The Friday Night Knitting Club (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
"Now that I learned about this foreshadowing thing, I'm going to use it in all my stories!" That was the title of a story about John Grisham on the satirical news website The Onion, and I kept thinking of it as I read this book. Everything about it just seemed so amatuerish - the symbolism, the knitting metaphor, the foreshadowing, the corny, heavy-handed life lessons from wise older women, etc. And, as several people on this site pointed out, there were so many events in the book that were not remotely believable. For example, Georgia just happens to find a sensible, wise, levelheaded widow who is more than happy to help out at her shop for free, and is an expert knitter herself? Or, she goes 13 years without reading the letters from the man who broke her heart, yet she brings them with her to Scotland and reads them there, and then he just shows up out of the blue? Give me a break. Also, there were so many situations that the author could have made more interesting. Like the situation with Cat leaving her husband - it's great that she left him because he was a complete jerk, but it wasn't very interesting. If he'd had some kind of redeeming qualities, or there had been an interesting secret, or they had had a child together, or something, it would have at least made it interesting.I also agree that Lucie's decision was irresponsible and the book kind of sugar-coated that. She decided to use some guy to impregnate her, when she wasn't even financially stable herself, and then not tell anyone about the pregnancy. I hate to sound judgmental, but the author did romanticize the whole idea.I am reading this book now and debating whether or not to finish it - it's pretty obvious how it's going to end. I hate to not finish a book, but this one just keeps getting lamer and lamer the more I read. And it makes me angry that the main character is going to die - not because that couldn't happen, but because I don't feel this book is good enough to get away with a depressing ending. The writing is medicore at best, and the book strains credibility to the max. But it's OK as a mindless escape to read after a day of working at an emotionally draining job. But if I'm going to read a mindless book, I want a mindless happy ending too. Well I'm not sure if I'll finish the book, but I know for sure I won't be wasting my time and money on the sequel, "Knit Two." This one was mediocre, but the sequel has the potential to be truly godawful. And, of course, so does the inevitable movie version of this book.Update: I did finish it, and it only got worse. A particularly groan-out-loud awful part was when Georgia just happened to run into a priest she knew, and they had a heart-to-heart chat in which he imparted another of the book's valuable life lesson. Except that his advice was basically just the Cliff Notes version on the (far superior) book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People."
Knitting is a Nice Device, But . . .The idea of a knitting group--a group of women gathering on a regular basis forming bonds of friendship and sharing life experiences--was the alluring premise of this book, and the reason I bought it. That's definitely what this book is. But is it a riveting story? Did I fall in love with the characters and turn pages with eager anticipation to see how the story would play out? No and no. I struggled turning pages of this book as much as I'd probably struggle trying to knit a sweater. This was like the waste of expensive yarn, a piece crafted with a big idea and little talent.The writing isn't bad, but I wouldn't describe this effort as "well-written." It's average at best, lacking originality or memorable prose, and I felt it was littered with clichés and contrived dialog. As for story, it's primarily character-driven with focus on the main character, Georgia Walker, a single mother who owns a yarn shop/knitting business on the upper west side of Manhattan. The club consists of her daughter Dakota, a bi-racial 12-year-old, who flits in and out of the club with baked goods and entrepreneurial ambitions, and is as charming and annoying as any 12-year old; a widow named Anita who is Georgia's "mentor;" an "academic" named Darwin (who annoys everyone in the club as well as this reader); a 40-year-old single woman (who I believe works on a documentary about the knitting club) who fools a date into getting her pregnant; an aspiring purse designer and part-time worker in the shop; a woman in her mid-40s hoping to get into law school; and probably the most entertaining character, Georgia's childhood friend Cat (nee Cathy) who is an uptown socialite on the verge of divorce. When she's on the page, at least there's some conflict you can sink your teeth into.Dakota's father, James, returns to Georgia's life in this tale, and is a cardboard character who fails to charm the reader as much as he seemingly charms everyone else. And Georgia's grandmother, a 90-something Scottish sage comes into play as a touchstone to...something. I think Georgia's visit abroad is supposed to be really important but it wasn't until page 260 when Georgia receives some life changing news that the question, "What IS this book ABOUT?" had an answer.The Friday Night Knitting Club is a debut novel and I believe it has a first novel feel. It made me think, "nice effort and good for the author for getting it published;" however, I cannot recommend it. There was, however, one quote from the book I thought was rich, and this was in regard to mother-daughter relationships: ". . . what these daughters really wanted was to be able to bare their souls to the one person in the world who would love them without restraint, whose approval was priceless, who would find them and their myriad life issues endlessly fascinating." If my daughter wrote this book, I would indeed be proud of her.
