What do You think about Something Rising (2005)?
i really like this, but am due for a re-read, because I can't remember exactly what i liked about it, just that i did like it...[update]: oh good lord - claire and i saw haven kimmel read last night, which was glorious. I have a total girl-crush on anyone who talk about the eschatology of john ashcroft one minute, and the next minute tell a hilarious anecdote about being on the morning show and trying to make katie couric look smart. which brings me to this book (which is now autographed "To Cat from the Flat Green Fields of Indiana - Haven Kimmel") - this book contains some of the most heartbreaking, character-building lines ever. This is one of my favorites: "This was a mystery to Cassie, how the true nature of a person can be so thoroughly concealed in youth that he does humiliating things. It meant Cassie herself could do them, and later someone would hold out the offending object - a dress, a party favor, an unsent letter - and convict her." please read it - you won't regret it!
—cat
I'm still pondering the name - the phrase appears once, in what is clearly an important/mythic scene, and I'm trying to relate it to the book as a whole. I was not as impressed with the first 100 pages or so as I had hoped, although I definitely still wanted to continue reading. Her first novel, The Solace of Leaving Early (which I loved), was less grounded, more magical (in the sense of magical realism). Although this got downright mystical at times. My conclusion, at least for now, is that she is a wonderful writer, and I loved where the story took me, but there are gaps in the story and unevenness in the kind of story she is trying to tell.Still, I am glad I read it, and I recommend it.
—Judy
I wanted this book to be better. I absolutely loved her first two books - A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off The Couch - but those were memoirs of her childhood and were hysterical. This novel is a much darker staging of small town life. I didn't feel like I ever connected to the characters enough to care what was happening to them. And if that doesn't happen early in, I find myself reading like it's homework. I tend to finish books unless they are just so bad or boring that I truly can't do it. So this one didn't capture me except for moments here and there. Read her memoirs. They are like whipped frosting. This one was like...fruitcake.
—Starr Phoenix
