A Girl Named Zippy (24 page)

Also by Haven Kimmel

The Solace of Leaving Early

PRAISE FOR
A Girl Named Zippy

“While reading
A Girl Named Zippy
, I started to dog-ear each page that contained a charming anecdote, a garden-fresh metaphor, a characterization shrewd as those from
Spoon River,
or a madeleine substitute worthy of Proust. My copy soon came to resemble a cone.
A Girl Named Zippy
seems to be just about the cleverest little memoir ever. I’ve told every friend I own to get a copy, and I find myself suddenly frantic to make new friends.”

—New York Newsday

“It’s a cliché to say that a good memoir reads like a well-crafted work of fiction, but Kimmel’s smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush, yet simple prose. Dreamy and comforting, spiced with flashes of wit.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Filled with good humor, fine storytelling, and acute observations of small-town life.”

—Library Journal

“Nicknamed for her tendency to bolt around the house, Zippy is a spunky little girl trying to puzzle through the adult world (otherwise known as 1960s Mooreland, Ind.) in this gentle memoir.”

—People magazine

“Fresh, funny, delightful, and very amusing.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Phenomenal. This is just perfectly written and right on target and she doesn’t miss a beat.”

—Kaye Gibbons, author of Ellen Foster and A Virtuous Woman

“A rarity: an original book, the freshest, most compelling child’s voice since Ellen Foster. Hysterical, sometimes wrenching, Mooreland, Indiana, is filled with revelations. Haven Kimmel is a writer of genius who has penned a lovely poem to her heartland hometown.”

—Lee Smith, author of Oral History and Family Linen

“The prose in this book is lovely and wise and sings as beautifully as ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ but written by Dorothy’s wild, irreverent sister, the one you never saw in the movie who locked Dorothy outside with the tornado, sold Toto, set fire to the scarecrow, ate the flying monkeys, and painted all the blacktop roads in Mooreland, Indiana, the colors of the rainbow, the colors of imagination and heart and laughter.”

—Lawrence Naumoff, author of Rootie Kazootie and
Silk Hope, NC

“Sly, evocative, gentle, wry, and dead-on funny. Haven Kimmel is perfect on the details and spins graceful stories that sink in and stay with you for a good long time. This is, simply put, a masterful piece of writing—imagine pouring a highball, settling into a comfortable seat, and being entertained on a summer porch by a charming old friend.”

—Martin Clark, author of The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living

A hardcover edition of this book was originally published in 2001 by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

A GIRL NAMED ZIPPY.
Copyright © 2001 by Haven Kimmel.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
For information address: Broadway Books, a division of
Random House, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

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“Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” from the book
The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
by Amiri Baraka.
Copyright © 1991 by Amiri Baraka.
Appears by permission of the publisher, Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Carol Hoopingarner for the
photographs appearing on the Prologue, Diner and Cemetery chapter opening pages.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover as follows:

Kimmel, Haven, 1965–
A girl named Zippy: growing up small in Mooreland, Indiana /
by Haven Kimmel.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Kimmel, Haven, 1965—Childhood and youth.  2. Mooreland (Ind.)—Biography.  3. Mooreland (Ind.)—Social life and customs—20th century.  4. Girls—Indiana—Mooreland—Biography.
5. City and town life—Indiana—Mooreland. I. Title.
F534.M675 K56 2001
977.2'64—dc21
00-027922

eISBN 978-0-7679-1310-2

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