A Unique Voice

So many in the publishing industry seek a "unique voice." One friend rolled her eyes at me--she'd been querying agents for a year. "We all have unique voices," she said. I have to agree.

But some voices stick out more than others, and I have found one in a book my good friend, Shalane, asked us to read for book club. A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel is not a book I would typically pick up. It's a memoir, with a cover like the front of a 1950s parenting magazine.


But I trust Shalane's judgement, and am laughing out loud several times as payment. I got a kick out of this excerpt:

"The first time I ever truly grasped the concept of chromosomes, and the transmission of DNA, I was sitting in the truck with Dad, giving him some sideways looks. Earlier that day I had walked into a bait shop, and before I could say anything, the old man behind the counter had said, "You must be Bob Jarvis's daughter." I was unaccustomed to looking in mirror, wth good reason, but after that comment, all the way to the lake, I peeked into the big side mirror on Dad's truck, trying to see what the old man saw. I looked at myself. I looked at my dad. My suspicion that I hadn't actually been purchased from gypsies, as my family insisted, seemed to be confirmed.

"It appeared that I had been split down the middle by my parents, genetically, to my misfortune. I had my dad's curly hair and his long face and his very big, round eyes, but my eyes were close set, like my mom's. I had Mom's nose and her little square chin and her tiny mouth, with Dad's huge teeth in them. I had Dad's giraffe neck and his hands and feet and Mom's short torso and long legs. On the whole, I couldn't imagine a worse outcome. I slumped against the truck door."

Kimmel's entire book reads like this. She tells her story from the voice of a little girl and it is SO believable and wonderfully quirky. I look forward to book club. Thanks, Shalane!