Mira, May 2004, 19.95, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0778320448
Lydia Hoffman has defeated cancer twice. To celebrate life, Lydia opens A Good Yarn, a knitting supplies store in Seattle. She also teaches a class on knitting. The first lesson is “How to Knit a Baby Blanket”.
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Jacqueline Donovan reacts poorly to her son's news that she is to be a grandmother for the first time. She does not like her daughter-in-law Tammie Lee. Maybe her bitterness is because she knows her marriage to Reese, a partner in an architectural firm, is dying. She must make amends with her son Paul so she joins A Good Yarn knitting class.
Desperate to become pregnant, Carol Girard joins the class seeking hope that her and her husband Doug's final attempt with in vitro pregnancy succeeds. This is her last chance to have the child she craves.
The court ordered Alix Townsend to do community service as part of her sentencing. She decides that knitting for the Linus Project should satisfy her case worker. However, she needs to first learn to knit so she joins the class too.
This four diverse women bond in friendship and love as they work on the baby blanket. Though their individual dreams may not be answered, a group dream forges as each learns the meaning of life.
THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET is a fabulous deep character study that rotates the narration between the women so that the audience has four subplots that cleverly knit together into a powerful look at the ups and downs of modern day living. Though not all dreams are fulfilled and some change for instance to cooking, fans will enjoy Debbie Macomber's strong tale of four females struggling to overcome different setbacks.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
