In 1969 Richmond, Virginia, Birdie Kimble is blindsided when her husband Ken leaves her to run off with a teenaged student at the college where he’s a pastor. The young mother of two children, she has no idea how to cope and takes to drinking instead. Her bills unpaid, her car breaking down, and her children unfed and uncared for, she comes close to having her two children, Charlie 6 and Jody 2, taken by protective services.
A few months after leaving Birdie, Ken Kimble appears in Florida with his young girlfriend Moira at her parents’ house. Although Ken is in his 40s, he now looks like a hippy. There, he meets Joan, a Jewish reporter from New York who is staying in the house she inherited from her wealthy parents while she recovers from a mastectomy. She likes Ken and invites him to stay after he and Moira break up. Soon, he has transformed himself into a real estate dealer with the help of her uncle—oh, and he’s discovered he’s part Jewish. She becomes Mrs. Kimble number two.
There’s another wife to come after Joan dies of a recurrence of her cancer, leaving Ken a wealthy man. This time, he marries Dinah, the girl who used to babysit for him and Birdie.
The tales of these three marriages are told from the points of view of the wives with an occasional look at what’s happening with Charlie. This is the story of a man who is charming, but it seems as if there’s no there there, a man who reinvents himself to get what he wants with no regard for morals or ethics.
It was interesting to me to read that Haigh began this novel as a story about Birdie and her children but became interested in exploring Ken Kimble. However, that’s what she doesn’t do, or only by inference. Despite some obvious preferences—for very young women, for example—Joan, who is near his age, is probably only acceptable because of the money—he is basically unknowable. And the section about Birdie, which is the longest, was almost unbearable to me because she is so hopeless and helpless. I’m sure there are women like this, but I just wanted her to snap out of it. She finally does, sort of, but it takes years.
I found the book relatively interesting, but it is not a favorite.
What? Me Read? 
Oh good, I’m not tempted by this one at all! ;)
;-)
Looks like something we could have read for Literary Wives Club (though perhaps a letdown after Mrs. Bridge and the like)! It’s always curious to me how charismatic men seem to attract lots of women even when they have awful personalities or no integrity — e.g. Boris Johnson in the UK.
Yes, I think I might have added it to the list. Unfortunately for me, I usually end up adding them to the list AFTER I’ve read them, which means if they are picked, they are a reread for me. The character of Mr. Kimble is so hard to pin down that it’s a reach to even say he’s charismatic, I guess.
I try to add books to my list of potentials when I first hear about them. I don’t usually like to reread things within less than 5 years of my first reading.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out that way for me. Last time we picked books (the time before this one), I put a book I had just finished first on our list, and someone asked me to move it to later. So, I had to reread it.