About a Book

A few days ago I finished a book called "The Knitting Circle" by Ann Hood. The book was beautifully written. The characters, all knitters, were compelling. The book pulsed with emotional intensity.

And I hated it.

I didn't start off hating it. At first, as the main character Mary discovers knitting as a way to cope with grief following the death of her 5-year-old daughter, I was moved to tears repeatedly. My heart broke for Mary. I wanted to keep reading because I knew her journey would carry her out of that deep pain and into a more positive place. I wanted her to get there.

She finds a knitting group at an area shop and learns to knit. At first, she does it just to get her mother off her back, as a way of proving that she's doing something besides crying all day. But then, the knitter's addiction kicks in, and she can't stop making scarves.

As she knits and learns new techniques, she finds opportunities to hear the stories of the other knitters -- their lives, how they became interested in knitting, that sort of thing. Each chapter focuses on another knitter in the group.

So here's how the book goes.
First knitter: deeply damaged individual who knits for the sake of her sanity.
Second knitter: deeply damaged individual who knits for the sake of her sanity.
Third knitter: deeply damaged individual who knits for the sake of her sanity.
Fourth knitter: deeply damaged individual who knits for the sake of her sanity.
Fifth knitter: deeply damaged individual who knits for the sake of her sanity.
Sixth knitter: deeply damaged individual who knits for the sake of her sanity.

Do I need to go on? Do you see the pattern? By the time I was at the midpoint of the book, I was waiting for one knitter to turn out to be well-adjusted, happy, coping with her life -- you know, something other than walking wounded.

Never happened.

Every last one of those characters was scarred and disturbed.

I get that the book was about grief. I get that. But did the author have to portray ALL knitters this way? Couldn't she have had ONE knitter who knit because she liked it, and not because she was hanging on to her sanity by the slimmest thread?

Also, there were errors in the knitting portions of the book. But that's a rant for another day.

I'm curious, though. If any of you read this book, were you troubled by the way knitters were portrayed? Granted, at least the author managed to avoid the old "knitting granny in a rocker" stereotype. I guess she gets points for that. But is this a new stereotype in the making -- the deeply damaged knitter?