To title a book “”The Friday Night Knitting Club”” is a brave feat. Surely no one wants the cashier at Borders to think you spend your Friday nights knitting or, almost as taboo, reading.
But author Kate Jacobs rewards the reader who is unafraid of such judgment with a lively cast of troubled characters who all have much more going on in their lives than just knitting.
The reader meets Georgia Walker, a single mother trying to give her daughter everything she missed while growing up, the founder of the knitting club and owner of the shop in which it is held. She bounces her troubles off the other members of the club, including an irritating young academic, Darwin, and a rather upper-class woman, Cat, both who have failing marriages.
“”The Friday Night Knitting Club””
Kate Jacobsðð – Berkley Trade
3/5 stars!
The women get together each week to try and solve each other’s problems over yarn, sweaters and baked goods with limited success. The point of the story, however, is not whether each woman gets divorced, it is that each has the support of the knitting club to help her through it.
When Georgia reunites with her father and visits her grandmother in Scotland, these events add to the plot, but never overtake the knitting club as reasons to keep reading. “”The Friday Night Knitting Club”” saves the real conflict until the very end, which provides a nice twist, but is held back a little too long for the novel to be able to properly tie up the ends.
The twist is exciting and emotional, shedding new light on the previous 230 pages, yet it causes the reader to question what the point of the novel is. Where friendship and support had been themes throughout, the ending shifts the central topic of the novel to mortality, perhaps too far through to properly explore it.
While “”The Friday Night Knitting Club”” is an enjoyable, easy read, it lacks the proper amount of planning and structure to fully bring out the messages it contains.
On her first attempt at a novel, Jacobs proves to be adept at creating bright and distinctive characters that will appeal to women with a taste for emotional tales of hardship and friendship.
