Unraveling of old stories give women new life in 'Used World

One of the most vivid characters in Haven Kimmel's engaging third novel is not a person but a place, the titular Used World Emporium. The cavernous flea market warehouse in out-of-the-way Jonah, Ind., is "filled with the castoffs of countless lives . . . nothing lived, nothing moved, but the air was thick with expectancy." And it's that anticipation that something momentous will soon happen that fuels this new offering by the author of "A Girl Named Zippy" and "The Solace of Leaving Early."

However, Kimmel takes her time with us, leisurely introducing the three women of the emporium who form the heart of the story. Hazel is the wise elder, the sensitive, colorfully eclectic owner of the store with a gift for dream interpretation and prediction. Her right-hand, the androgynous, 6-foot-5 Claudia, is quietly in the throes of an existential crisis precipitated by a lifetime of loneliness and the recent death of her mother. The frail, petite Rebekah, who also works at the store, grapples with her own crippling sense of loss, both from the boyfriend who recently left her and the Pentecostal Church community whose suffocating strictures she ran away from five years before.

Each life is revealed slowly, subtly, shifting back and forth in time to gradually peel back the layers of these three intriguing women. Kimmel's narrative tends to get a bit sprawling and rambling, and as the interconnections become more intricate and elliptical, it can get confusing. Yet her writing is so vividly detailed and eloquently poetic, the characters so compellingly wrought, that keeping track almost seems incidental. And it doesn't matter that days seem to go by in real time with nothing of note. Kimmel slowly reels us into "the used world" of each woman, and for a long while, that feels like quite enough.

And then Hazel and Claudia steal baby Oliver -- well, not exactly steal. They rescue the orphaned baby, who is being sorely neglected by the motorcycle gang Hazel's sister has taken up with. The father's a mystery, the addict mother dead from exposure, and no one seems to want the little fella. Hazel decides he's just the ticket to lift a reluctant Claudia out of her malaise.

About the same time, Rebekah discovers she's pregnant, which rends the last thread of connection she has with her self-righteous father, who throws his shamefully unwed daughter out into the night. Here the tone gets hilariously sardonic, as Rebekah hides out in the pitch black emporium, desperate to relieve her aching bladder but paralyzed by fear of the dark and trying to avoid detection by Hazel, who shows up looking to snag a crib for Oliver.

Eventually, Rebekah moves in with Claudia, and the three women gradually drop their guard and really get to know each other. Rebekah and Claudia play a charming game of "Tell me about . . ." letting the stories of their possessions help reveal bits and pieces of their inner selves, "life told through objects." Rebekah quickly confesses to Claudia after only five days, "You know more about me than anyone." In the process of revelation, each character comes to understand more about herself.

Toward the end, the novel takes off in a suspenseful, page-turning torrent in which past and present are surprisingly but neatly tied together through the unraveling of old stories and the unfolding of new events. There are hints of melodrama that, thankfully, never quite succumb to heavyhandedness.

More effective and touching is the gradual illumination of the nuances of friendship and the dynamics of family, no matter what form it takes. And as each woman grapples with the religion that was once a vital part of her life, "The Used World" becomes a provocative examination of faith.

Kimmel gives us an ending that is satisfyingly rich but not too pat, leaving us wondering where these three memorable women go from here. I'd gladly venture into the wilds of Indiana to get to know them and find out.

Karen Campbell is a freelance writer based in Brookline.