The Solace of Leaving Early

About 50 pages into this book I had to go back to the reviews I had read to remember why I picked this book up. I thought the characters were unreal and certainly not likable. The main characters, Langston - the phD student who walked out during her oral exams, and Amos - the preacher who sees too easily the vast brokenness of man but doesn't believe God is capable of handling it, were so busy thinking high philosophical thoughts that they didn't actually live. And they didn't think much of the people in the small town where they lived either.

The review that lead me to the book admitted it was a bit heavy handed in philosophy and that it got a bit tiring at times, but the story comes back and it's worth the read. So I plugged along and show more was rewarded for it. By the end of the book I had to admit that I do indeed know people just like these characters, and in fact could recognize a bit of myself even in Langston. Sitting on this side of my experiences I was annoyed at the way she dismissed the people of the town for being inconsistent in how they lived their lives. But by the end I had to admit I have done the same at times.

The book is a story of grief, and I found that well done and interesting as well. Langston is carrying some grief (maybe more than one) and her behavior is affected. She has strict limits around what she'll eat and what she does and patterns to how she does things. This works well when she gets to know the two little girls who have a very disciplined existence. When life is out of control, we look to what we can control and micromanage it.

I loved the portrait of Langston's father. How quiet and rock solid he is, while being open and seeing and feeling everything. I finished the book wondering what I missed in my own father's life. show less

I am a committed Haven Kimmel fan after reading this very well-written book by an obviously well-read and erudite author. Once I had read a few chapters, I was hooked on Langston, her family and Amos' relationship(s). This is a novel to be savored because each paragraph holds unexpected nuggets. I thought the literary references were thought-provoking, the details of each person's lfe were finely crafted and the humor was sharp. I felt as if I knew this small town in Indiana quite intimately by the time Langston met daily with Alice's daughters. Having worked at a university, I also appreciated Langston's observations of the academics who reign in their own little world. I cannot wait to read anything else written by this very talented show more author. show less

I love Haven Kimmel’s books. I came across her work not too long ago (I don’t know what took me so long) – and I fell in love with her style – both with fiction and non. “The Solace of Leaving Early”…wasn’t one of my favorites, though. Maybe if I’d read it up her writing chain instead of reading the newer stuff and then looking back – my feeling may have been different. But – this one was more work for me – although it did have many moments that I treasured.

For instance, this: “It is the nature of the world that we miss the moment our fate changes, but can recall it later with perfect clarity.”

Or “He couldn’t imagine how he earned this little piece of luck. She was just another possibility in the mind of show more God, one of many potential universes, and somehow, in a trick, a tug, she arrived.”

It’s something about the way that Kimmel looks at most of her characters that captivates me, I think. She looks at people with clear eyes, seeing their flaws, but gives most of them enough back story so that the reader at least understands their actions, if not forgives them. There are few villains in her stories, but there are heroes. No one is painted in black or white, but in the most beautiful palette of greys.

Amos Townsend, the minister I would like to have were I ever to find the slightest bit of a religious streak in me, is a character I’ve run across before in Kimmel’s work. He is a central character in “Solace”, and the questions he asks as he examines his life and his faith, seem universal ones. Interestingly, the questions the reader first encounters, about the death of one of Amos’s parishioners, turn out not to be the ones we’re yearning for an answer to by the end of the book.

“Why? he wanted to ask his congregants. “Why does this happen to us? Because we have abandoned an infinite number and variety of pure possibilities, and perhaps they live alongside the choices we did make, immortalized in the cosmic memory.”

I think the reason this book felt like work, was that it reads very…scholarly? Many of the main characters, despite their small town lives and the stereotypical roles one might feel compelled to put them in, are incredibly well read, and there were many times that I was at least a foot beneath the surface of this book. I was missing what the characters were trying to express because I didn’t have the literary knowledge to stay afloat. The story comes back, in the end, but I did feel the frustrated urge to skip ahead more than a few times.

But through it all, Kimmel creates beautiful snapshots of everyday life. People we either are or know. “…we had done this momentous a subtle thing, we’d gotten married and made a baby together, and we just sank into it, it felt like sinking every day. The smells of a home and the smells of a baby and a marriage bed, the intimacy, the familiarity, the safety, all of it.”

And those who maybe we wish we didn’t know: “He had a robber’s smile, those last few years.”

Oh, and there’s still Kimmel’s gentle humor. “Maybe she was destined to be someone, to do something, but never got the chance. And what would her obituary say, should she die in the next week: “She kept a clean bathroom”? or “Her brownies were quite moist”?

And with Amos, “In Introduction to Pastoral Care, Amos had been taught to say, “Thank you for trusting me enough to share your story,” as opposed to, “That story reminds me of all the reasons I’m planning to die young.”

