Three Kick-Ass Novels About Quilters

The headline calls them "Not-At-All Cozy" rather than kick-ass, but they're both. Tracy Chevalier reviewed three novels in an article on June 15 for National Public Radio, posted here.

One book is Happenstance (Carol Shields), about what happens when an art quilter leaves her family for five days to go to a quilt conference.  One part is from the husband's point of view -- he's the one left at home with their teenage kids -- and one from the wife's. He undervalues her work, of course. 

Murderess Grace Marks is a
19th-century quilter behind bars. 

Next, in Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood) a visitor who wants a confession from a 19th-century murderess, who quilts in prison. The quilter bobs and weaves with the help of quilt-block names, including The Letter X and Snake Fence, which Chevalier thinks are "obscure."  Wha...?  Those have been on FieldGuidetoQuilts.com for years!

Finally, there's Toni Morrison's Beloved, in which a quilt is a link between daughter and mother, woman and lover. The reviewer quotes: "She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order."

Chevalier is a novelist herself, and this isn't her first book review for National Public Radio.  But it's one of the first we've seen that celebrates quilting as part of the literary arts.