Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting edited by Ann Hood

First Line: When I picked up knitting needles for the first time in October 2002, I had no idea that I was jumping on a hot trend that had started to sweep the country after 9/11.

 

In Knitting Yarns, twenty-seven writers share how knitting healed, challenged, or helped them grow. There are twenty-six short stories, one poem, and five original patterns in this book, and I enjoyed almost every single one. They run the gamut from serious to light-hearted, and it's certainly possible to cry while reading one story only to laugh at the next. 

 

My favorites? Sue Grafton's "Teaching a Child to Knit," Elinor Lipman's "I Bought This Pattern Book Last Spring," "The Clothes Make the Dog" by Taylor M. Polites, and "Knitted Goods: Notes from a Nervous Knitter" by Elizabeth Searles. 

 

As a solitary knitter, I felt connected to these writers as I read their various relationships with yarn and needles. I also came away with several quotes that touched me, like this one from Andre Dubus III's "Blood, Root, Knit, Purl": "...I felt joined to all the men and women across cultures down through the ages who'd done something useful with their hands." 

 

In the case of previous generations of women in my family, making things-- whether it be by sewing, crocheting, or knitting-- was often a matter of have to, not want to. But these busy women who cooked, cleaned, washed, ironed, birthed and raised children, and helped their husbands farm the land often found time to make something that's main purpose was purely decorative. They needed something pretty in their lives. Reading the stories in Knitting Yarns reconnected me with my roots and made me feel satisfied with the work of my own hands.

This is a good anthology for those who love to make things, and for those who don't who just might want to know what the fascination is all about.

Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting edited by Ann Hood

ISBN: 9780393349870

W.W. Norton & Company © 2014

Paperback, 304 pages

 

Short Story Anthology

Rating: A-

Source: Paperback Swap

The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood

First Line: If Claire had to look back and decide why she had the affair in the first place, she would point to the missing boy.

The Obituary Writer is the tale of two women in two different eras. 

In 1919, Vivien Lowe has made a new life for herself after losing the man she loved in the devastation of the San Francisco earthquake. Now living in Napa, California, she is well known for writing obituaries that truly capture the deceased person's life and spirit. She has come to terms with her own grief by telling these stories of the dead.

In 1961 on the day John Fitzgerald Kennedy is inaugurated as President of the United States, Claire knows that her life is at a turning point. Should she stay in a loveless marriage, or should she follow the man she loves and whose baby she may be carrying? She's tried everything she knows to be the perfect wife and mother, but nothing seems to penetrate her husband's attitude of self-importance and entitlement. Soon a connection between the two women will change the life of one of them in ways she never would have imagined.

I enjoyed Ann Hood's writing style throughout this book, and although Vivien's story was touching, I found Claire's to be the stronger one in terms of holding my interest. It was as though Hood created an early 1960s time capsule that had me remembering so very many things from my early childhood.

Yes, the book is well written and flows smoothly to the end, but I never really found myself caught up in it. Vivien never really came to life for me; it was as if her grief had wrapped her in cotton batting that kept me from getting too close. Claire irritated me, and I freely admit that it's more my fault than hers. Although her story reminded me of so much from my childhood, unlike Claire, the women in my family never filled me with the "party line" on how to be a perfect wife and mother. Claire and I see the world in very different ways-- so different that it was impossible for me to identify with her. I also surmised the connection between the two women from the first few pages of the book, and that unfortunately stripped away much of the emotional power of the book.

Did I enjoy The Obituary Writer? Yes, I did, even though I did not bond emotionally with Vivien and Claire as I suspect I was intended to do. Ann Hood writes beautifully, and I'm definitely going to look for other books that she's written.

The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood

ISBN: 9780393081428

W.W. Norton and Company © 2013

Hardcover, 304 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: C

Source: Amazon Vine