In the end, I would say that “The Solace of Leaving Early” is a portrait, not specifically of one character, but of a kind of life. Parts of this life we all live, filled with joy, grief, humor and quiet desperation. With very few exceptions, we’re all heroes and villains of a sort, which is to say we’re all human.

“Langston stopped, half-in and half-out the door. “Half the people you’ve invited are crazy, Mama. We must not let that stop us from having a good time.”

Indeed. show less

An absolutely captivating story. Langston, the main character, is a fascinating character who awakens from her intellectual and emotional coma to become a beautiful (though still quirky) person right before our eyes. I adored the juxtaposition of the Midwestern setting and sensibilities with the theological and philosophical musings, all adroitly woven into the fabric of the story. It's funny, it's sweet and it's smart.

Having trashed “A Girl Named Zippy” previously, I had very low expectations for “The Solace of Leaving Early.” Zippy made Kimmel famous, got her a spot on The Today Show, but Solace is much superior.

Amos Townsend is a thoughtful preacher suffering a crisis of fault in a small Indiana town. One of his parishioners has been murdered, leaving two daughters orphaned and witness to her death. Langston Braverman, a washed up PhD candidate caught in a haze of existential contemplation, has returned to childhood bedroom to hide from the world. Langston’s wise and affecting Mother, AnnaLee, knows just the medicine the egocentric Langston needs. The orphan girls need guidance and AnnaLee won’t rest until Langston starts thinking of show more someone other than herself. There’s a quirky grandma, a pillar of strength father, and a town of oddballs so real I can attest to their existence (I’m from close to the same place as Kimmel). The story progresses as we find out, along with Langston, what happened to the girl’s mother and the fate of the two orphans.

Kimmel certainly has a kind pen. There were so many passages of simple beauty in this little gem; I’ve a page full of quotes. One thing Kimmel does especially well is limiting the words while keeping the most thoughtful of meaning. However, her characterization is a bit uneven. I hated Langston for the first half of the book and wanted to throw fire on Amos to get him excited. They were developing into nice little souls. And then she dropped the ball. The last third is too contrived, with a neat little bow and all. The plot is assisted by a ‘who-done-it.’ There are just enough hints and secrets to keep us guessing as to the circumstances of the murder.

One imperfection in the novel is one of the things I found most interesting. Kimmel uses lofty philosophers and authors like adjectives. All the name-dropping can be distracting. Some might have difficulty believing that Indiana farmers sit around reading Kierkegaard and John Donne; but I know that not everyone in a small town is a peabrain. And her analogous use of lofty ideals does a good job juxtaposing the simplistic nature of small town life.

My favorite thing about the novel was Kimmel’s faithful rendering of small town folks. They live their lives without question, in application and not theory. Langston’s life has been one of theory, her Mother’s one of application. - Worth a look for anyone interested in the nuances of small town life or the human implications of our choices, consequences and flawed perceptions.

Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume show less

I liked Kimmel's debut novel for so many reasons. The lovely writing, the literary allusions, the depth of the characters, the spirituality, the philosophizing, and on and on. I like a book that doesn't give away too much in the beginning, that slowly lets the reader in on its secrets. It takes awhile to get to know the characters, but it is so worth it.

I'd be hard pressed to name my favorite character. There's Langston, the somewhat flakey 30-something woman who flees back to small town life after something happens to interrupt her PhD studies. Her mother was an enigma; extremely intelligent in a book-smart sort of way, but clueless when it came down to how to cope with her mother and her daughter. And then there are the two little show more girls who are so damaged that their reality comes through talking to the Virgin Mary and renaming themselves Immaculata and Epiphany. The character I most related to was Amos, a pastor who was so out of touch with God and his parishoners that he was in his own personal little hell on earth.

I was going to rate this book 4 stars, but after writing about it, by golly, it gets 4.5 stars and a special place in my heart. show less

A miraculous book, but so heavy on theology, philosophy, literature, art, & the other liberal arts that it's a hard book to recommend to most casual readers. Nonetheless, I found it immensely satisfying & even laugh-out-loud funny in unlikely places. (One character recalls a lesson from a professor teaching Faustus who claims that Faust is sent to hell for being a bad reader!) The two main characters--alternating chapters are told from their viewpoints though not in their narrative voices--are an insecure young Church of the Brethren pastor & a young woman who has dropped out of graduate school (for reasons we don't learn until late in the story) as she is taking her oral exams & returns home to live with her parents in the small show more Indiana town that she views with disdain. She is the most self-centered person one could imagine (actually, neither character is totally believable, but even this book's flaws are interesting), and yet the author is somehow--miraculously--able to make her lovable. The two main characters' lives intersect in caring for two little girls who have witnessed their parents shoot & kill each other. What a lovely book that often had me laughing aloud despite its very serious subject matter. show less