If I summarize this book by saying that it’s about the interconnected lives of three women in a small town, I will be telling the exact truth, but I will also be giving you completely the wrong idea. Astrologically-minded Hazel Hunnicut owns The Used World Emporium, a giant indoor flea market in Jonah, Indiana. Her employee Claudia is middle-aged, freakishly tall (and often mistaken for a man), and terribly lonely. Rebekah is in her late twenties and has just found out she’s pregnant by the young man who just left her. All three women have to cope with demons from their past: Claudia can’t stop grieving for her dead mother, Rebekah’s father has disowned her for leaving the extremely strict religious sect in which she was raised, and Hazel has to deal with her aging hippie sister – among other things. But as the novel unfolds, all three women realize that what matters more than the past is the future they must all forge together.

This book was interesting…I’m still kind of digesting it. It has a contemplative feel, and although there’s a lot going on in terms of plot, it unfolds very slowly. I think my biggest problem with the book is that it’s so narrowly focused on this tiny cluster of women that it gets claustrophobic. There are practically no men – only two male characters of any significance, and only one of them is likeable (and he doesn’t appear that much in the book, actually). What I did like about The Used World was the writing style, which is lovely as always. There’s also a lot of religious speculation, which I find fascinating, but it’s more than that: religion really permeates the whole novel, and I think part of the reason is that Kimmel is trying to evoke the ethos of the American Midwest. In my opinion, she succeeds. I can’t say this is a novel I loved, but I definitely think it was worth reading.

Also, I actually underlined something in this book – possibly the first time I’ve ever made a mark in a novel. Here’s what struck me (it’s from the local minister’s sermon): “The Kingdom of God is a door perpetually opening, and it makes me, as dear Emerson said, ‘glad to the brink of fear.’”

The most amazingly structured book I've read in a long time, maybe ever. She is a serious genius. ( )

Well, 1 out of 2 isn’t bad. A few months ago, I read a review of a new book by an author whose work was compared to the works of Ann Patchett and Haven Kimmel. And I LOVE Ann Patchett. So – I bought the hardback of the new book and noted down that author’s name and the name of Haven Kimmel.

And SLOGGED through that other book for almost a month. Made a few notes and then decided I didn’t even feel like reviewing it. It wasn’t awful, but it was no Ann Patchett. So then I forgot about it for a while until I ran into “The Used World” by Haven Kimmel.

True, I had my suspicions. After all, I’d been led astray once by the magazine review’s promise of a new great author. But – this one was a paperback, at a used bookstore even, so my only real investment would be my time.

And an excellent investment it was. THIS was the book I had been looking for. This was the lovely writing, realistic characters with all too human flaws…but with just that touch of – magic? Not actual magic, but the type of magic that takes you from reading a characters thoughts one minute to a place outside that character the next; a place outside reality for just a second. A beautiful place.

“Hazel had seen her mother make this gesture a thousand, a hundred thousand times. Two fingers, a delicate touch just on the hairline; the gesture was a word in another language that had a dozen different meanings. “But it’s a sign that we are old, Albert, when we dislike everything new.”

“The Used World” is a story of women, a story of a small town and a story of secrets. Secrets kept for years and kept from those they might most affect. The main characters that populate this book are unusual without being quirky (especially that small town quirky that I find intensely irritating in movies and books), deeply flawed without being evil, and provide glimpses of their world and their lives that are irresistible.

Even the parts of the book that I didn’t fully grasp were lovely to read. “Hazel slept, finally, and dreamed of a foreign place where many objects were stored. She wandered through alone, picking up things she didn’t recognize, and then there was an old man standing next to her, his hair gone white, his back bent like a crone’s. She remembered he had once been beautiful and was sad for him. He handed her something – a candlestick, a broken bell, a hairbrush – and Hazel knew that it was hers to keep. She hated it, whatever it was, it felt like death itself in her hand, but she couldn’t give it back and she couldn’t put it down, and in the morning she was still holding it, in all the ways that matter.”

There are many themes that are woven through this story…loneliness, religion and spirituality, love in many forms…motherly, the love of a friend, the obsessive love that destroys a spirit…and the thin veil that separates past, present and future.

“She should rise, she knew, and get the dishes washed, the leftover soup put away. There was enough to freeze a quart, which Vernon could take for lunch sometime in the spring, log after she was gone and no one in this life knew the secret of Ruth’s recipe. She thought maybe she should write it down and tuck it in a drawer somewhere, in case her father ever took another wife, or allowed a woman from the church to come in and feed him. The note could say: My mother sprinkled cinnamon in her vegetable soup. She cooked rice in chicken broth, not water. She touched everything as if it were fragile. She listened when you talked and she didn’t judge and she had an easy laugh, for a woman in her time and place.”

There is a plot to this story as well as lovely words and captivating characters. In a small town world where everyone knows one another and many of the days run together, many lives are changed forever in the course of the book. I was expecting a few gotcha moments that didn’t come and was caught off guard by a few surprises. But as things unfold, as characters make choices to take their lives in different directions, it all feels real.

Even moments that on their face seem melodramatic, are framed so well through the eyes of the characters that while startling, are not at all jarring.

When I reflect back upon the story of Hazel, Claudia and Rebekah, I know there is much that I missed. I know what happened in the time period reflected in the book and I know some of what happened before their time. But I also know there are underlying events and whispered truths that slipped by me in this reading. But I loved reading this book and I loved these characters and I know I will revisit them and their world. ( )

I'm giving up on The Used World by Haven Kimmel. I find my mind continually wandering, thinking about everything and anything except the writing. This author's writing is all over the place, she moves from the present to the past and back to the present again without any warning, and I feel completely lost trying to follow it. I am not "grabbed" by this book at all, and although I hate to give up on a book this early into it....I simply must. Life is short. I don't want to have to work at it, I want a book to draw me in and captivate me completely....I don't want to have to read a paragraph over 4 times and still not get it. Maybe some would like it, I don't. ( )

I love Haven Kimmel's writing. It is so accessible, so easy to relate to and so funny. Plus, her quirky characters are almost as amusing as her own family members in her memoirs. I think she has a real talent and this book is no exception. ( )