The Friday Night Knitting Club

I read this book and marveled at how I picked such a great novel about women, love, friendship and of course knitting. The writing is fresh; the characters memorable. No, you are not going to learn how to knit just from reading a novel about a knitting club but the beauty is that it makes you want to learn how by taking a formal class or joining your own local knitting club. I loved every page of this book. I thought the characters were well developed because I understood each and every one of them and their thoughts-their struggles. Sure Georgia's character may have irked me after a while...what with her musings and lingering resentment for her daughter's father but I could understand her character and WHY she felt as she did. I felt a connection with the other characters as well even the clueless Cat Phillips...and while I don't condone James's earlier abandonment, I understood his fear and WHY he jeopardized his and Georgia's relationship. There was a reason, I think, why the author wrote James and Cat's reappearance into Georgia's life. No, it may not have the fairy-tale ending and yes that was disappointing but at the same time I did not expect it to end any differently. For those who want a realistic view into the lives of the modern day independent woman who just so happens to knit, I say give this book a chance. I did and I do not regret it.

I want to start off by saying that the third star for this novel was given simply out of admiration for keeping so many balls in the air. Ms Jacobs chose to tell a story with multiple character plotlines, and I know how hard this is. Keeping track of things, making sure everyone gets their due, 'seeing' everything along the way to the story's conclusion; a daunting task. However...

It's a 2-star book.

As I infer in the title for this review, it takes what is stereotypical for a chick-lit novel and pushes it all front-and-center. It deals with 'woman-centric' issues...but does it in a way that's really patronizing. It maintains a decidedly low-brow approach to the exposition, as if the reader either needs or prefers to have everything spelled out ('Tell, don't show!'), and even then, does it in an extraordinarily pedestrian way. Almost as if- Well, as if Hallmark Cards had commissioned it.

There is no deftness of touch. (In fact, it's ham-fisted most of the time.) There's little subtlety involved. (In fact, everything is in bright neon, billboard-huge.) And aside from getting everything in, getting all the necessary facts related, the author doesn't seem to have much to say. That is, she's lacking a clear voice. What voice there is, seems more typical of a high school writer wanting to declare world views. 'This Is How I See The World'.

In truth, there was a lovely novel in here. The premise was great. But it was beyond Ms Jacobs' abilities. What's displayed within the pages of 'The Friday Night Knitting Club' is talent relating to writing similar to that of a vocalist aspiring to be a singer. Many, many times, I found myself shaking my head at the lubberly way she expressed even the simplest aspects of story, or of character. It was, in the end, a triumph of will that I achieved a full reading of the book.

As I've expressed elsewhere, in other reviews, I really wonder at the editors' roles in all this. Seriously; this is the book version of the movie that people exit from muttering 'How did THAT ever get made...?'

When I was beginning work on my first book (a memoir), a friend who did screenwriting gave me some tremendously helpful advice on narrative arc. In order to carry the story, she said, there needed a conflict that was motivating the character. That conflict might be as simple as a colorblind girl trying to complete a needlecraft kit, but it's still a conflict that gives us a reason to follow the story and a sense of suspense until we see whether and how the girl can do it. In the best stories, this external, circumstantial challenge gradually reveals an underlying internal conflict (such as how the girl feels about herself, or her struggle to concentrate on one task) that becomes the real issue.

This interplay of character and conflict contributes to the biggest problem with "The Friday Night Knitting Club," though in many ways it's a fine book and a warmly detailed account of knitting by someone who's obviously well-versed in the craft herself. As rich and complex a story as Georgia Walker's life could be, Jacobs doesn't seem quite sure what her primary conflict is until quite a way into the book. Is Georgia's challenge raising a biracial daughter alone? Responding to her ex-boyfriend's sudden appearance? Or is it her lack of female friends and struggle to trust others after being hurt?

This last theme is actually one of the most interesting and sadly underdeveloped parts of the book: the challenge for modern urbanites of finding, building and nurturing community. Jacobs writes of a New York battle for a survival in which the relational is the most fragile, often dependent on a deep rapport with only one or two other people. One feels a profound anxiety for the likes of Darwin, who never seems to have been understood by anyone but the husband on whom she will necessarily overdepend for love and affirmation. While she does eventually start to find a broader community through the Friday night knitting club, too few scenes chronicle how the members begin to trust each other and recognize the value of what they're building. The members' pledge to each try something that scares them is a promising start ... until the narrative shifts again and the theme of learning to be a friend takes a backseat to another contender for chief conflict.

Once Georgia's main challenge and its resolution emerge more clearly, the story hits its stride and Jacobs is able mine the complex backstories of the characters. The time it takes to sort this out, however, accounts for the slow start some of the other reviewers have noted, as well as the mixed cues about whether "Knitting Club" is a romance or a novel about female friendship. If you're up for the latter, it's a satisfying weekend read to unwind with under an afghan on a chilly night, mug of tea in hand and knitting needles nearby.

The book is always so much better than the movie, but with Julia Roberts already signed on this should launch the authors career. Reading the book takes you to a place you don't want to leave!

I read this book on vacation this year on the beach and could not stop reading it! The characters seemed like that could be anyones friends and acquantinces. It was real to me and caused me to analyize my own 'cast of characters' in my life. When I finished, I thought that I might not want to read another book ever, so that I could be left with the good memory of this one.