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Hazel Hunnicutt's Used World Emporium is a sprawling antique store that is "the station at the end of the line for objects that sometimes appeared tricked into visiting there." Hazel, the proprietor, is in her sixties, and it's a toss-up as to whether she's more attached to her mother or her cats. She's also increasingly attached to her two employees: Claudia Modjeski -- freakishly tall, forty-odd years old -- who might finally be undone by the extreme loneliness that's dogged her all of her life; and Rebekah Shook, pushing thirty, still living in her fervently religious father's home, and carrying the child of the man who recently broke her heart. The three women struggle -- separately and together, through relationships, religion, and work -- to find their place in this world. And it turns out that they are bound to each other not only by the past but also by the future, as not one but two babies enter their lives, turning their formerly used world brand-new again.

Astonishing for what it reveals about the human capacity for both grace and mischief, The Used World forms a loose trilogy with Kimmel's two previous novels, The Solace of Leaving Early and Something Rising (Light and Swift). This is a book about all of America by way of a single midwestern town called Jonah, and the actual breathing histories going on as Indiana's stark landscape is transformed by dying small-town centers and proliferating big-box stores and SUVs. It's about generations of deception, anguish, and love, and the idiosyncratic ways spirituality plays out in individual lives. By turns wise and hilarious, tender and fierce, heartrending and inspiring, The Used World charts the many meanings of the place we call home.

Average Customer Rating:

Castoffs...

Customer Rating:

Almost immediately, I became totally immersed in the "used world" of the primary characters, all of whom are part of an antiques emporium in this small Indiana town. We have the owner, Hazel Hunnicutt, whose own history is presented to us in flashbacks; her voice is revealed through descriptions of her life - her parents, who are deceased, and her sister, whose drug abuse has complicated Hazel's life, provide the backdrop for her choices - and now, her employees at the emporium assume the role of family for her. Claudia, a large woman who is often mistaken for a man, has lived a loveless existence, but then an unexpected blessing arrives in the form of an infant - a new life that she takes responsibility for - and when she adds Rebekah to the mix, she has a family of her own. Rebekah, abandoned and cast out by her father, a fundamentalist Christian who expects her to abide by his rules and restrictions, accepts the love and support of Claudia - and later Hazel - in order to create an acceptable alternative to the life in which she was born. These three characters could be metaphors for the "used" goods that they sell in the store - castoff individuals - unwanted, but serving a purpose of their own. The three women, who support one another, serve as a balm for the ills of the world in which they live. Ms. Kimmel's The Used World: A Novel draws the reader in. I cared about the fate of the characters and enjoyed the book immensely. In the beginning, I had a little difficulty keeping track of the time and place of events, that seemingly went back and forth continuously; hence the deduction of one star.

Kimmel is versatile	Customer Rating:
I had previously read one of Kimmel's memoirs and a young adult book. I choose this book because I liked them, but it was very different from the other books. I became attached to the characters, and I plan to read it again. I wish I had read it with a book club, because there is a lot to discuss. I liked way in which different religious views are portrayed.

Redemptive

Customer Rating:

I loved the female characters in this book and their relationships with each other, and I was glad to reconnect with Amos (from THE SOLACE OF LEAVING EARLY). The more Haven Kimmel I read, the more I associate the word "redemptive" with her. Her characters have messy lives, but they manage to find their way, however imperfectly, to something fine, something good, something worth living for. It's true (as some reviewers have pointed out), that the story isn't completely linear and includes some digressions, but I like a book that keeps me on my toes.

The Overused Stereotypes And Plot Devices

Customer Rating:

I admit I have only read one other of Haven Kimmel's books, THE SOLACE OF LEAVING EARLY, and I enjoyed that and thought it was well written with believable characters. Though THE USED WORLD has the same setting (apparently a fictionalized Muncie, Indiana and its surroundings) and Church of the Brethren minister Amos (and very peripherally his wife Langston) who are major characters in "SOLACE" also appear in this effort the books are quite different. This book is filled with melodramatic, unbelievable plot lines, some borrowed from other sources, and characters who are either misunderstood, mistreated saints or the most awful caricatures of rural Midwesterners. In fact Kimmel writes with such utter contempt for those who shop at WalMart, eat at McDonalds and attend large fundamentalist churches that it was often difficult for me to continue reading. I will believe Kimmel has met and even known people from rural Indiana who commit these just mentioned transgressions but she seems to be unable to convey any empathy for or write about such individuals with any genuineness or respect for them as fellow humans. Some portions of the book are well written enough but other segments are awkward and unclear and a little editing and rewriting would have been beneficial. A pet peeve of mine is how invisible rural working class Americans are in today's mass media. I do appreciate Ms Kimmel setting her book(s) among the ordinary folks of rural Indiana but I am disappointed by her inability to see beyond the usual stereotypes of residents of such areas at least in this novel.

A tad stereotypical **SPOILERS**

Customer Rating:

Despite being billed as a tender look at small-town Indiana life, this book succumbs to a host of cliches, and, indeed, seeems to despise everything about the Midwest except the subversive or liberal people who live in it. * If there's a religious fundamentalist, he will not only be a hideous cultist who repudiates his pregnant daughter, but he will turn out to have cheated on his wife, brain-damaged his lover's husband, and contributed to two deaths--three if you count the baby his lover tries to abort. * If there's a tall, non-feminine woman, she will turn out not only to be a lesbian, but will be good at basketball as well. * If a couple has a framed print of "Footprints" on their wall, they will turn out to be shallow, bland, and callous and will try to have their grandchild aborted. * If there's an artistic boyfriend, he will turn out to be a loathsome, cheating, immature slob who nearly kills his pregnant girlfriend through neglect. * If there is, by some chance, a nice Christian pastor, he will state that the Nativity is practically meaningless and there is no historical proof of the Resurrection. (So become a Unitarian already!) All this is disappointingly sterotypical, but would be more bearable if Haven Kimmel did not seem totally unaware that she has rescued her lovely character Rebekah from an oppressive father and an oppressive boyfriend, only to consign her to another oppressive relationship: Since Rebekah shows no signs of preferring women anywhere in the book, why are we supposed to rejoice that she now seems fated to be Claudia's lover? Give the woman some autonamy! I kept deleting stars as I wrote this review. Kimmel is skilled with the words, yes, and I read this book determined to like it because The Solace of Leaving Early was gorgeous. But she could really benefit from an editor who would steer her into originality and add a few "and's" to sentences like "She opened the door, stood in the room." That particular sentence structure, repeated throughout the book, got old fast.