Book Review of
A Girl Named Zippy
The New York Times bestselling memoir about growing up in small-town Indiana, from the author of The Solace of Leaving Early.
When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Nicknamed “Zippy” for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period–people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.
Laced with fine storytelling, sharp wit, dead-on observations, and moments of sheer joy, Haven Kimmel’s straight-shooting portrait of her childhood gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly as she navigates the quirky adult world that surrounds Zippy.
Lynn's Review
I read A Girl Named Zippy for my nonfiction books for every state challenge. It was a good book for the state of Indiana. I have seen this book on quite a few must read memoirs list. I enjoyed the book, but it wasn’t my favorite memoir. I wouldn’t put it on my must read memoir list. When I read memoirs, I like them to be fast moving or exciting. This one was slower reading for me. I think maybe the writing style just wasn’t my favorite writing style for a memoir.