The Way the Family Got Away: A Novel

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Summary: Truly a Redefining of American Literature!
Review: And it couldn't come at a better time. You've never read anything like this book. Buy it and read it now. After you've read it, read it again. Michael Kimball is one of the most promising writers of the new millennium. One hundred and sixty pages of finely-crafted genius--Kimball is a master of rhythm and melody, delivering a story as powerful as a hammer blow to the soul. If you have a weak heart, suffer back problems, or are a pregnant woman, step out of the car to the left. If you are ready to experience something bold, new and exciting, then this ride is for you.

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Summary: A weird read
Review: I absolutely hate to give bad reviews, but from my viewpoint this story was awful. Maybe I was just repulsed by the whole storyline, or maybe I couldn't STAND the irritating drivel coming from these poor children's mouths, all I know is that the whole thing drove me nuts! Perhaps, that was the point! I think the author wanted to write something very different and engaging. As I can see, some reviewers loved the book. I found it draining and exasperating. For some great surrealism, read The Waves by Virginia Woolf or 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - fine writers.

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Summary: The Linguistic Universe
Review: Kimball speculates brilliantly on the linguistic and imaginative universe of childhood. The games that the children play with their string and paper dolls represent bizarre yet moving attempts to come to terms with the death of their little brother and the new pregnancy of their mother. Inner and outer worlds are blurred in a series of strange symbolic exchanges as the difficulties the children have in coming to terms with the experience of death, sex, loss and birth are presented. The imaginative challenges of writing about childhood using only the intellectual resources of childhood are formidable. Kimball meets them head on and has written a visceral, wrenching and compelling account of a family's collapse. That the formal challenges are met with determination and success, that the novel appears to have been wrested whole from a landscape of devastation and pain allows the reader a certain exhilaration as well.

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Summary: A Moving and Powerful Story
Review: Our small book club meets once a month & I usually don't finish reading the selection until the night before -- even though I always buy the book right after we decide the next title. I'm busy but optimistic. Well, I started this book Sunday night (2 days ago)& literally could not put it down. I haven't been this enthralled and moved (no pun intended) by anything we've read since Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes". I HIGHLY recommend it -- I have been looking at the world a little differently today because of it.