Spending Time With 'A Girl Named Zippy'

Review of A GIRL NAMED ZIPPY (Broadway Books 2001)
Author, Haven Kimmel

When I looked at the cover blurbs for A GIRL NAMED ZIPPY by Haven Kimmel—stuff that said it was “[f]illed with good humor, fine storytelling, and acute observations of small-town life” and described the author as “a spunky little girl trying to puzzle through the adult world . . . in this gentle memoir”—I thought “Aw, jeez. Is this going to be one of those collections of too-cute essays? Is this going to be Lake Wobegon in Indiana?”

But I picked up this book on my sister’s recommendation, and I respect my sister’s opinions on books greatly. Plus I met a woman at a business mixer who liked the book, which reflected well on her since she shared my sister’s enthusiasm for it. And I figured I’d give it a try.

So I did. And the book is neither too-cute nor would it be confused with anything by Garrison Keillor.

Zippy not only avoids being excessively cute, she can actually be outright dislikeable at times. Kimmel writes with disarming honesty about one instance in particular where a girl in Zippy’s class suffers a family disgrace, and Zippy proceeds to find out about it by pretending to be her friend.

But I do the book and Kimmel a disservice if I leave you with the thought that Zippy was a horrible child. She wasn’t. It’s just that Kimmel is so forthright about her (occasional) bad qualities, you have to really respect her. And like her, too.

It also doesn’t seem to be saying enough to mention that Kimmel has a unique voice. Anyone who would write of a ceramic bowl her mother made that “was so pretty I wanted to break it” has more than a unique voice.

The book does paint a picture of small (very small) town life, in a way that captures the joys, anxieties and outright terrors of childhood in a distinctive and (deceptively) simple way.

Kimmel is a gifted storyteller—despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that she didn’t speak a word until she was three years old. And, in case you hadn’t already guessed, I did indeed enjoy A GIRL NAMED ZIPPY so much, I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone looking for (as the Python boys would say) “something completely different” to read.