This is not a book report, or even a review. I don't feel qualified to write either. You see, I don't really read novels for pleasure very often. I used to--quite a lot, in fact. When I was growing up, I always had a book in hand. When you live in a small town, and everyone knows you, your only avenue to reinvent yourself is often through literature. Mine was. Don't get me wrong, as an adult, I read plenty. Knitting books, magazines on landscaping and cooking, blogs, and there is always, always a cookbook by my bedside, along with some "how to" instruction book.
However, I find myself frequently disappointed by novels. First off, I don't have the patience to walk through the shelves of a bookstore to find something that would appeal to me, and while the bestsellers are often enjoyable, I don't find myself greatly effected or changed by them the way I was by the stories of my youth. Maybe I have an unfair expectation, I don't know. Either way, when my mother gave me The Friday Night Knitting Club for my birthday back in April, I didn't have very high expectations. In fact, I didn't get past the first chapter until July when work sent Salmaan and I to a conference in VA Beach. My knitting was NOT a fan of the sand and sunscreen, so I pulled out my plan B: the birthday book.
I read it non-stop. After the first chapter, I didn't knowthe characters, but I wanted to know them. The book is emotional, but not overly so. When Salmaan and I would take a dip in the ocean to get cooled off, he would teasingly ask, "So, what's happening to Georgia?" And I was actually excited to go into telling him all about how each character was evolving. This was my view while reading the majority of this book:
After we drove home in the beach traffic, I was nearly through. I finished the book while lying on the couch that evening. Salmaan was watching a movie, and turned to me to ask a question when he asked, dismayed, "What's wrong?!?!" I replied, quite embarrassed, "Will you please get me a tissue???" He brought me the whole box. A book rarely makes me cry, just like a TV show or movie rarely makes me laugh out loud. It's a uniquely wonderful thing.
I won't outline the story--go to Amazon if you want to learn about the plot. Suffice it to say, it's good, and I'd recommend you buy it. The only thing I will comment on are the physical descriptions of characters in the book. At first, I wasn't sure if Anita was Black, or Jewish, or both (she's definitely Jewish, but I'm not sure about the rest). Later we find out that Dakota is an interracial baby. I never got a clear picture of what Georgia looks like in my head. And I think that's really interesting, because there are a lot of racial issues/tensions in the story. I think by keeping some of the physical/racial characteristics vague, we as readers get the feeling that while black/white/religion matter, they don't matter so much as to eclipse all else. I really appreciated that as an individual in an interracial marriage. It does matter. But, not that much. It's worth a few chapters, but it isn't the whole book. I think that's real life.
Oh, and just as a TOTAL aside, did anyone see that special on Bryan Clay during the Olympics? He's an amazing United States Decathlete, and during the Olympic coverage, NBC did this in-depth interview, focusing on how he balances being an international athlete and Dad (he has two BEAUTIFUL kids, a boy and a girl). I think he's Hawaiian, and his wife is white. And during the whole piece, Dave Matthew's "Recently" was playing in the background. RECENTLY. It's a song about an interracial couple--"people stare, and we just ignore them and they go away..." I was pissedabout that. I mean, WTF? This is an amazing story about an incredible athlete, father, and husband, and NBC subliminally focuses on the fact that this couple is different. And given that nothing was said at all about any sort of racial struggles that they had encountered as a couple or family, I found it grossly inappropriate. I mean, there are a lot of friggin' songs out there--a lot of DMB songs too, with the same kind of riffs and sax, and they chose THAT one. Hmmmm. Grrrrr. *grouchy face*. I just don't think that was some sort of "oversight" and it pissed me off.
Okay, sorry, back to the book. It's good. Get it. Read it. AND, here's what I may have liked about it the most: You know how when you've finish a really good book, and it's this emotional roller coaster, and then it's OVER, and you're left there feeling....well, kind of alone, almost. The author doesn't leave you alone in this book. There's a scarf pattern in the back (a very rudimentary one, but it all ties in), and, the BEST: a muffin recipe. A GOOD muffin recipe. I made them today:
I used mountain blueberries that Mom handpicked for me earlier this summer. These are AMAZING muffins, and are actually pretty healthy--whole wheat flour, honey, oranges and blueberries. Good stuff. I'm not including the recipe--buying the book is worth it for that alone.
