The Friday Night Knitting Club

by Kate Jacobs

book data

11,526 ratings, 3.35 average rating, 3,353 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		13%
4		31%
3		35%
2		14%
1		4%

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published

January 2nd 2008 (first published 2007) by Berkley Trade

binding

Paperback

characters

Georgia, Anita, Peri, Darwin, ...more

isbn

0425219097 (isbn13: 9780425219096)

description

A charming and moving novel about female friendship and the experiences that knit us together-even when we least expect it.

Walker and Daughter is Ge...more

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12/07/07

Michelle rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

Read in December, 2007

I just picked this up at the library because there was nothing else there. The reviews I've scanned give me pause, but hey, I haven't read any blatant chick-lit in quite a while...we'll see.

*****

And one week later, I can say this: I hated this book. I hated the way the author used nothing but sentence fragments. To emphasize her points. Everyone thinks and speaks in four. Word. Sentences. Can you imagine reading this writing style for an entire book?

Because...more

Like this review? yes (18 people liked it)

4 comments

12/09/08

La Petite rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: sucked

Read in December, 2008

recommends it for: Fans of Lifetime for Women

Reading this book made me want to gouge my own eyes out with knitting needles. My throat got sore from all of the groaning I did page after page. Let me give you some examples of suckiness:

All the non-white characters are described as having cafe au lait skin or mocha skin.

Some of the sloppy writing and editing did turn out to be quite funny, such as when a character remembers visiting her grandmother in Scotland and they "sat by the fire wearing nothing but their ...more

Like this review? yes (16 people liked it)

10 comments

06/26/07

Michele rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

Read in March, 2007

Knitting is a Nice Device, But . . .
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 str...more Knitting is a Nice Device, But . . .
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. (less)

Like this review? yes (11 people liked it)

5 comments

04/11/08

Leighann rated it:

Read in January, 2007

I'm giving this two stars: averaging one star for the first half and three for the second half. Through the first half of the book I kept thinking, "how are they going to make a movie of this?" It was just all these separate women and their individual stories and none seemed to have anything to do with the others. They did all come together at the end, though. The first thing that really got my attention was in Darwin's story. She was talking about how she was a good girl, but she didn...more I'm giving this two stars: averaging one star for the first half and three for the second half. Through the first half of the book I kept thinking, "how are they going to make a movie of this?" It was just all these separate women and their individual stories and none seemed to have anything to do with the others. They did all come together at the end, though. The first thing that really got my attention was in Darwin's story. She was talking about how she was a good girl, but she didn't want to be a good girl. She said that she didn't want to burn money for her dead ancestors on Chinese New Year. Having grown up in Asia, I can tell you no one burns money or anything else during Chinese New Year (which lasts for 15 days). Money is burned for dead ancestors at the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts. I just hate it when authors write about something they don't know about and don't bother to check it out. She also mentioned about not wanting to go the Sunday School and skipping church. Anyone going to church likely isn't burning money for dead ancestors in any case. The part about Julia Roberts was weird, too. If the lady was so certain Ms. Roberts was going to show up at that particular yarn store on that particular, why not just hang around by the front door? If someone bought and returned the same item all day long at my store (if I had one) I'd put a stop to it. And why did she stagger in slurring something about "roooobbbeerrrs" at the end of the day? Was she drunk? Overheated? Dehydrated? Deranged? That was just kind of left dangling. I also didn't understand about the letters.

Georgia had gotten two letters from James that she never opened. Yet he was sending checks to help with Dakota's expenses and she opened all those. How is it she opened the later envelopes that contained checks but not the first two where he said he wanted to get back together? I wondered, too, about the evening gowns Georgia knitted. If she was capable of doing that, why did she wait to be asked? She could have knitted a few and sold them to some boutiques. For someone who managed to be a single parent and run her own business and do a good job at both, she seemed to be short-sighted about breaking into the fashion business. Peri got right down to business with her knitted purses and had them in store windows in no time. And my final question was about the trip to Scotland. Georgia decided Dakota could miss a little school since it was "just seventh grade". I thought they'd only be gone a week. When it was revealed they spend a month in Scotland, I figured she'd just missed the last week of school. Then they came back and Dakota had to go back to school. It doesn't matter what grade you're in, missing a month means you're going to have repeat the grade. No one can miss that much school. They'd probably withdraw your enrollment.

I wasn't too impressed with the character who tricked her date into getting her pregnant. That was just uncalled for. Who conducts themselves like that? I also could have done without the bad language. These are all college educated women, surely they didn't have to resort to four-letter words to get their points across.

