A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel is next month’s book club pick. It is a memoir of a girl growing up in rural Indiana and is written in a similar tell-all tone that David Sedaris has. I liked that this was a personal tale about a girl who was born within a couple years of me because the cultural references felt very personal to my own experience. She captured the essence of what it was like to be an elementary school girl in the early 70’s.
Many of the essays tell of the relationship she had to different family members, to her best friends, to her community. She was raised as a Quaker and had to go to church, yet she didn’t believe the religion in which she was forced to participate. Her observations about Catholics were spot on. The overall issue of religion and her place within a belief system was never resolved in this book.
The stories hint a bigger problems (alcoholic father, depressed mother) but did not address any outcomes, positive or negative in her life. It was an entertaining read and will make for good discussion at our next book club.
