Mrs. Kimble (Paperback)

However, I wished for more than just a story--I like novels that make you think, and in which you really identify with or come to love the characters, novels which have detail and some complexity to them. This one has little of any of the above, in my opinion. I know some readers felt the three Mrs. Kimbles were really well-developed, but I felt just the opposite. All of them seemed a bit like stick caricatures to me--there just wasn't enough there. Dinah, the last wife, is perhaps better drawn, simply because more pages and time are spent on her, and therefore I felt I knew her a little better than the other two--but not as well as I'd have liked to.

Ken Kimble--the selfish, opportunistic and supposedly chameleon husband who we see solely through his three wives' eyes--was a real disappointment (and not only to his wives, but to me as well!). I was married for a number of years to a man who, while not a criminal 'con' man like Kimble, is definitely someone who changes a great deal in relation to whoever he's with. However, my ex is highly complex and very interesting, and Kimble is neither. Haigh loses a chance to help us understand this kind of personality, I felt, as Kimble is presented so one-dimensionally, so simplistically, really. And I don't buy it that the wives couldn't have given us at least some of this information, that they didn't know him themselves, so thus we readers don't know him either.

In the years I was married to him, I spent a great deal of time trying to understand my narcissistic, chameleon husband--and I do feel I came to understand him maybe better than he understood himself (I made it a point to learn about his family, asked many questions about his background, for heaven's sake, read his old childhood diaries, made it a point to meet his old friends and girlfriends). Maybe Kimble's young wife, Birdie, wouldn't have done these sorts of things, but certainly smart, savvy Joan could have (why she was ever attracted to him for very long didn't wash for me--and we never do see how Ken copes with her dying, which must have been pretty interesting...). And Dinah, who did know deep down that her husband had some pretty big flaws, also was capable, I think, of presenting us with a more complex picture of this man, especially since she was married to him for many years.

The ending of the novel jives with the rest of it--it will make those of you who like a basically entertaining read happy. Well, I didn't mind the ending, as I'd long before realized I wasn't reading a novel that I found in the least bit thought-provoking, and so just took it for the satisfying ending that it was.

I can see why this novel appeals to many readers--it's a good, light 'mainstream' novel; it's just that I'd longed for a little more meat, a little more substance. If you're just looking for a quick summer read, though, you no doubt will love this book as much as many others have.

My problems so far are with the dialogue, which I agree is stilted in places, and the opening of the novel. Birdie's story wasn't at all what I expected for an opening- the repetition of her lush non-existence, the neglect of her pitiful and intelligent children left me wondering if I would find anyone in the story to connect with. Sometimes the details of their daily existence are downright tedious.

Overall, I'm glad I stuck with the book and I hope to finish it in the coming week. I've been so disenchanted with what's coming out of the MFA programs these past few years that I'm glad to have finally found such a book I can recommend to my friends.

Ken moves on with another student, young Moira Snell. Through her parents in Florida, he meets a rich woman, Joan, who is older than he is, and who finally provides him with the kind of money and setting he needs to strike it rich in real estate. In order to fit in, Ken, the product of a conservative Christian background, pretends to be Jewish. Joan is a survivor of breast cancer - and when she can't conceive, Ken briefly absconds with his and Birdie's children to try to fill up the house and pacify her. Charlie takes matters in his own hands and manages to run away with Jody on a bus back home. Joan is subsequently overtaken by another bout with cancer, leaving Ken a relatively young, rich widower.

Ken's final marriage is to Dinah - a young woman who used to babysit for his kids, whom he meets again quite by accident in Washington DC. Dinah's independent and smart, but she, too, is taken in by Ken. She becomes his wife and bears him a son, but soon learns that Ken in marriage is not the same as Ken in courtship. Dinah is his trophy -- he encourages her to have treatment for a large facial birthmark, and utilize makeup and a style of dress that make him the envy of his peers for his "trophy wife". He cares little for Brendan, his son with Dinah, and is openly critical of the boy.

Kimble is one of those charismatic rolling-stones who invariably attract women that he wants and wants to use for his own purposes. It is not until after months and years of marriage that the women he chooses realize how shallow and self-serving he is. Marrying for youth, beauty or wealth and success, Kimble quickly loses interest in each wife and treats them like the possessions he feels they are. Willing to desert and then to kidnap his own children, lie about his heritage, carry on extramarital affairs and cheat in business, Ken Kimble, as portrayed by Haigh, is a chilling anti-hero. His legacy is the unhappy solitude he brings to his own children, each of whom distrust marriage and commitment.

Only four stars for a book rich in imagination, description, dialogue and character? Why? Haigh moves and affects the reader with her portrayal of only two of the three wives. In Birdie and Joan, complete opposites come alive on the pages. Their vulnerabilities are exposed and exploited by Ken, and we can only watch in shock. The third wife, Dinah, perhaps the most admirable of the three, is perplexing in her motivation and her actions. Haigh may have relaxed her standards in writing the final chapters of the story, and Dinah remains a kind of mystery to the reader. Still, the book is definitely a cut above most "women's" fiction, and you can't stop turning the pages.