Mrs. Kimble

I've enjoyed a quiet summer over here, and that has offered me the chance to read more.  I finished 9 books in July, one of which was the novel Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh.  This is a book that I wish I'd written.  I love intersecting narratives and stories that are carried over years and locations.  Mrs. Kimble tells the story of a man (Mr. Kimble) from the perspective of the three women he marries, as well as his oldest son. 

We meet the first Mrs. Kimble (Birdie) in the 1960's, in the wake of her husband's disappearance.  She knows he was unfaithful, but in the standard of the times, she was willing to overlook anything as long as the bills were paid and the car maintained.  Suddenly, she is forced to take on the roles of Mom and Dad to her two young children, something she is ill-prepared for.  Birdie tells how she met her husband, the early years of their marriage spent living in a house with his parents, and she shares how the man changed over time.  Ultimately, Birdie sacrifices her suburban dream and returns to her childhood home, where she lives with her step-mother and near her childhood love.

The next Mrs. Kimble (Joan) couldn't be more different from Birdie.  She is an independent woman, a journalist in a male-dominated field, more interested in covering riots in Paris than nurturing a home.  But then she finds cancer in her breast and the subsequent treatment sends her reeling.  In the aftermath, she meets Mr. Kimble, and in a reversal, decides it's not too late to have a family.  A few years into the marriage, she finds the man who once intrigued and flattered her to be cold and secretive.  Her interest in having a family with him never materializes and soon she finds another lump, which ultimately takes her life.

In the late 70's, the final Mrs. Kimble appears in the form of Dinah, the Kimble's former babysitter.  10 years after her initial crush on Mr. Kimble, she finds herself falling in love with the man, and ignores the disapproval of her family or anyone else who finds their age difference distasteful.  By now, Mr. Kimble has become a wealthy man, from the inheritance of his deceased wife and his new career in real estate.  The Kimbles have a child and Dinah abandons the path she was on before meeting her husband.

What is revealed in these different places and stories is a man who is a chameleon, who carries no sentiment or memory of his past as he moves on to a new wife, a new home, a new experience.  What his wives have in common is finding this man when they are weak, when they are desperate for love and companionship, when they are easily seduced by an attentive man.  They each make Mr. Kimble what they need him to be, although ultimately his private nature keeps them at arm's length, so that each Mrs. Kimble experiences loneliness in her marriage.  I found the book to be well-written and intriguing, even as I despised Mr. Kimble for the emotional collateral he left in his wake.  It has a voyeuristic appeal in the story as we are offered glimpses behind closed doors and inside aching hearts.

Atlas Girl

I had the privilege to be part of the Atlas Girl launch this month, and I was eager to read through Emily T. Wierenga's memoir.  I've read Emily's blog for a couple of years now, and I already knew that she was a beautiful writer.  That much is evident from page one of Atlas Girl.  The book begins with Emily's relationship with her parents, and it sounds familiar.  The strict pastor dad.  The rebellious older daughter.  But as her words transport you along the many places of her life, continually you are grounded in real places, real memories, and so you never forget that these are not characters in a story, but her actual family.  So when her journey takes its own unique course, when it departs from all the preconceived notions that you retained after watching Footloose too many times, you don't know what will happen next or how it will all turn out.  Emily's story is tied up in the family she created, as well, and she pulls no punches as she chronicles a love that holds her close, forgives her outbursts, and proves the 1 Corinthians passage true as a love that never fails.

But if I'm really honest, I'm also a little jealous of the life she leads.  She is married with little boys, like me, but she is a published author, an artist, a world traveler.  Just scanning the table of contents of this book reads like a tour of the world.  Emily pours her heart out in the pages of her book, and only as it reached the conclusion did I realize how hard-won all her accomplishments are.  Suddenly, I'm not feeling jealous, but inspired at all that has happened, all that she has overcome and struggled through.  I encourage you to purchase a copy of Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look, or, if we are friends in real life, I will happily let you read my copy :)  Also, check out her website (www.emilywierenga.com) for her lovely essays about body image, motherhood, faith, and love.

Introduction

I created the name InsomniMommy a few years ago, when I began to stay up late at night and write.  Sometimes I wrote for the blog, sometimes I wrote for me.  Every so often, the writing stalls and I go back to my first love, what first inspired me to put a pen to paper back in third grade:  reading.  It's so hard to read when you are the mother of littles.  I feel like no one really told me that before this family thing happened to me.  I used to spend whole days reading, would pile books onto the library counter to check out for the week.  I got in trouble in elementary school for hiding a book within a book and trying to read Encyclopedia Brown during Science (apparently, I wasn't very sneaky).  Growing up, I would frequently become entranced by a new book, and completely tune out the world around me.  The daylight hours weren't enough, so I would sneak into the bathroom after my parents went to bed and read in there for a few more hours (when I found out that my husband used to do this too, I knew we were soulmates).  Even the first year after I had my first baby was a wonderland of reading.  I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles while breastfeeding.  I read The Quiet American while my baby slept.  I read I Love You Through and Through while he stared up at me, our bodies close.  I read Belly Laughs waiting for my husband to come home at night.  I read What to Expect the First Year whenever I was overwhelmed (which was pretty much all the time).

Like most writers, reading is as important to my continued existence as breathing and eating, and I've struggled through the days when all I read was Harold and the Purple Crayon five times.  I decided to start this secondary blog to review the books I'm reading, with the hope that this will spur me to try to read at least a book or two a month.  Sometimes friends will ask for a recommendation, and even if I've read something I love, I can't remember it.  So hopefully this will be a replacement for my memory, which is probably never coming back.

Three years ago, I picked up a book called Bird by Bird.  I was looking for anything by Anne Lamott based on a recommendation from a friend, and this was the only one the library had available.  I went searching through the stacks and pulled it from the shelf.  "Some Tips for Writing and Life" the cover promised, and I was intrigued (who would pass up advice on life? I am always open to suggestions).  Little did I know that book is practically the Bible for writers.  As I read it, ideas floated to the surface of my mind.  Characters for a story, hypothetical situations rife with drama, phrases and bits of prose.  She made me think I could do it too, this craft of writing.  I followed her instructions:  butt in chair, one inch frames, [crappy] first drafts.  Blogging was perfect for the short assignments, and getting my fingers to move and my brain to power on served as a jumping-off point for further writing.  Plus, the book is hysterical.  Later I purchased it, and whenever I am struggling to write, overwhelmed at the enormity of FINISHING, full of both self-loathing and self-aggrandizement, I turn to Anne for words of wisdom, and she never disappoints.  Through these three years, she has helped me to realize that all the insanity that I feel is actually normal, which is both comforting and concerning.  If you want to write, if you have been thinking of starting a blog for months but don't know where to begin, if you think you have something to say, GET THIS BOOK.  Odds are, you are ready, and the world needs your story.

Welcome to InsomniMommy reads!  Check back each month to find out what I'm reading.