Ah, The Friday Night Knitting Club…

Let me start by saying that this not a bad book…I’m fairly certain that if you brought up the fact that you’d read it, amongst a group of women, they would enthusiastically tell you that they’d read it to.

it’s just not really a good one either.

Maybe it’s unfair to Kate Jacobs that her book happened to be the one I picked up after reading The Burgess Boys, which I thought was aces.  Perhaps it’s unfair of me to expect the same kind of substance, and multidimensional writing that keeps me mulling over instances in The Burgess Boys, long after I’ve finished reading it, from every book that I read.  Are my expectations too high?

I sometimes think that they may be.  After all, I would classify this as chic lit, or a beach read.  Though a bit smarter.  The author does come up with quite a few clever metaphors of her characters’ lives as the complex art of knitting.  And there are some tidbits of good advice on repairing and maintaining relationships, sprinkled throughout the book.

But the story is a cliché.  It’s been told before and the ending is predictable by the middle of the book.

Spoiler Alert:

 

 

By page 196, when Georgia decides to go to Scotland with her daughter, to introduce her to her family lineage, I knew that this trip was happening because the author planned to make it her last trip.

Because of course, she becomes the token cancer patient of the book.  Que the hurling.

And I knew that it would all work out…her old best friend would be there to take care of her daughter, her daughter’s father would be back in the picture to take custody, the girls of the knitting club would pitch in to save the store and surround her daughter with love when she died.  And there’s the story.

Oh, and with a couple of other cliché plot lines thrown in for good measure.  The girl who cheats on her husband who’s never really there anyway. The girl who can’t find a soulmate and tricks a young, unsuspecting boy to impregnate her.  The loud older woman trying to rediscover herself, trying her hand at law school.  Etc, etc.

Not really spoiling things, because whether it be Steel Magnolias, or Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons you’ve seen this movie or read this book before.

My neighbor was kind enough to give me this book, to keep.  This one and of course, its sequel.  Aaaaaugh!  I should write my book review on Knit Two now, as I can just imagine which direction the author will take these characters lives…

maybe it’s time for me to politely decline the book recommendations I’m getting from my neighbor.  She’s a sweetie, but I think we may be on 2 different pages when it comes to books that speak to us!