Knit Two
by Kate Jacobs
Another round of Friday Night Knitting Club and I’m buying it all the way. Take up knitting? Me, too! Bake some muffins? Me, too! Go to Rome? Me, too! Open a bakery? Me, too! Live in New York? Me, too! Kate Jacobs strength is not necessarily in fine writing–but in making her readers care about her characters. I want to be part of their world … and so I power-read through Knit Two, happy all the way.
Several years after the death of Georgia, Dakota has finished a year of college, teetering on the edge of adulthood. The rest of the ladies have moved on–Darwin has twins, Lucie struggles with single parenthood, Anita anticipates marriage to Marty, Peri runs the shop. It is perhaps Catherine who transforms herself the most–going from self-absorbed socialite to a woman who gives up the mask she’s worn, finding, at long last, who she wanted to become.
Improbably, half the club find themselves in Italy for the summer. Dakota accompanies Lucie to nanny, James tags along to watch over Dakota, Anita searches for her long-lost sister, and Catherine goes … just because she can, I think! Nowhere but in a novel would such circumstances evolve–but somehow, it doesn’t seem far-fetched. Jacobs touches on some big issues–single-parenting, aging parents–and knits each situation up neatly with no raveled edges. Certainly not very much like life, but satisfying enough for a spring weekend. In fact, should there be a third Knitting Club novel … I’d very likely pick it up again and willingly let myself be transported to Walker and Daughter on the Upper West Side.
This is my symphony 