She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana
The # 1 New York Times bestseller A Girl Named Zippy was a rare and welcome treat: a memoir of a happy childhood. Spunky, strong-willed, and too smart for her own good, Zippy Jarvis brought readers delight and joy. In She Got Up Off the Couch, Haven Kimmel invites us to rejoin the quirky and hilarious Jarvis family saga, shining the spotlight now on her remarkable mother, Delonda. Zippy is growing up and struggling with both her hair and her distaste for shoes. But this memoir strikes a...
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After twenty years of burrowing into the corner of the family couch, eating junk food, and reading science fiction, Indiana mother Delonda Jarvis did something that shocked her family: she went to college. Or, as her younger daughter, Haven Kimmel, writes, she "stood up, brushed away the pork rind crumbs, and escaped by the skin of her teeth." Despite having no money, no car, and a resentful husband, Delonda managed to obtain a master's degree in English. The former teenage bride also dropped one hundred pounds, learned how to drive, and became a breadwinner. But as she reclaimed herself, her marriage disintegrated. Publishers Weekly This sequel to A Girl Named Zippy charts the continuing escapades of adolescent Zippy in tiny Mooreland, Ind., putting special emphasis on the liberation, via a college education, of her mother, Delonda Jarvis. With stories ranging from Zippy's run-in with a territorial cow on a friend's farm to "A Short List of Records My Father Threatened to Break Over My Head If I Played Them One More Time," Kimmel's Twainish tone deepens into a more modern type of despair as the problems of her parents' marriage become pronounced. By learning to drive, getting a bachelor's degree and becoming a teacher to support her family, Delonda expands her potential, mirroring the growing possibilities for women in the post-'60s era. Meanwhile, Zippy's father begrudges Delonda these few freedoms, while still failing to provide adequately for his family and flirting with adultery. Kimmel has a distinct voice and introduces quirky characters, but even better, she goes beyond memoir to explore the anxiety inherent in the shifting of traditional family and gender roles common to her generation. She draws readers in with her easygoing manner and ability to entertain, but surprises with a bittersweet paean to childhood na vet and an arresting account of a family's disintegration. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
PrefaceThe Test5I Knew Glen Before He Was a Superstar16The Rules of Evil Queen19Vacuum Cleaner21Cowboys27The Love Bug32Treasure36A Member of the Wedding49Brother59Church Camp66Hairless Tails86A Short List of Records My Father Threatened to Break Over My Head If I Played Them One More Time100A Short List of Records That Vanished from My Collection105Bull106August 8, 1974115Late Summer126Valediction139In the Mood145Fall154Experience It169Teeth178One Leper188Silver199Pink Like Me223Slumber Party, 1977248Blizzard Baby, 1978256Gold270Law Enforcement278Acknowledgments303
