Knitting Under the Influence
Three L.A. girlfriends keep it together with their Sunday morning knitting circle in LaZebnik's sophomore warm-fuzzy (afterSame as It Never Was). Charming, irresponsible Kathleen Winters is dependent on her identical twin sisters (semi-famous actresses reminiscent of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) for a paycheck and a home. After drunkenly spilling family secrets to a reporter, she sets off in a turquoise Mini Cooper to find an apartment and job of her own. Meanwhile, scientific researcher Lucy Cameron questions her career and love life as her lab and her self-righteous boyfriend become the targets of animal rights activists. Sari Hill faces the deepest conflict of all when the same "good-looking asshole" who tortured her brother in high school shows up with his autistic son at the autism clinic where she works. Each young woman re-examines her beliefs as the knitting projects—a hot pink bikini, a midnight blue baby blanket, a sweater—pass by. The tangled paths to three satisfying resolutions are marked by hot sex, an adorable gray kitten and, above all else, girl talk. LaZebnik juggles periods of personal crisis while maintaining her characters' complex individuality. Social knitters, especially, will relate to the bond that strengthens over the click-clack of the girls' needles.(Sept. 14)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.