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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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April 2006 |
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Review - KnittingBook reviewed by Hilary Toppin 'Friendship, grief and unexpected grace - a novel to gladden the heart'One of the best Christmas presents that I receive each year from a friend is a list of the books which she has read and enjoyed in the previous year. I have just finished reading Knitting, one of the books on the list this Christmas and I am about to re-read it, knowing that I will discover some more of the 'unexpected grace' that I missed in the first read. Perhaps the title, or even the cover - with its blue coffee mug, pink table cloth and ball of red wool with yellow needles- may deter a reader who is not a knitter or tempt one to imagine this novel to be perhaps too homely. Do not be deterred, as the novel is not primarily about knitting as such, although the production of a knitting exhibition is a central part of the plot, but rather about developing relationships, generosity and the gradual healing of grief in unexpected ways. Cleverly, Bartlett makes use of knitting not only as part of the plot but in a more subtle way in its association with patterns, colour, warmth and texture to craft her story. There are recurring images, such as that of roses - in gardens, as a tattoo, as a gift, a floral arrangement and in a knitting pattern. There are scenes with glorious colours - the wool shop, the knitter's workroom, at the beach, a church. Sandra is described as 'covered in ice-cold glass and [felt she] would never be warm again' after the funeral of her husband. But she was warmed and the glass melted. On one level Knitting seems to be an everyday story about two very different women, Sandra, an academic and well-off and Martha, a knitter and a battler, who happen to meet as they stop to help a homeless man who has collapsed in the street. This man, Cliff, becomes another character in the story as does Kate, an old school friend of Sandra. However, each of these characters interact with each other in ways that reveal secret griefs and losses, hidden pains and wounds, undisguised irritations and anger, but finally love and transformation. This may sound a little heavy going, but there are plenty of incidents and interchanges between the characters to make the reader chuckle. And there are just enough questions to be answered to keep the reader intrigued. Knitting is not ostensibly a Christian novel. Yet gently woven into the story in a most natural and ordinary way are Christian themes, imagery and settings. I am going to suggest it as a novel to be read at my book club.
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