This SO should have been a 4 star book. I loved the characters, as implausible as they are. (Really, really long example: Main character Langston is named Langston. She theorizes that she hopes her parents didn't name her after Langston Hughes as it would be ridiculous considering she is a white woman. She also mentions she's never asked her parents. Are you kidding me? You spend your life as a girl/woman named Langston, something you've most likely always been asked about and never heard anyone else called and it NEVER occurs to you or your parents to talk about it??) I really liked the style of writing. The language and theories aren't dumbed down because the reader may not have a background in either theology or philosophy. I appreciated the way religion was used as a fact of the lives of middle America. I diliked the uneven pace of the novel. The first two thirds developed at a snails pace, too slowly at times. Do you really need a dozen examples before you realize Amos is not your traditional minister? To know Langston doesn't quite fit in? To be followed by the last third of the book (mostly concentrated in the last few pages) where everything comes together seamlessly. Where everyone lives happily ever after. It just didn't fit. I felt let down, like someone secretly replaced the clever, quirky contemparary fiction ending with that of a trashy romance novel. A clever, quirky romance novel, but trashy none the less. All this and I still like Langston and Amos. I still like the supporting characters. I just would have told their story differently.
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 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.
I am perplexed. And I guess I should say I'm also disappointed. After so thoroughly enjoying the other two books I've read by Haven Kimmel--to be fair, they were non-fiction--I suppose I had high expectations for this one, which was her first attempt at fiction. I didn't like it too much. Don't get me wrong, it was certainly well-written, but it was so well-written that I'm not ashamed to admit that half the topics flew right over my head! There was a lot of religious theory in here and frankly
—Katie
This book was very well written, but I did not like the whiney, immature main character, Langston. A person going for their PhD would be a lot more mature than this character IRL. It also bothered me that all of a sudden (about 1/2 way or so into the book,) she starts talking really properly, almost in an English accent or something. That really threw me off, as it is set in Indiana and she is supposed to be from a little po-dunk farm town. I did enjoy the imagery in some of the scenes, especially the one with the rain storm and (view spoiler)[ the murder-suicide. (hide spoiler)]
—Lola G.
I haven't given a book five stars in quite a while, but this one really grabbed me. Part of it may be due to coincidence. I had been reading some Paul Tillich essays and, frankly, not getting a lot out of them. I put them aside to read The Solace of Leaving Early and much to my surprise Paul Tillich was mentioned on page eight (followed by many more references to theologians and philosophers). It is a rare novel that can combine religious philosophy, small town life, and memorable characters in such a profound way, in fact this may be the first I've found.Characters are Langeston Braverman who left academe in the middle of her PhD oral exams and moved home to her parents' attic, Amos Townsend, a local pastor, and two little orphan girls who see the Virgin Mary and change their names to Immaculata and Epiphany. You may be thinking "Oh, I can see where this is going already", but that's not the point. It's the depth and style of Haven Kimmel's writing that makes this a truly wonderful book.
—Jane
