Book Review
Just finished reading The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. The main character, Mary, is coping with grief on the loss of her 5-year old daughter, Stella. As her world begins to fall apart, Mary’s mother tries to get her to meet "Alice" at a knitting shop and join a knitting group. The tunnel vision of her overwhelming grief prevents Mary from seeing others as having difficulties or sorrow in their lives. Through the Knitting Circle she begins to focus on things outside of herself. Slowly more of the experiences of members in the group are revealed which challenges Mary’s view of others having “perfect” lives. Each person’s existence entailed some major
devastation or turning point from an unblemished life.
This book is a basic circle of life going through sorrow, comfort and helping others. From my perspective, the author expresses a hopelessness in all of life and the inability to avoid heartache, pain and devastation. Life is not without difficulty but the burdensome despair communicated by this book would cause me not to recommend it as “light reading” or for anyone who becomes easily depressed.
Many years ago, my English teacher awarded two grades to each paper: one for content and the other for technical ability. As to her skills in communication with the written word, Ann Hood would receive a B+ or maybe an A-; however, the content itself, in my opinion, would be a C-. Contains a few vulgarities, crude language, homosexual and lesbian relationships and other adult situations.
Currently I am reading The Friday Night Knitting Club, and in order to compare books, I thought I might offer a rating system of 5 stars. This one I would award 2 stars.
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