken Kimble. We know very little about him and, in fact, he doesn't even have much dialogue. We see him almost entirely through his wives' thoughts and memories of him. As a result, we're able to learn more about the nature and character of his wives because our knowledge of him is through them.
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Summary: A RIVETING PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY
Review: An ingenious look at the life of a conman, "Mrs. Kimble" sketches the details of the devious Ken Kimble through the eyes of his three consecutive wives. Over the span of twenty-five years, the infamous husband goes from choir director to drifter to real estate agent, acquiring a new spouse with each new identity. Haigh's storytelling skills will draw you in and leave you mesmerized. And, her well-drawn characters will have you rooting for each of the three Mrs. Kimbles in turn. An interesting psychological study, "Mrs. Kimble" also offers great fodder for book group discussions. How do we define our identities in relation to our spouses? Why are so many women attracted to "the wrong kind" of men? In the end, the author offers an uplifting message about the strength of family, in all its convoluted forms.
Rating: 
Summary: A wise and insightful debut novel
Review: Be notified: You may very well read MRS. KIMBLE in a single sitting, so be careful when you pick up this book. It's difficult to put down. This is a fascinating character study of three women who make the same mistake of marrying the same man, a debonair opportunist named Ken Kimble. Each woman comes from a different time and place, yet the author is able to so wholly imagine their lives that by the end of the novel you will feel know them as well as your oldest friend. That this is a debut novel is hard to believe, given the author's extraordinary facility with language and her wisdom into the far reaches of women's souls.
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Summary: Wonderful young writer of this first novel!
Review: Conceptually, Haigh has plotted a compelling tale of the three women who marry Ken Kimble. We see the story through the passage of time. First we meet Birdie Kimble, abandoned with two small children by Ken the minister. Ken married Birdie when he taught at a Christian college. 13 years her senior, he was fired after her pregnancy and their hurried marriage became public. Things get truly horrific for Charlie and Jody, Birdie's children, when the reality of how poor they are, how little there is to eat, and how much wine Birdie drinks hit home. The only thing that saves the children is the need for Birdie to return home for a family funeral, where the kindness of relatives helps keep the small trio afloat. Ken moves on with another student, young Moira Snell. Through her parents in Florida, he meets a rich woman, Joan, who is older than he is, and who finally provides him with the kind of money and setting he needs to strike it rich in real estate. In order to fit in, Ken, the product of a conservative Christian background, pretends to be Jewish. Joan is a survivor of breast cancer - and when she can't conceive, Ken briefly absconds with his and Birdie's children to try to fill up the house and pacify her. Charlie takes matters in his own hands and manages to run away with Jody on a bus back home. Joan is subsequently overtaken by another bout with cancer, leaving Ken a relatively young, rich widower. Ken's final marriage is to Dinah - a young woman who used to babysit for his kids, whom he meets again quite by accident in Washington DC. Dinah's independent and smart, but she, too, is taken in by Ken. She becomes his wife and bears him a son, but soon learns that Ken in marriage is not the same as Ken in courtship. Dinah is his trophy -- he encourages her to have treatment for a large facial birthmark, and utilize makeup and a style of dress that make him the envy of his peers for his "trophy wife". He cares little for Brendan, his son with Dinah, and is openly critical of the boy. Kimble is one of those charismatic rolling-stones who invariably attract women that he wants and wants to use for his own purposes. It is not until after months and years of marriage that the women he chooses realize how shallow and self-serving he is. Marrying for youth, beauty or wealth and success, Kimble quickly loses interest in each wife and treats them like the possessions he feels they are. Willing to desert and then to kidnap his own children, lie about his heritage, carry on extramarital affairs and cheat in business, Ken Kimble, as portrayed by Haigh, is a chilling anti-hero. His legacy is the unhappy solitude he brings to his own children, each of whom distrust marriage and commitment. Only four stars for a book rich in imagination, description, dialogue and character? Why? Haigh moves and affects the reader with her portrayal of only two of the three wives. In Birdie and Joan, complete opposites come alive on the pages. Their vulnerabilities are exposed and exploited by Ken, and we can only watch in shock. The third wife, Dinah, perhaps the most admirable of the three, is perplexing in her motivation and her actions. Haigh may have relaxed her standards in writing the final chapters of the story, and Dinah remains a kind of mystery to the reader. Still, the book is definitely a cut above most "women's" fiction, and you can't stop turning the pages.
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Summary: The first time in a while I haven't been able to put a book
Review: down.
I just finished reading Mrs Kimble and have subsequently read the [...]review. I have to say I loved the novel. I think that it is not unfortunate that we don't know what made Ken Kimble such a jerk, as his mysteriousness is part of what makes him so interesting to his 3 wives and the holes he leaves in his story are what make his marriageability so believable. (Also, his wives were all women in transition, involved in their own storylines so it would make sense that they would not be too concerned in questioning the solace that he initially offers them.) Jennifer Haigh could go on to write a companion piece called Mr Kimble, but -- to be honest -- I think the one dimensionality of his character would not make him as interesting a character as Birdie, Joan, and Dinah. This one dimensionality is not a slur on the author's talent: rather a compliment. She has created a complex one dimensional character: a man who is driven by a certain lust (for attractive women, for easy money) and who is afraid/ unable to ask too much of life once that lust has been satisfied.
My one gripe with the book is that I wish we had known more of Joan's ultimate fate. She had lived such an interesting life and carried on a thoughtful interior life. I felt she was done a slight injustice being left on the page as she finally was. I really look forward to Jennifer Haigh's next book.
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Summary: Good to the last drop
Review: Excellent! Bravo! Kudos to Ms. Haigh. I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully written debut novel and highly recommend it. Also, I recommend a novel called LUST OF THE FLESH. A compelling, pageturning novel about a corrupted district attorney, Nick Allapapalaus and his scandalous tactics that finds himself in unsuspecting situations.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Enjoyable Read
Review: For a first novel, this was an excellent book. There were a few gaps that I would like to have seen filled in (such as Mr. Kimble's past) but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the female characters. I'm looking forward to Ms. Haigh's next book.
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Summary: A differing view
Review: Haigh's novel is frustrating and uneven. It is not enough to claim that Ken Kimble's underdevelopment as a character is mere device -- Haigh is trying too hard here to make Ken unlikable and mysterious, and in doing so she prevents the reader from empathizing with his three wives. It does not seem possible that each of these complex characters would give themselves up to an entirely two-dimensional mate. I did not read this novel as an illustration of the common relationship mistakes that women make (I refuse to rely on that hackneyed trope to explain the novel's shortcomings) -- I read it as an exercise in crafting scene. And Haigh is a superior scene crafter. But most of the characters in "Mrs. Kimble" are developed to wildly differing degrees, and this uneveness makes for an unsatisfying sustained reading experience. Also, the often stilted dialogue exchanged between these characters betrays Haigh's rich depiction of their inner lives. One final quibble -- the novel's ending is far too pat. Sophisticated stories to not tie themselves into such neat packages. LIFE does not neaten itself thusly. Given the ambition of the novel's scope, I expected much more from its denouement. I will allow that Haigh is a very skilled and commanding writer. Her sentences are clean and her prose is evocative, intelligent, and exact. But I do not yet find her a novelist.
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