The Knitting Circle

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, show more 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. show less

Great read - expected it to be light and fluffy and I couldn't have been more wrong. It's a tale of sadness, grief and bereavement amongst women who survive by learning to knit in each others company at Big Alice's. I felt so sad for Mary and loathed her husband for his gross behaviour. I am a knitter and therefore completely in tune with the yarn aspects so a high rating from me.

It took me 10 days to read this (i.e. a long time), but that doesn't mean I was struggling to get through it. The book is really a series of stories about individual women and I enjoyed each one of these stories. All the characters seemed quite believable to me and the way they dealt differently with their sadness was, I think, one of the main points of the novel. The problem I had with the book was that it all wrapped up rather too neatly - the same fault I found with another of Ann Hood's novels based on her own experience: The Red Thread. Given the real life basis, I would have thought that Hood would be more aware of the failure of so many grief situations to ever resolve satisfactorily. . . but maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps my show more experience is not as typical as I believe. Another possibility is that Ms Hood thinks that happiness-ever-after is the true path to commercial success - and she may well be right! show less

Story of Loss and Recovery - but Enjoyable (Not Difficult/Painful): While it is probably unavoidable for a book about loss and recovery to be sad, I didn't find reading this book to be either difficult or painful. Instead, I found myself having to wrench myself from the book. I also felt thoughtful and a bit grateful as well.

The central character, Mary, has suffered a devastating loss and has been coerced into joining a knitting circle. Each member of the knitting circle has a story of their own that we learn about as Mary gets to know all of them. Along with loss or difficulty, knitting as a form of therapy, coping or salvation is the common bond between them. I don't knit, but there is something about the description of wool, its show more color and even what is being knitted that is so inviting and warm that it's as if it adds a texture to the book itself.

The author has done a beautiful job of capturing the nuances of emotions and feelings that make Mary seem very real. The stories of the knitting circle members and even Mary's co-workers are varied and interesting and make for what I found to be an engrossing book that I very much enjoyed. show less

First, a disclaimer: I do not like circle books. You know... books about sewing circles, quilting circles, ladies book club circles, and so on. I don't like them because the "circle" seems like a contrived device for structuring a novel that really has very little to stand on. But, Ann Hood is a wonderful writer with a compelling personal history. After hearing her speak at UAlbany, I picked up The Knitting Circle. The novel describes a woman's slow progress through grief as she bonds with other women in her knitting club. Each woman (and one gay man) in the group has a private sorrow. To tell these stories, the author drew on her own journey through grief. The circumstances are heartbreaking. The Knitting Circle would make a wonderful show more poem. Or short story. But by Chapter 3, I'd had quite enough of "knitting is like life" symbolism. The novel felt like a Hallmark teleplay, or a movie on the Lifetime channel. The Knitting Circle has many strengths, but I could not get past my bias. show less

Mary and Dylan Baxter were that couple that everyone else aspired to be. He was a busy attorney, she worked for the local newspaper writing reviews and their 5 year old daughter Stella was the light of their lives - until meningitis cruelly took Stella's life in less than 24 hours. Mary and Dylan stumbled through their days not believing that their family had crumbled so completely. Dylan's work kept him busy but Mary, whose work schedule was sporadic to begin with, grew more withdrawn day after day as her anger and bewilderment threatened to overcome her. Mary's mother, Maimie, suggested that Mary learn how to knit hoping that the concentration on the stitches and patterns would occupy Mary's mind for a few hours a day. Mary show more reluctantly found herself driving to the "Sit and Knit" run by Alice who kindly took Mary under her wing and taught her the basics of knitting. As Mary became more confident in her new hobby she joined the Wednesday night knitting circle where she met the other members, all of whom had their own secret tragedies. Mary slowly learned to make friends with the women and shared in their triumphs and heartache.

Although this was certainly a tragic story it was uplifing too. The power of the human spirit and the love of friends shone through the entire book. I've been a knitter for many years and I guess I never saw it as therapy but it certainly could be. This one has been on my TBR for several years and I'm glad that I've finally read it. show less

I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish the last 100 pages of this wonderful book. Hood allows us to experience the growth and acceptance of these women, who have only become "friends" through a knitting circle that meets weekly at the little knit shop. Each woman has lost something and Hood, through the main character, allows us to discover what the loss is and how it has affected the life of each character. While there is some sadness in reading this book, particularly if you have lost something as these women, there is great hope in the friendships and exchanges between these women. I would recommend each woman to read the book and then find such a group of women.