Something Rising (Light and Swift)

I've begun to notice that for a lot of readers, Haven Kimmel novels are a little bit difficult to digest. I agree that sometimes her books are written in a style similar to Jack Kerouac's free-flowing form. And while it does sometimes seem that Kimmel's writing lacks specific direction, I feel that......more

While I liked some aspects of this story and in some way could be swept along with the plot, it disturbs me that the author sets up so many dichotomies with her characters, basically along gender lines: bad man (father who gambles and abandons family) versus saintly man (family friend who's always t......more

Haven Kimmel's writing really is splendid, but I've followed her characters from "The Solace of Leaving Early" to this one, and I think the discovery of a common theme (perhaps cleverly hidden?) distressed me more than it pleased me. Each of these novels' denouement is quick but hard-won, requiring......more

The title comes from a passage of unattributed “journal writings” that the main character finds in her mother’s notebooks. It’s an image dense and laden, yet streamlined and buoyant, of a rattlesnake kite lifting up into the air until its eventual disappearance. Does this stand for men in the main c......more