What do You think about The Friday Night Knitting Club (2007)?
I have the soft cover, not the hard cover.Oy! The best thing about this book was the cover photo. Gosh. I read this book slowly because I have very limited time for pleasure reading. I was annoyed with the overuse of the words "nosh" and "kybosh" for one thing, which grabbed my attention in the first few chapters. I decided to keep reading it because I felt that I was hyper-analyzing the book due to the slow pace with which I was getting through it. However, the other day, Persia took a three-hour nap in my arms, and I nearly finished it. This book is awful, just awful. The author, though a professional editor, really doesn't know how to write. I kept thinking she was rushing. She told more than showed and showed where it should have been told. I think she really wants the story to be a movie and if it is one, it will be one of those rare occurences where the movie is better than the book. I, personally, hate writing dialogue. Evidently, so does this author. In some sections of the book, she writes like she's writing a script for a movie or a play. And it just smacks of bored writer. I wonder if she had an editor or if she works for the publishing company where this book was published. This book is nothing close to Steele Magnolias, nor Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. The book has too many undeveloped characters. The main character is also very shallow. There are scenes that are so brief and unrelated to the story that I was left wondering what she was trying to do. It's nearly like a long outline of a book that might be good when the author finally gets around to writing it.I found it amusing that the main character supposedly went to Harrisburg High. It was goofy how it was written, though. I'm betting the author is from Pennsylvania. There were a few parts in the story where I did feel inspired to knit and I liked that, but overall I hated the book. Anybody want it?
—Nichole
This was a really GREAT book! Its a story if strength, perseverance (sp), tenacity and most of all, love and how love touches and affects everything around you even when you aren't aware that it is. Is is also the story of forgiveness and the love that can come when forgiveness happens.This is the story of Georgia Walker. And of her daughter Dakota. And the knitting shop she opened when she found herself single, pregnant and alone in a city she wasn't sure she wanted to stay in. And its the story of Anita, Georgia's "fairy godmother" who meets Georgia and helps her start her business and in doing that becomes her friend and the mother Georgia always wanted but didn't have.And with Anita's help, Georgia opens her store, raises her daughter and makes new friends (many that are VERY interesting characters) while (reluctantly [sp]) re-connecting with old friends. And in the midst of everything is knitting and the love of that that binds them together. In ways that they all would never imagine. At times light and funny and at times dark, thought-provoking and serious (and at times SAD!), this book was such a great read for me. It made me think and look at my own life and what I am doing (and NOT doing) with it!!!LOVED this book!!!!
—Dawn Michelle
Not unlike The Shop around the Corner in the movie You’ve Got Mail, only with yarn instead of books, Walker and Daughter is a cute, little knitting shop hidden in the deep recess’s of New York City’s Upper West Side, run by single mom Georgia and her twelve-year-old daughter Dakota. It’s a place where a potential sale is never denied, where the door is never fully shut until well after closing time and the last straggler has had a moment to muse and ponder over the choice of wool or cotton. A place where not just stray pieces of yarn gather, but friends; women with virtually nothing in common but one general purpose: to knit together something in their lives. Georgia and her precocious daughter are not alone in their efforts. There’s her mentor and stand-in mother, Anita, a well-established-in-life sort of friend; Peri, a pre-law student with a penchant for knitting handbags; Lucie, a tv producer who’s lost her way; Darwin, an annoying graduate student; and Georgia’s old high school friend Cat, a Pamela Anderson sort of socialite on the verge of divorce. Like a knitted scarf wrapped tightly around your neck on a blustery day, so it is with these women in a time of crisis. The yarn is what holds it together and keeps out the cold.The Friday Night Knitting Club is Steel Magnolias with but a different disease and location; How to Tie an American Quilt with yarn instead of fabric blocks; the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, but without the rebuilding of a mother-daughter relationship and the cool chant. I liked all of these books, FNKC included, which follow a central theme: make the most of one’s life while you have it and a sisterhood can conquer all.Aside from the constant use. of. sentence. fragments. and occasionally getting bogged down in the minutiae of the character’s past lives, overall I felt the story moved along these points well-enough. The author milks to the last drop every emotional moment she can, and I felt literally sucked dry at times, almost forced against my will to feel more sentimental towards the characters, even though sometimes I didn’t want too. Sometimes these characters just weren’t likeable, but hey, they’re New Yorkers! What did I expect! *cough* Did I take something from this book? Sure, be grateful for the friends you have, and take up a skill that uses your fingers, and most of all, be sure to shave your legs and change your underwear everyday. You never know what will happen, for good, and bad.
—Leslie