It could have been a good book, but there were so many thing that just made no sense to me. I think the movie might be better, though. If they just hit the highlights it should make a good story.(less)

Like this review? yes (8 people liked it)

4 comments

07/02/08

Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: audiobooked

Read in September, 2008

I refuse to finish this book.

Narrative Issues:
I read most of it, but even then I had to force myself through the first half. The whole Dividing The Book Into Chapters About Knitting To Symbolize A Metaphor For Life seemed too cliche.

The entire first half of the novel is told in fits & starts as the narrator gives us every single detail of background information in every character. Scenes went along the lines of:
"X walked into the kitchen. She'd always ...more

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06/19/08

Kellie rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: 2008-reads, bookring-bookray, fiction-literature

Read in June, 2008

This was a very moving, character driven novel. Loaded with emotion, The Friday Night Knitting Club is about women who become friends through a knitting club that was formed by accident. Walker & Daughter is a knitting store formed by single mom Georgia. With the help of her dear friend Anita, Georgia runs this NYC store with not only great knitting supplies and projects, but with some friendly guidance and advice, (not necessarily on knitting). The knitting club forms when a handful of wom...more

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04/21/08

Dawn Michelle rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: books-i-cant-live-without, books-read-in-2008

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Dawn Michelle by: Read a review of it
recommends it for: Anyone who loves a good story

This was a really GREAT book! Its a story if strength, perseverance (sp), tenacity and most of all, love and how love touches and affects everything around you even when you aren't aware that it is. Is is also the story of forgiveness and the love that can come when forgiveness happens.

This is the story of Georgia Walker. And of her daughter Dakota. And the knitting shop she opened when she found herself single, pregnant and alone in a city she wasn't sure she wanted to stay in. And ...more

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06/06/08

Tracie rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

Read in June, 2008

Wow, I really didn't like this book. I picked it up and put it down for days not getting past the first 20 pages because the style of writing was frustrating and in the beginning I really didn't like the main character. Being a knitter in NYC I wanted to like the book about the little yarn shop so I made myself keep reading.

The style of writing did not improve. It was full. Of sentence fragments. Just like this. Throughout the entire book. Distracting. In addition, there were details...more

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04/24/08

Melissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: domestic_fiction, womens_fiction

Read in April, 2008

Oh dear. That's several hours of my life I will never get back.

The plot: Georgia Walker owns a knitting-yarn store in New York City. Between her and her daughter, her employees, her friends, and some of her customers, they cobble together "The Friday Night Knitting Club" and gather at the store to stitch and bitch, as it were. And so we are offered some views into each woman's life. And just as Georgia's life starts to change for the better, tragedy strikes.

Well...more

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03/18/08

Nichole added it (review of isbn 0399154094)

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: nobody

I have the soft cover, not the hard cover.

Oy! The best thing about this book was the cover photo. Gosh. I read this book slowly because I have very limited time for pleasure reading. I was annoyed with the overuse of the words "nosh" and "kybosh" for one thing, which grabbed my attention in the first few chapters. I decided to keep reading it because I felt that I was hyper-analyzing the book due to the slow pace with which I was getting through it. However...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

2 comments

01/01/08

JayeL rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: 2008

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: people who appreciate the attraction of a regular craft group.

This book has an unexpected kind of Karmic wheel ending, but the whole books is well written and well spoken (I listened to the audio version from Audible.com). It starts out in a way that, I think, most of find ourselves in at some point in life: doing fine and not able to see how life could be better. In this case, our heroine's life does get better when she opens her heart and her life to other people: old and new friends. The setting is the Walker and Daughter Knitting shop in New York City....more

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02/19/08

Lain rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Like this review? yes (7 people liked it)

7 comments

02/07/09

booklady rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, fiction

Read in February, 2009

An interesting portrayal of an assortment of women living in Manhattan and drawn together in various ways to a small, privately-owned yarn shop which seems to spontaneously spawn a Friday Night Knitting Club. Every character is unconventional. Is this because it's New York, a novel or because there are no more 'ordinary'* families left in America? One wonders...

