Mrs. Kimble

"A neighbour said he'd risen at dawn each day to run on the beach.....on the table next to his bed was a gold wedding band."Meet the three Kimble wives, all married at some point in time to Ken Kimble, an intangible man, vague and hard to pin down.The story starts with an introduction to his first wife Birdie Kimble who bore him a son Charles and a daughter Jody, and whom he deserted like a passing breeze. Second wife Joan Kimble recovering from illness, is a woman of means, and though she sees his shortcomings and his lack of proper table etiquette, she keeps her vows for as long as she possibly can.The last wife Dinah was my favourite wife, a trophy wife and a former babysitter for Birdie who became his wife after he had come into his own and made a name for himself.There is nothing to jump out at you or to shock the living daylights out of you in this book, but, it is a great work of entertainment with real characters, and ocasionally along the way, your heart is touched in various ways.Kudos to Jennifer Haigh on her first novel. It is a wonderful gift for any occasion.Reviewed ny Heather Marshall Negahdar SUGAR-CANE 26/04/05

What an amazing book. I felt anger, pride, confusion, and love throughout this story. Thoughtful characters and intertwining plot. Highly recommend!

I enjoyed this book. Not the standard story. I enjoyed reading something different.

I really enjoyed this book up till the last 10 or so pages. For some reason the story got off track with Brendan, his friend Sean, and Fog, smoking pot and using cocaine. This had nothing to do with anything. Then when that ended, and got back on track, the book ended. No wrap-up, no nothing. Dinah gets a phone call from the Florida State Police. End of story. Nothing else. End of book. I was aggravated because I'd just read 394 pages and no wrap-up. I had planned to read Baker's Tower but I won't be reading anything else Haigh writes.

This book starts out with a brief story about a man who had a heart attack and died in his car while waiting for a drawbridge to go down. He had half a million dollars in the bank. No one came to claim the body."Mrs. Kimble" is a book about three women, Birdie, Joan, and Dinah, who all married a man named Ken Kimble. And it's about a self-entered, amoral chameleon named Ken Kimble.Birdie met Reverend Ken Kimble in the early '60's during her first year at Bible college, where he was the choir director. She was eighteen and he in his early thirties when she became pregnant and they got married. Birdie couldn't help but be secretly overjoyed, knowing all the other female students were envious of her.Fast forward seven years. Birdie now has two young children, no money, no job, and no husband. Ken Kimble ran off with one of his students, and Birdie has no idea how to take care of herself, let alone her children. She finds solace in a wine bottle. Her six year old son is more mature and responsible then she is.Fast forward to the early '70's. Joan, a successful career woman who has had an exciting life and a succession of lovers, had never felt the need to settle down. But now she's nearing forty. She's a wealthy woman, but has no husband and no children, and an ugly scar where one of her breasts used to be. She wonders what man could possibly want her now.Then an aging hippy named Ken Kimble comes into her life. He tells her he's Jewish (because Joan is). Ken cuts his hair, shaves his beard, starts dressing in expensive suits, and pretty soon is running the real estate business started by Joan's father and uncle. She feels so fortunate to have met Ken Kimble, so when he asks her to marry him, of course she accepts. After the marriage, Joan doesn't feel so fortunate.Fast forward to the late '70's. Dinah, who went to culinary school, works in a restaurant. She would be a beautiful young woman if it wasn't for the big red birthmark on one side of her face that looks like a map of Minnesota. Her life changes when a man named Ken Kimble runs into her (literally).Fast forward to 1994. Dinah is attending yet another black tie dinner to honor her husband for the charitable foundation he set up to help low-income people buy homes. Dinah has been married to Ken Kimble for 15 years. She didn't know that after he paid for plastic surgery to remove her birthmark, she would become his trophy wife. She also didn't know that there is nothing "cheritable" about Ken Kimble. The only other thing I'll say about Dinah is that her life is about to get better. Ken Kimble is about to leave wife No. 3.I loved this book. It's not for everybody, but it's a perfect example of a perfect book for me to get lost in. I devoured it, and I can't wait to read something else by this author. However, I do take issue with something author Jennifer Haight wrote in the Author's Notes, indicating that Ken Kimble isn't such a bad guy. In her own words, "He is, in fact, a very ordinary man; he simply takes what is given to him." I would like to ask Ms. Haight, "When did the bar for men get that low?"Five stars for the book. Another five stars for the book cover. And a minus five stars for "ordinary men" like Ken Kimble.