The Solace of Leaving Early

The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
First Printing: 2002 by Doubleday
Cover Art by Marc Cozza

I had intended to do something a bit more fun with the photos for this book, but Indiana weather being what it is, we are home-bound for today. Tornado warnings aside, let's get started on this fantastic book from an Indiana native!

Haven Kimmel grew up in this state, and most of her novels are set here. The Solace of Leaving Early is no exception. The novel is set in the fictional town of Haddington. Langston Braverman has just come home to live with her parents after walking out of her oral exams for her Ph.D. Langston rejects small town life, and every moment at home is a torture for her. The town is abuzz with the news of the death of a woman named Alice, someone Langston was friends with in childhood. Alice leaves behind two beautiful daughters who begin to have strange visions after their mother's death. They claim that the Virgin Mary appears to them in the trunk of a dogwood tree, and they change their names to Immaculata and Epiphany. Langston is drawn to the little girls, and that's how she meets Amos Townsend. Amos is the town preacher whose duty is to help the girls cope with their grief. But he questions his own faith in God, and that shakes his confidence.

" Amos's first inkling of his calling came not in church or during prayer; there was no conversion experience. In fact, he had never been fully convinced of the truth or efficacy of his vocation. He decided to become a minister while watching television as an undergraduate English major at Ohio State, sitting in a lounge with other boys from his dormitory. He could no longer remember the program, but it featured a detective who was stalking a multiple murderer, and the detective was driven in his work; driven, obviously, because lives depended on him succeeding. If the detective (Dirk, let's say) decided not to get up in the morning (or even in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter, during an ice storm) because he was too sad, innocent people would die and evil would reign victorious. I could do that job, Amos thought, feeling a peculiar wave of energy in the region of his stomach. He meant he could do that job except for the part about being a detective, and examining crime scenes and carrying a gun and living in immense danger all the time. And Amos also didn't want to smoke or drink too much coffee or whiskey, and he didn't really want to hang around with other policemen. He just wanted, somehow, to give his life to other people, and not so much to save them as to save himself." (page 96)

Langston becomes aware of Amos's secret doubts, and he resents it. He becomes determined to find out what she's hiding from her own past. The two try to get along for the sake of Immaculata and Epiphany, but tensions are high. As every question is answered with another question, the mystery boils over into a web of deceit and agony. Why did Langston walk out of her oral exams? What more is Amos hiding? And are these little girls really being visited by the Blessed Virgin?

Final Rating: 4 out of 5
I enjoyed this book immensely. I loved what it says about faith, how it doesn't have to always be blind and without doubts. More than anything, this book demonstrated what happens when very different people must come together under extraordinary circumstances. Immaculatta and Epiphany captured my heart, and I couldn't get enough of the banter between Amos and Langston. This book would have received a five-star rating if the ending had been more impressive. I don't want to give too much away; so I'll just say that the characters acted in ways that were very, well, out of character. It was one of those I-want-to-throw-this-book-across-the-room moments. Nevertheless, Haven Kimmel has a very honest and distinct voice. I can't wait to read more of her works, and I will be keeping this book to read again.

Her eyes follow you.

Favorite Quote:
This quote refers to a passage where a poverty-stricken Hispanic family's vehicle passes Amos on the highway. He suddenly feels an overpowering longing to be one of them. This is not the first time he has longed to be someone else, even someone less fortunate than himself.

"'Why does this happen to us?' Because we have abandoned an infinite number and variety of pure possibilities, and perhaps they live alongside the choices we did make, immortalized in the cosmic memory. Perhaps there are unknown lives walking alongside ours, those paths we didn't take, and we reach for them, we ache for them, and we don't know why. We have, none of us, lived our lives as we ought to have, and maybe that's a good, working definition of sin. God doesn't care, the angels don't care, no one is mad at us for our failures. But what agony, to know our better selves, the life we might have lived, just out of reach!" (page 32)

The Solace of Leaving Early is available in both physical and digital copies through all booksellers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.