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Read The Knitting Circle (2008)

The Knitting Circle (2008)

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Rating
3.77 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0393330443 (ISBN13: 9780393330441)
Language
English
Publisher
w. w. norton & company

The Knitting Circle (2008) - Plot & Excerpts

Every once in a great while, I stumble on a book that I was not only meant to read, but I was also meant to read it right that moment. And our meeting up seems so haphazard and coincidental.I bemoaned around the start of the new year that I had nothing to read in my to be read pile. And so I spent an hour at the local large book seller browsing the fiction aisles and writing down book names or just author names to go research a little more. I don’t remember researching The Knitting Circle, but somehow I deemed it worthy of approval onto my library hold list. And it’s been sitting in the pile next to my bed for the past 3 weeks.I read the first chapter more than a week ago, and I promptly put the book back onto the pile and thought, maybe I should just return it and skip this one. It was heartbreakingly clear that the book would rock my world. Instead of returning it, a few days later, after eyeing it distrustfully for a while, I picked it up and read over 200 pages of it that night. And I wept, and I sobbed for the great losses of the women in the Knitting Circle. I finished the second half tonight (and about 1/4 of a box of tissues).This book is about loss. It’s about deep, abiding, unrelenting, unforgettable loss. The kind of loss that can destroy you; the kind of loss that can suffocate you quietly unless you turn off and learn for a while to become someone who does nothing more than take in air.If you’ve lost a young child, then run away from this book. I think it would be way too much. But if you’ve lost someone or something else, it might be bearable. This is my first “emotional” read in so many years that I’ve lost count. Emotional it was. But there was something in it that kept ringing out to me as true. After the loss you have to invent something to do, a purpose, a reason for taking up air; this story gives a believable option.Ordinarily I hate this type of story. It’s why I stay away from books about book groups. There’s usually some very tenuous string between the book group, the books, and the stories of the women therein. And the women are usually whiners, with problems that I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for. Despite this book’s title, I picked it up. I’m glad. It didn’t feel artificial and the knitting stuff flowed; it wasn’t forced; and I buy into the healing that came with it. The women were real to me; their problems far far from the realm of trivial and self-made.I won’t say that I loved this book because I’m not sure it’s meant to be “loved”. But I will say that I liked it, and more importantly, at least in my life, it was necessary and, Ms. Hood knows and understands loss, and for her very personal sharing, I will be forever grateful.

Knit one...Mary Baxter lives in Providence, R.I.. After losing her five year old daughter, Stella to meningitis, Mary struggles even getting out of bed. Her marriage to her husband Dylan seems to be crumbling as Mary's depression makes it impossible to be there for him, let alone even smile. Her job as a writer for a local newspaper has become unbearable and she has bitter memories of her child hood and even adult life connects to her own mother who always has seemed distant and aloof and currently resides in Mexico. Purl two...At her mother's urging, Mary joins a knitting circle and meets Alice who invites her to a weekly evening gathering of knitters which at first seems frightening to Mary, but then figures, what does she have to lose? Instead of loss.... Mary gains insight into the women, and occasionally a few men, who make up the knitting circle...Knit Two, Purl Two...Harriet, Scarlett, Lulu, Beth, and Ellen all slowly knit their way into Mary's life. As Mary learns how to make scarves and hats, and even socks... she also learns that every one has hurts and her own life becomes entwined - with theirs...The Knitting Circle appealed to me right from the start for several reasons.The cover... soft and inviting, I want to go hang out therePerhaps my inability to knit and my fascination with those who do was an atractionBut mostly... the books draw for me was the cultivating of womens' friendships, a topic that always draws me in. I think having a house full of boys really drew that out of me... knowing that I needed "girl time" to hang out with my girlfreinds and talk about life and dreams and yes, even hurts. I enjoyed the flow of this story it was very paced, never hurried, and somehow that fit into the theme of a books knitted around friendships. The message within the book for me (and I think for our author too, who had also lost a daughter), was the power of friendship. It's easy to get drawn into thinking we are the only ones dealing with certain pain and tragedy and when we open our eyes and our hearts find that there is a whole world of hurting out there, and together - we are stronger.

What do You think about The Knitting Circle (2008)?

