Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Book review

While recovering I had the opportunity to read this book from start to finish.



My friends at Random House suggested this book, recommending it as a work of fiction that it had a "knitting theme" throughout.




I love this book!



The book starts with the main character, Dana Clarke in labour with her first child.
The knitting themes start instantly. Her husband, while trying to get the bag for the hospital is tripping over yarn from Dana's "stash" and lamenting all the projects she plans on taking to the hospital for a 1 day stay. * I had to smile right from the get go*

The main theme of the book is that Dana's husband Hugh belongs to a well-established New England family--the type that came over on the Mayflower and whose family name has been known throughout History ever since.
Imagine their surprise when the baby is born with African-American traits.
Dana's Mother died when she was little and she never knew her Father.
There is lots of speculation regarding the origin of these traits which leads to conflict with her husband, his family, friends and acquaintances in the community.
It leads Dana into a journey of discovery--about her Father, her family, her husbands family and her relationships.

The story is beautifully written and I found myself completely taken with the style of the writing. This is one of those books that you can get lost in and where you feel you know the characters. I felt like if I mentioned Dana or Hugh to my family they would have known just what I was talking about.
I haven't had a story grip me like this for a long time.

The knitting theme is woven all through the book. Dana's Grandmother owns a knitting shop--the type we'd all like our LYS to be--fully of fashionable yarns, classic knits, friends and chit-chat.
Dana sees it as her haven when things get upsetting at home. She takes the baby there and feels instantly relaxed.
There are brief references to actual yarns and designers--discussions of the "novelty yarn scarf" trends, pattern writing, shop talk etc.
Dana even finds and old pattern for a Faroese lace shawl and sets about to decipher the pattern for a sample for the shop.
Dana speaks about the therapeutic qualities of knitting, the rhythm of it and how it soothes her.

I would highly recommend this book to knitters. The story is well written, the characters have depth--there are even some side stories that mingle back into the main storyline.
I'm also interested to see what else this author has written.

Go over to Random House and take a peek to see where you can get this book.
I'm sure you'll love it!

1 comments:

dragon knitter said...

i went to the library website to see if they had it, and they did, so i requested it. however i'm 127th in line! must be really good!