Friday Night Knitting Club

I just finished reading Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, and I'm still reeling. My summer has been hectic, and it's taken me an unusual amount of time to finish it. It's been nice, though, having the club members in the back of my mind as I went about my summer busy-ness. I've been able to identify with bits and pieces of all the characters, and I definitely understood Georgia's point of view. One passage that particularly rang true was her thoughts of how a woman who sees herself as the one in charge of keeping the order can let go enough to allow others to organize her world when she no longer can. With so many highly-developed characters interacting with one another, I would expect any reader to be able to find herself somewhere in the pages of the novel. To me, this novel epitomizes chick lit -- focusing on strong, independent women working through universal issues in very specific situations (which I adore in a piece of literature). I'd like to think that some day, this novel might be included in an American Women's Writers course like the one I took long ago and far away; so many pieces of it reflect important issues women face. It's not a romance novel, yet romance is involved; it's not a "women take the world novel," although that certainly happens as well. Some things work out, and others don't. That part is wonderfully realistic. And the best part -- the sequel, Knit Two, is here at my fingertips, so I don't have to wait to see how the rest of the story unfolds.