The Friday Night Knitting Club (Paperback)

by Kate Jacobs (Author) "The hours of WALKER AND DAUGHTER: KNITTERS were clearly displayed in multicolored letters on a white sandwich board placed just so at the top of..." (more)
Key Phrases: kate jacobs, knitting shop, garter stitch, New York, Georgia Walker, James Foster (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Between running her Manhattan yarn shop, Walker & Daughter, and raising her 12-year-old biracial daughter, Dakota, Georgia Walker has plenty on her plate in Jacobs's debut novel. But when Dakota's father reappears and a former friend contacts Georgia, Georgia's orderly existence begins to unravel. Her support system is her staff and the knitting club that meets at her store every Friday night, though each person has dramas of her own brewing. Jacobs surveys the knitters' histories, and the novel's pace crawls as the novel lurches between past and present, the latter largely occupied by munching on baked goods, sipping coffee and watching the knitters size each other up. Club members' troubles don't intersect so much as build on common themes of domestic woes and betrayal. It takes a while, but when Jacobs, who worked at Redbook and Working Woman, hits her storytelling stride, poignant twists propel the plot and help the pacing find a pleasant rhythm. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Georgia Walker's entire life is wrapped up in running her knitting store, Walker and Daughter, and caring for her 12-year-old daughter, Dakota. With the help of Anita, a lively widow in her seventies, Georgia starts the Friday Night Knitting Club, which draws loyal customers and a few oddballs. Darwin Chiu, a feminist grad student, believes knitting is downright old-fashioned, but she's drawn to the club as her young marriage threatens to unravel. Lucie, 42, a television producer, is about to become a mother for the first time--without a man in her life. Brash book editor KC finds her career has stalled unexpectedly, while brilliant Peri works at Walker and Daughter by day and designs handbags at night. Georgia gets her own taste of upheaval when Dakota's father reappears, hoping for a second chance. The yarn picks up steam as it draws to a conclusion, and an unexpected tragedy makes it impossible to put down. Jacobs' winning first novel is bound to have appeal among book clubs. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (January 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425219097
• ISBN-13: 978-0425219096
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (288 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,402 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, March 23, 2008

By	A Reader "Reader" (Texas) - See all my reviews

I read this novel while stuck in an airport during a long, long layover. On the positive side, it passed the time. The negative list is much longer. The characters were never developed and the minor ones seemed like they were drawn from a checklist. Senior citizen, check. Mixed race character, check. Asian character, check. Rich unhappy character, check. The book has the feel of a Lifetime movie, "Brave single mother raises daughter and then ... tragedy strikes." Been done many times before and much, much better

61 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inviting, Cozy Book , August 6, 2007

By	Loves Books (Maryland USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Friday Night Knitting Club (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book so much that I'm rather taken aback at how divided the reviews are. I found the book to be like a blanket, warm and cozy and something you want to curl up in. I don't knit, but the references to the wool and the process made it seem very inviting.

The characters were diverse - of varying ages, walks of life and economic circumstances - and written so vividly that I began to cast them as if for a TV show. Overall, the book is about love and friendship and finding ourselves, with the store and knitting being the central theme that brings most of the characters together.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was sad to see it come to a conclusion, ending my connection with the colorful and enjoyable characters. Like some of the other reviewers, I would have liked a different ending because I'd grown attached to everyone, but I did see it coming and the author did tie it all together well.

My biggest disappointment in the book was discovering it's Kate Jacob's first and now I'll have to wait for the next one.

108 of 125 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Knitting is a Nice Device, But . . ., March 9, 2007

By	Michele Cozzens "www.michelecozzens.com" (Cloud 8) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Friday Night Knitting Club (Hardcover)

The idea of a knitting group--a group of women gathering on a regular basis forming bonds of friendship and sharing life experiences--was the alluring premise of this book, and the reason I bought it. That's definitely what this book is. But is it a riveting story? Did I fall in love with the characters and turn pages with eager anticipation to see how the story would play out? No and no. I struggled turning pages of this book as much as I'd probably struggle trying to knit a sweater. This was like the waste of expensive yarn, a piece crafted with a big idea and little talent.

The writing isn't bad, but I wouldn't describe this effort as "well-written." It's average at best, lacking originality or memorable prose, and I felt it was littered with clichés and contrived dialog. As for story, it's primarily character-driven with focus on the main character, Georgia Walker, a single mother who owns a yarn shop/knitting business on the upper west side of Manhattan. The club consists of her daughter Dakota, a bi-racial 12-year-old, who flits in and out of the club with baked goods and entrepreneurial ambitions, and is as charming and annoying as any 12-year old; a widow named Anita who is Georgia's "mentor;" an "academic" named Darwin (who annoys everyone in the club as well as this reader); a 40-year-old single woman (who I believe works on a documentary about the knitting club) who fools a date into getting her pregnant; an aspiring purse designer and part-time worker in the shop; a woman in her mid-40s hoping to get into law school; and probably the most entertaining character, Georgia's childhood friend Cat (nee Cathy) who is an uptown socialite on the verge of divorce. When she's on the page, at least there's some conflict you can sink your teeth into.

Dakota's father, James, returns to Georgia's life in this tale, and is a cardboard character who fails to charm the reader as much as he seemingly charms everyone else. And Georgia's grandmother, a 90-something Scottish sage comes into play as a touchstone to...something. I think Georgia's visit abroad is supposed to be really important but it wasn't until page 260 when Georgia receives some life changing news that the question, "What IS this book ABOUT?" had an answer.

The Friday Night Knitting Club is a debut novel and I believe it has a first novel feel. It made me think, "nice effort and good for the author for getting it published;" however, I cannot recommend it. There was, however, one quote from the book I thought was rich, and this was in regard to mother-daughter relationships: ". . . what these daughters really wanted was to be able to bare their souls to the one person in the world who would love them without restraint, whose approval was priceless, who would find them and their myriad life issues endlessly fascinating." If my daughter wrote this book, I would indeed be proud of her.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club