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