The language and situations leave something to be desired. Also, whereas previous generations of women ran into each ot...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

3 comments

05/15/08

Cornmaven added it (review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: adult

Read in May, 2008

I don't know why I keep reading this book. The reviews on the back were good, and claimed a relationship to Steel Magnolias and How To Make An American Quilt.
Well, I think this is a sophomoric attempt to ride on the coattails of those great works. So many exclamation points! So much 6th grade sentence structure! Far too much parenthetical explanation of character - every time the author wants to add a new detail to a character's life/personality, she has to justify it in a parentheses....more

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09/20/07

Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in September, 2007

post-read: so, now i'm finished. this book was basically chick-lit. i felt the story wasn't too shabby, but writing style/tone made me feel like i was reading a high schooler's creative writing assignment. SO prosaic and cliche. in another author's hands, it could have been much better. the ending, as jeni said, was surprising, and i think the author used it to separate it from its chick-lit sistren, but it didn't work. it did make me tear up a LITTLE, and i was entertained, and the charac...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

1 comment

12/13/07

Michele rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

Read in December, 2007

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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02/08/08

Abby rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: dnf

Read in February, 2008

I really, really wanted to like this book. I'm a knitter and loved the idea of a chick-lit/women's fiction novel focused around the relationships and craft that "stitch" together a knitting group. However, I couldn't have cared less about the characters in this book. They were wooden and one-dimensional, either representing a stereotype or a carefully constructed personality set up against a stereotype, almost so the author could say "Look! I'm not being stereotypical!" ...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

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11/22/08

Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

Read in November, 2008

"Now that I learned about this foreshadowing thing, I'm going to use it in all my stories!" That was the title of a story about John Grisham on the satirical news website The Onion, and I kept thinking of it as I read this book. Everything about it just seemed so amatuerish - the symbolism, the knitting metaphor, the foreshadowing, the corny, heavy-handed life lessons from wise older women, etc.
And, as several people on this site pointed out, there were so many events in th...more "Now that I learned about this foreshadowing thing, I'm going to use it in all my stories!" That was the title of a story about John Grisham on the satirical news website The Onion, and I kept thinking of it as I read this book. Everything about it just seemed so amatuerish - the symbolism, the knitting metaphor, the foreshadowing, the corny, heavy-handed life lessons from wise older women, etc.
And, as several people on this site pointed out, there were so many events in the book that were not remotely believable. For example, Georgia just happens to find a sensible, wise, levelheaded widow who is more than happy to help out at her shop for free, and is an expert knitter herself? Or, she goes 13 years without reading the letters from the man who broke her heart, yet she brings them with her to Scotland and reads them there, and then he just shows up out of the blue? Give me a break.
Also, there were so many situations that the author could have made more interesting. Like the situation with Cat leaving her husband - it's great that she left him because he was a complete jerk, but it wasn't very interesting. If he'd had some kind of redeeming qualities, or there had been an interesting secret, or they had had a child together, or something, it would have at least made it interesting.
I also agree that Lucie's decision was irresponsible and the book kind of sugar-coated that. She decided to use some guy to impregnate her, when she wasn't even financially stable herself, and then not tell anyone about the pregnancy. I hate to sound judgmental, but the author did romanticize the whole idea.
I am reading this book now and debating whether or not to finish it - it's pretty obvious how it's going to end. I hate to not finish a book, but this one just keeps getting lamer and lamer the more I read. And it makes me angry that the main character is going to die - not because that couldn't happen, but because I don't feel this book is good enough to get away with a depressing ending. The writing is medicore at best, and the book strains credibility to the max. But it's OK as a mindless escape to read after a day of working at an emotionally draining job. But if I'm going to read a mindless book, I want a mindless happy ending too. Well I'm not sure if I'll finish the book, but I know for sure I won't be wasting my time and money on the sequel, "Knit Two." This one was mediocre, but the sequel has the potential to be truly godawful. And, of course, so does the inevitable movie version of this book.
Update: I did finish it, and it only got worse. A particularly groan-out-loud awful part was when Georgia just happened to run into a priest she knew, and they had a heart-to-heart chat in which he imparted another of the book's valuable life lesson. Except that his advice was basically just the Cliff Notes version on the (far superior) book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People."
(less)

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03/05/08

Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: book-club-reads, fiction

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Lisa by: Michelle

The style in this book started out really rough. I had read reviews about her short sentences, and the reviews were right on. Writing style is always one thing that kills my enthusiasm for a book. But, good news, it did improve as the story developed, and I was a bit intrigued by the characters. However, the author chose to delve into the lives of too many characters, and some of it worked (Anita) and some didn't (Lucy ... so did the father ever find out? What did her parent's say?) As much as I...more

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01/03/08

Ann Marie rated it:

(review of isbn 0399154094)

bookshelves: chic-lit

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2008

recommended to Ann by: Mom
recommends it for: Women, 25-75 years old, Knitters

My mother recommended this book so I picked it up at the airport on my way home from New Years. Since I'm trying to pick the hobby of knitting back up, I thought it was appropriate. At first I wasn't a fan of the book, Jacob's writing initially choppy and unsophisticated, I almost put it down. Since I was stuck on a plane, I didn't, and I'm so glad. I quickly fell in love with the characters, suddenly they became my own little hodge-podge group of friends and I was jealous of their "Fr...more

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