Ann Hood took tragic characters to an art form. The Knitting Circle’s Mary Baxter has tragically lost her daughter over night to a horrible illness and she can’t recover from it. Eventually her mother forces the issue and sends her to knitting therapy. While in this therapy she meets a litany of tragic characters, another tragically dead child, a victim of a gang rape, a daughter with a heart condition from birth, boyfriend of an AIDS patient, and just for cappers, a cancer patient. Each story tries to out depress you, and against protests from my family I continued to read hoping that some silver lining had to occur. I persevered through Mary’s husbands betrayal of their marriage because “the woman was happy”. I rejoiced when she hooked up with a stranger, though that success was short lived, and over all just wanted to scream at this woman to get a grip. The novels time span is like 2 years and at some point I have to wonder if she wouldn’t have just killed herself or been committed.Eventually we learn her mother was distant through out her childhood for a reason, she tragically lost her first daughter and never could bring herself to love her next child because of that. She gets her husband back and finds some new peace, but it takes too long and since we never get to appreciate the character whole, I felt more frustrated by her absolute inability to recuperate.
—Rebekah

It's been a tough one to walk away from. This book had left me numb (extremely close to the feeling left after reading The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle). The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood is a self written autobiographical novel about a young couple coping with the loss of their only child, their daughter, after a quick battle with Meningitis. This book was penned by Ann Hood after the loss of her own child after dealing with viral strep. The story in The Knitting Circle is painful and yet full of slow healing. Mary, the mother spends her days in a complete fog, unable to grip the change that has come into her life so suddenly. Mary used to be a reviewer for books, restaurants and movies, but now spends her days in baggy overalls watching TV and crying or sleeping. Mary has a non-existent relationship with her mother; former alcoholic. But her mother, calls, persists and irritates Mary to the point that she finally shows up at a knitting studio an hour from her house. Mary struggles to fit in with the circle, complaining about the littlest knitting task. She looks around the room to each Wednesday night slowly learning about the people in this group. This group is not ordinary, for each member has a horrid story of pain, loss and suffering... but the truth is where they are now. Because of Alice, the store owner. Mary finally starts to open up to her grief, finds time to learn about each other with her mother and finds life again... In my humble opinion, I know this book could be better based upon reading about the author. However, the basis behind this book.... the quality of writing through a desperate, heartfelt struggle is amazing. This book is such a lesson in learning just how to live and breath; one step at a time... (in the words of knitting... one stitch at a time...) So, based on all of the above, this book should be picked up and enjoyed in both tears and laughter!5 Stars!!
—Stacy

The Knitting Circle is a semi-autobiographical novel by Ann Hood. She starts the book with a prologue that applies both to her own life and to a character in the book. She says... Daughter, I have a story to tell you. I have wanted to tell it to you for a very long time. But unlike Babar or Eloise or any of the other stories you loved to hear, this one is not funny. This one is not clever. It is simply true. It is my story, yet I do not have the words to tell it. Instead, I pick up my needles and I knit. Each letter is a stitch. A row spells out "I love you." I knit "I love you" into everything I make. Like a prayer, or a wish, I send it out to you, hoping you can hear me. Hoping, daughter, that the story I am knitting reaches you somehow. Hoping, that my love reaches you somehow.I'm not going to lie to you. This isn't a fun book. But, it is an amazing book. You will cry and feel the characters' anguish. In the end, you will also come out with a deeper understanding of grief and the way it affects us. Ms. Hood handles the subject of loss and the surprising things that pull you through it with a frankness and sensitivity that comes from having made the journey herself. For some of you, Cara, my dear friend Chris, and many others, this book may hit almost too close to home, to close to the pain you felt and lived through. Despite the pain and raw grief Ms. Hood depicts, the unexpected friendships that sustain the protagonist and ultimately bring her to the point of living again, loving again, and having the strength to help others on their own journey back to life keeps this book from being depressing or dark.Hilma Wolitzer (The Doctor's Daughter) says, "The Knitting Circle is that rare thing: a wrenching story about loss that also manages to be consoling. It's a testament to women's friend ship and to ann Hood's talent."And, Caroline Leavitt (Girls in Trouble and Coming Back to Me) says, "The Knitting Circle kept me up all night reading. It is brilliant and brave and extraordinary. It does what the very best novels do - it takes a tragedy and finds the heart of the pain and turns it into shimmering art."Do yourself a favor and give this fabulous book a chance.
—Kristin Cruz

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