Rating: 
Summary: Three very different women marry the same enigmatic man
Review: A great first novel despite its shortcomings, Mrs. Kimble is almost three separate novellas about three different women who marry the same enigmatic man, Ken Kimble. There's young, impressionable Birdie, who becomes a dysfunctional drunk unable to raise Charlie and Jody, her two kids, when Ken leaves her for a college student. And then we have Joan, a savvy single woman who somehow succumbs to Ken's charms and stays married to him until she dies of breast cancer. Lastly, there's Dinah, who used to baby sit for Jody and Charlie. The stories of these women seemed to flow so effortlessly; the wives were very well drawn characters. That said, there was a major flaw: Mr. Kimble himself. There was no back story, no explanation of why he was so disconnected and unfeeling, or exactly what about him was so irresistible to women, particularly intelligent ones like Joan and Dinah. Kimble remains as enigmatic to the reader as he does to the women he marries. He seems like such a blank character that it is hard to imagine anyone falling for him. Very rarely did I see any qualities that would endear him to women, or keep them standing loyally by him. It was all rather depressing, really, to think these women loved this man and he was so cold and distant and unknowable, especially to his children. It was nice, at the end of the book, to see that at least one Mrs. Kimble and Mr. Kimble's children, had finally found a little happiness.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Readable, But Little Depth or Complexity
Review: Conceptually, Haigh has plotted a compelling tale of the three women who marry Ken Kimble. We see the story through the passage of time. First we meet Birdie Kimble, abandoned with two small children by Ken the minister. Ken married Birdie when he taught at a Christian college. 13 years her senior, he was fired after her pregnancy and their hurried marriage became public. Things get truly horrific for Charlie and Jody, Birdie's children, when the reality of how poor they are, how little there is to eat, and how much wine Birdie drinks hit home. The only thing that saves the children is the need for Birdie to return home for a family funeral, where the kindness of relatives helps keep the small trio afloat. 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Good to the last drop
Review: Excellent! Bravo! Kudos to Ms. Haigh. I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully written debut novel and highly recommend it. Also, I recommend a novel called LUST OF THE FLESH. A compelling, pageturning novel about a corrupted district attorney, Nick Allapapalaus and his scandalous tactics that finds himself in unsuspecting situations.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I finished this book in two nights and then looked at the cover for several minutes reflecting over the experience. The book is that good.
Ken Kimble weaves his way through three marriages and God knows how many other women by his chameleon-like charm. He can be all things to all people and is just what the three women - Birdie, Joan and Dinah - who take on his last name need. The women are flawed in their own ways... one with such low self-esteem she just wants a husband, she doesn't care that he's a cheating schmuck. One who is surviving breast cancer and believes herself running out of time and one with a facial scar that's haunted her all her life. He preys on their desire to have a husband and a family.
It's an AMAZING book. The way the characters weave in and out of each others lives, and don't get me started on how much I loved the first wife's son, Charlie. If you don't get a little sentimental and weepy over his care and feeding of his sister and the stray dogs, you're too hard-core for me.
Rating:
Summary: Which Mrs. Kimble will you like the best?
Review: I loved the premise of this book - to follow this one man through the lives of his three wives. It is true, as other readers here say, there are some holes, but the story is just too captivating to put down. I read it in less than a week. The story and Jennifer Haigh's writing style will keep you intrigued from start to finish. Each character in the story is so interesting that they could have a novel just devoted to their own tale. There are still many unanswered questions, right down to the last sentence of the novel. However, don't let this keep you from reading and enjoying this book. This is definitley a must-read for some years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing despite flaws
Review: I read this novel in one day....just couldn't put it down.When I'd finished it, I realized that though I enjoyed it very much, the novel was full of holes. Parts of the plot didn't hold up too well, and the reasons Mr. Kimble was such a cipher was never explained at all. Also, if he was so shallow, so indifferent to the needs of others, how did he attract someone as savvy and intelligent as his second wife Joan?
We know little about him except that he could be all things to all women for as long as it suited his fancy. He was the ultimate smarmy opportunist but I never bought the parts of the book describing his closets, drawers and desk, utterly devoid of personal items of any sort. However dramatic the description, everyone keeps at least one thing of personal value, even if it's only a sled named Rosebud.
The other characters caught my imagination and my sympathy. I knew the book truly engaged me when I found myself at the end, hoping for a happier life in the future for Jody and Charlie.
Rating:
Summary: This novel will appeal to many readers...
Review: I really enjoyed this debut novel from Ms. Haigh. She has taken domestic life and the relationship between men and women and added her own little twist that made you want to keep reading. The charachter development and the crisp writing style is some of the best I've read in quite some time. Ken Kimble is a bit of an enigma throughout the novel. The reader gets to know him through the eyes of his three wives. What this novel lacks in complexity, it more than makes up for in its imense readability.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book!
Review: Jennifer Haight has written one spellbinding, debut novel, MRS. KIMBLE. Ken Kimble, handsome and charming, appears to be a dream-come-true for the three women he marries. However, each Mrs. Kimble discovers in time he's a con man. Throughout the span of the story each becomes disillusioned at his distant nature and solitary pursuits. As we become more acquainted with Birdie, Joan, and Dinah, we feel sympathy for them. They are real; Ken is hazy. Also the book is an intriguing study about men, women, and marriage.
Rating:
Summary: Great First Novel
Review: The story of Mrs. Kimble is a creative concept, leading us into the lives of 3 women who at different times were married to the same man. Broken into 3 sections, representing each of his wives, the reader gets to meet and despise the man who is Ken Kimble. It is interesting to see how the same man relates as a husband to three very different yet similarily seduced women. At the onset, Ken Kimble seems like a caring, sensitive man, tapping in to each wives weaknesses, saying the things that comfort them and reel them in. Then after marriage, he becomes distant, selfish, deceitful. Jennifer Haigh does a great job of portraying women in all forms-weak, pathetic, vulnerable, strong, resilient. Her cast of characters, both the wives as well as the children who result from his trilogy of marriages are strong, well-defined characters. The writing of this novel is excellent-the pages will fly by in one sitting. Mrs. Kimble has a creative plot and solid writing. I look forward to more from Jennifer Haigh.
Rating:
Summary: Very fine first novel
Review: This is a book you can read and thoroughly enjoy in a day. It begins with the death of an unknown man in Florida and goes back in time to his history of marriages with three Mrs. Kimbles over a time span of thirty years. We see how well he can seduce and court these women, but he does not have it in him to carry out the relationships. He leaves the first one, a young woman named Birdie, with two young children. She cannot manage to live whithout him so she finds herself drinking wine to excess, totally unable to cope. These pages are particularly painful because we see the effect this has on her life and her two young children, Charles and Jody. We watch them grow up and meet the other wives, once as a product of Ken Kimble absconding with them to Florida to meet and live with wife number 2, Joan Kimble, who of course believes his lies. Dinah is wife number 3, who actually was the babysitter for Birdie's children. Dinah has a son, Benjamin, and much of the whole group minus, Mr Ken Kimble, of course, come together. This is done very nicely, and without feeling contrived. We never really know Ken Kimble, except as a seducer and cad, who only piles on the charm at the beginning of any relationship, especially when the women are young.
This is not a perfect novel, but it is really very good, worth reading, and of course you don't put it down without thinking about these characters for a bit when you are done.
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