KNIT TWO: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel
Kate Jacobs
Putnam Adult
Fiction
ISBN: 9780399155833
When I heard that Kate Jacobs was writing a sequel to her hugely popular 2007 novel THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, I confess I was a little skeptical. After all, Georgia Walker, the owner of Walker & Daughter yarn shop and central figure of the titular club, passed away at the close of Jacobs's debut. But, as she writes in the acknowledgments section of KNIT TWO, "I never stopped thinking about…the entire group, and sitting down to type out my thoughts was a delightful reunion with some old friends." Fans of Jacobs's earlier novel about Georgia, Dakota, Anita and their friends --- the same fans whose enthusiasm convinced Jacobs to write this follow-up --- will also feel like they're reconnecting with old friends when they pick up her latest work.
With the way Jacobs has structured her novel, the idea of a sequel doesn't feel so preposterous at all. It opens five years after the events of THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, with Georgia's former friends and co-workers struggling --- just as readers will --- with how to move forward without the vivacious, energetic person at the center of their knitting circle.
Five years on, some of the club's members have done a better job of coping than others. Peri, Georgia's protégée and part-owner of Walker & Daughter, has seen her designer handbag business take off but has grown increasingly frustrated and disenchanted with the daily grind of running a struggling business. Dakota, the "daughter" of Walker & Daughter, is now a freshman at NYU. She is convinced that she doesn't want to carry on the family business and struggles with feeling disloyal to her mother's legacy. Her secret desire to become a pastry chef leads to frequent clashes with her more pragmatic father, James. James himself harbors deep feelings of guilt and inadequacy, emotions that have made it impossible for him to move forward in another romantic relationship.
Romance is also lacking for some of the other knitting club members. Catherine, Georgia's longtime best friend, has found professional success and a series of short-term flings after leaving her stifling marriage, but she fears that years of trying to model her life on others' have left her unsure of her true identity and desires. Lucie, now an in-demand music video director and the single mother of a five-year-old daughter, Ginger, surprises herself by harboring fantasies of contacting --- and reconnecting with --- Ginger's father, who has no idea he has a daughter. K.C., the frustrated editor turned lawyer, has taken up smoking to deal with the onset of menopause and her own regrets.
Even those whose personal lives seem to be in order find themselves not only coping with Georgia's absence but also with personal crises. Darwin, the feminist scholar, gives birth to twins and finds motherhood both more and less than she had hoped for. Anita, who has found a second chance in love late in life, finds herself unable to move forward with marriage until she solves a lingering mystery from her past.
If all this sounds like a lot to keep track of, you're right. Jacobs gives herself a huge task in trying to juggle this many plot lines, resulting in a novel with as many strands as a complicated Fairisle sweater. Things get even more complex midway through the book, when half the characters embark on a new adventure in Rome, while others remain behind in New York City. Not surprisingly, some stories --- namely Catherine's and Dakota's --- emerge as the most compelling, while others are relegated to supporting status. And, as her legions of fans will appreciate, Jacobs doesn't weave in all the loose ends left in these women's lives, leaving open the possibility that readers someday will be invited to additional meetings of the constantly evolving Friday Night Knitting Club.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2010, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
