Rating: 
Summary: Unless you're a quilter....
Review: Whitney Otto's How To Make An American Quilt is an interesting, but slow story. This very short book has alternating chapters of people then quilting instructions. There is a parallel between the instructional chapters and those of the quilter that she describes in the following chapter. Over all I did not enjoy this book because I did not care about the characters. An unfaithful husband, a cool wife, a woman who sleeps with their sister's husband, and the like just do not hold my interest as someone I am concerned with. When there were but 50 pages left in the book I found a character I did enjoy. The instructional chapters were tedious. Thankfully it is well written.
Rating:
Summary: Unless you're a quilter....
Review: Whitney Otto's How To Make An American Quilt is an interesting, but slow story. This very short book has alternating chapters of people then quilting instructions. There is a parallel between the instructional chapters and those of the quilter that she describes in the following chapter. Over all I did not enjoy this book because I did not care about the characters. An unfaithful husband, a cool wife, a woman who sleeps with their sister's husband, and the like just do not hold my interest as someone I am concerned with. When there were but 50 pages left in the book I found a character I did enjoy. The instructional chapters were tedious. Thankfully it is well written.
Rating:
Summary: Missing some stitches?
Review: Whitney Otto's idea for this novel had some intriguing possibilities: to tell the stories of several women who sew in the same California quilting circle. The quilt becomes a metaphor for the women's lives, made of different fabrics (experiences, personalities, thoughts, actions...) but surprisingly harmonious when woven together by the quilters (the storyteller).Otto approaches the individual women's stories by devoting a section to each one. She tells each story in the third person (I think first person might have been more effective). Each section is preceded by "instructions" where the author addresses each character by comparing her life to some aspect of quilting. Those instructions adopt a rather condescending tone with such remarks as "ponder the meaning of marriage in the late twentieth century" (paraphrased). None of the characters appears to change or grow much during the course of the novel, though it's difficult to tell since each section is so short. The ultimate conclusion that the young observer Finn draws -- that marriage isn't perfect but that she hopes her own is "wonderful," left me dissatisfied and asking "what else?"
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