Rating: 
Summary: Great First Novel
Review: The story of Mrs. Kimble is a creative concept, leading us into the lives of 3 women who at different times were married to the same man. Broken into 3 sections, representing each of his wives, the reader gets to meet and despise the man who is Ken Kimble. It is interesting to see how the same man relates as a husband to three very different yet similarily seduced women.At the onset, Ken Kimble seems like a caring, sensitive man, tapping in to each wives weaknesses, saying the things that comfort them and reel them in. Then after marriage, he becomes distant, selfish, deceitful. Jennifer Haigh does a great job of portraying women in all forms-weak, pathetic, vulnerable, strong, resilient. Her cast of characters, both the wives as well as the children who result from his trilogy of marriages are strong, well-defined characters. The writing of this novel is excellent-the pages will fly by in one sitting. Mrs. Kimble has a creative plot and solid writing. I look forward to more from Jennifer Haigh.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful debut novel
Review: The story of the three wives of Mr. Kimble. Three very different women consecutively marry the same man. The stories of their marriages are told through their points of view - and the man they each married comes to be fleshed out through their very different wants and needs within a marriage.
Not perfect, but what a great start to what should be a stellar writing career.
Highly recommended - if just to say you read her first book way back when...
Rating:
Summary: Original, subtle, and interesting debut novel
Review: The story of three women who marry an elusive con man. Ken Kimble is a human amoeba capable of morphing into whatever shape pleases the woman he wants. The novelist's focus is on the three very different women who are his victims, and each portrayal is subtle and all too real. The skill with which the women are drawn is amazing in so young a writer, as is her perceptive and never sentimental picture of Kimble's three children. The dialogue is as real as life. One could only wish for a bit more depth in the description of the women's background and character. As for Kimble, such a person could never be made understandable--revinvention of himself to suit the moment is his very nature.
A highly original work from a writer who promises much.
Rating: 
Summary: absolutely amazing
Review: This book is great, I am surprised it was a debut from a writer who looks so young, because her understanding of the perspective of women of various ages and backgrounds was stunning. The book is broken into separate time periods, the first centers in Birdie, the first Mrs. Kimble, immediately after her husband runs off with a student at the college where he works. She has two small children (the story is partially told by the 10-year-old boy, Charlie) and has never worked before. now she must support the little family while trying to hold herself together. The second focuses on Joan, a career woman in her late 30s struggling with a family history of breast cancer when she meets Mr. Kimble. The last is about Dinah, who once babysat the Kimble children for Dinah. She runs into Mr. Kimble overa decade after she first met him in Washington, DC, after she drops out of her first semester at American University. The story is told only from the perspective of the various wives and children of Mr. Kimble, never from Mr. Kimble himself. This is a great plot device because the man is so unknowable to anyone, even to his own family. It is a sad book, very true to life and all through it, I had to wonder what kind of man could leave so many hurt people in his wake, with the uncomfortable knowledge that some men do indeed exist.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story, but Some Questions
Review: This first novel by Jennifer Haigh was a compelling story with mostly well-developed characters (some of whom I thoroughly lost patience with, another whom I despised). My only criticism is that it gave little insight into the man at the center of all of these women's lives since he is seen only through their eyes. Maybe that was the intent of the author, but if so, it left me with several questions about his past and what could have caused him to turn out the way he did. I thought that the novel was presented in an interesting and unique way, with each Mrs. Kimble's story being told in sequence over a period of 30 years. The way the author tied up the story at the end was neither contrived nor forced (as it easily could have been) ---it was very well done. These three vulnerable women were all taken in by the elusive Ken Kimble, who changed his persona to fit the circumstances, like a chameleon. His basic cold and conniving personality, however, remained the same through his lifetime. He was a con man and a grifter who managed to insinuate himself into these women's lives through lies and manipulation.As soon as he "got" them, his normal selfish ways re-emerged. I think that Haigh's particular gift is that she was able to render these three very different women so realistically, to get into their hearts and souls, despite their very unique circumstances. I have one little nit-picky question and that is about the cover...were those three dresses supposed to represent the three Mrs. Kimbles? If so......where is the one for Joan? None of these were the kind she would wear. I would recommend this book for its unique presentation and for its insight into the wives. I think it would provide great book club discussion too.
Rating:
Summary: Very fine first novel
Review: This is a book you can read and thoroughly enjoy in a day. It begins with the death of an unknown man in Florida and goes back in time to his history of marriages with three Mrs. Kimbles over a time span of thirty years. We see how well he can seduce and court these women, but he does not have it in him to carry out the relationships. He leaves the first one, a young woman named Birdie, with two young children. She cannot manage to live whithout him so she finds herself drinking wine to excess, totally unable to cope. These pages are particularly painful because we see the effect this has on her life and her two young children, Charles and Jody. We watch them grow up and meet the other wives, once as a product of Ken Kimble absconding with them to Florida to meet and live with wife number 2, Joan Kimble, who of course believes his lies. Dinah is wife number 3, who actually was the babysitter for Birdie's children. Dinah has a son, Benjamin, and much of the whole group minus, Mr Ken Kimble, of course, come together. This is done very nicely, and without feeling contrived. We never really know Ken Kimble, except as a seducer and cad, who only piles on the charm at the beginning of any relationship, especially when the women are young.
This is not a perfect novel, but it is really very good, worth reading, and of course you don't put it down without thinking about these characters for a bit when you are done.
Rating:
Summary: A surprising premise and a gripping first novel
Review: This is a fascinating novel by a very gifted young woman. Even with the "holes" in the story that others point out in their reviews, it is a terrific one- or two-day page-turner. Birdie's story was a little too off-putting in the beginning, but I stuck with it and am glad I did. I have trouble concentrating and start reading many books I never finish; this one I gulped down whole! Highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good debut
Review: This is a good debut novel. The concept is intriguing - a chameleon-like man who changes identities to match the women he marries, preys upon their weaknesses, and changes their lives. The portrays of the women were fascinating, well-drawn and sympathetic - I really rooted for Birdie in the beginning, hoping she would recover from Ken and move on, and then felt increasingly sad and frustrated when it became clear she would not recover. Joan, the second wife, became ill and never had the chance to recover, and finally Dinah, the third wife, made the triumphant recovery. The weakness of the book was Ken - why on earth were these women so lovestruck with a man who was a bad lover, no companion, had horrible table manners, uninteresting, a liar...Birdie I could understand, but Joan's obsession just didn't quite work, and Dinah's just seemed unbelievable - she was almost contemptuous of him throughout the marriage, but she stayed, and stayed, and stayed. And finally, I felt the ending was weak because it made him too one-dimensionally evil - even destroying his business success. He would have been more interesting had he been shown as more of a person and less of a caricature.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read
Review: This is an engrossing first novel by a very promising author. The plot and character development are well done. It was difficult to put down this book once I'd begun reading it. I had hoped to learn more about the reasons behind Ken Kimble's behavior, but this was the only flaw in an otherwise consuming novel. I hope that future books by Jennifer Haigh are as well done as this one.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: This was a delightful book to read, even though it touches on some very difficult subjects such as alcoholism, negelct of children, infidelity and personal tragedy. In a way it's like meeting up with old friends and saying, "Have you heard about so and so?" I loved it! I hope Jennifer Haigh writes something new soon.
|
