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How to Make an American Quilt
"Remarkable...An affirmation of the strength and power of individual lives, and the way they cannot help fitting together."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
An extraordinay and moving reading experience, HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT is an exploration of women of yesterday and today, who join together in a uniquely female experience. As they gather year after year, their stories, their wisdom, their lives, form the pattern from which all of us draw warmth and comfort for ourselves.
A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE COMING OUT FALL 1995
-- with Maya Angelou, Winona Ryder, and Rip Torn
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
An extraordinay and moving reading experience, HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT is an exploration of women of yesterday and today, who join together in a uniquely female experience. As they gather year after year, their stories, their wisdom, their lives, form the pattern from which all of us draw warmth and comfort for ourselves.
A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE COMING OUT FALL 1995
-- with Maya Angelou, Winona Ryder, and Rip Torn
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
About the author
Whitney Otto
22 books91 followersWhitney Otto is the bestselling author of How to Make an American Quilt (which was made into a feature film), Now You See Her, and The Passion Dream Book. A native of California, she lives with her husband and son in Portland, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 379 reviews
August 25, 2023
4 Stars
I saw the movie version of this when it originally came out in 1995. I was 12 years old and it was a pivotal time in my life. I remember being struck by the stories of the women in the movie and the choice Finn (Winona Ryder's character) had to make. I always wanted to read the book.
Decades later...
This was sloooooooow AF.
But I really enjoyed it. The stories of the women (while very different than in the movie in many ways) struck me just as poignantly. And I really liked the writing and the way Otto oscillated between chapters of each woman's story and chapters about quilt-making and history.
I also liked the subtleties with which a lot of important and sensitive topics were discussed and left open-ended...to provoke the reader's thoughts and allow them to draw their own opinions and conclusions as opposed to beating them over the head with a prescribed narrative. A lost art it feels like sometimes.
I saw the movie version of this when it originally came out in 1995. I was 12 years old and it was a pivotal time in my life. I remember being struck by the stories of the women in the movie and the choice Finn (Winona Ryder's character) had to make. I always wanted to read the book.
Decades later...
This was sloooooooow AF.
But I really enjoyed it. The stories of the women (while very different than in the movie in many ways) struck me just as poignantly. And I really liked the writing and the way Otto oscillated between chapters of each woman's story and chapters about quilt-making and history.
I also liked the subtleties with which a lot of important and sensitive topics were discussed and left open-ended...to provoke the reader's thoughts and allow them to draw their own opinions and conclusions as opposed to beating them over the head with a prescribed narrative. A lost art it feels like sometimes.
October 6, 2012
After reading this book over a dozen years ago, I wrote to Whitney Otto in care of her publisher to thank her for writing this book. The characters resonated very strongly in the heart of my own experience.
Whitney sent a typed reply. . . yes, typed on an old typewriter. She said that is how she wrote her novels. She was especially gracious and down to earth. So next time you love a book, write the author in care of their publisher and let them know.
Whitney sent a typed reply. . . yes, typed on an old typewriter. She said that is how she wrote her novels. She was especially gracious and down to earth. So next time you love a book, write the author in care of their publisher and let them know.
August 9, 2011
After reading the prologue, I thought this was going to be a quick, easy and enjoyable read. I thought wrong.
The prologue is written in first person narrative, by Finn, and quite honestly, I can't even remember now anything she said to us, the reader. The first chapter is titled "Instructions No. 1", and is written directly to the reader, detailing what you need to begin a quilt. Then the next chapter begins the story of two sisters. After that, the chapters alternate, between a set of instructions for a particular type of quilt, veering off into other subjects at times, and the story of another character's life. The characters lives intertwine at times, though sometimes I didn't even realize, for instance, that this person I was reading about was the best friend of the person I read about earlier until halfway through her chapter. None of the characters were memorable enough for me to keep up with them, and at one point I almost just put the book down. Almost. I did finish it though, and the last story was actually the best one.
But I still feel a little bewildered by the whole book, and am fuzzy on the details. I guess the writing just wasn't for me.
The prologue is written in first person narrative, by Finn, and quite honestly, I can't even remember now anything she said to us, the reader. The first chapter is titled "Instructions No. 1", and is written directly to the reader, detailing what you need to begin a quilt. Then the next chapter begins the story of two sisters. After that, the chapters alternate, between a set of instructions for a particular type of quilt, veering off into other subjects at times, and the story of another character's life. The characters lives intertwine at times, though sometimes I didn't even realize, for instance, that this person I was reading about was the best friend of the person I read about earlier until halfway through her chapter. None of the characters were memorable enough for me to keep up with them, and at one point I almost just put the book down. Almost. I did finish it though, and the last story was actually the best one.
But I still feel a little bewildered by the whole book, and am fuzzy on the details. I guess the writing just wasn't for me.
February 5, 2010
This book is centered around a group of women that quilt together. It is supposed to represent a sampling of American Women. The truth is, I didn't think it was a really good representation. It seemed all of them had pretty serious issues involving infidelity of either the woman or her spouce. The precentage that was effected seemed unrealitic to me. Maybe it was really supposed to be a sampling of women's experiances with love affairs...
I had very little respect for most of the women in the book, in part because they were all intentionally presented in a way to accentuate their darkest moments in life.
The author spent every other chapter making social commentaries usually by sharing moments in the history of the US... Did it add or take away from the book? I'm not really sure how I feel about it. What I found interesting was, after all this book does to discuss the women's darkest moments, the final commentary in the book seemed to say... "but it is worth marrying anyway since more will probably be happy then sad. " Wierd to me that most of the book did not seem to reflect this intended message.
I had very little respect for most of the women in the book, in part because they were all intentionally presented in a way to accentuate their darkest moments in life.
The author spent every other chapter making social commentaries usually by sharing moments in the history of the US... Did it add or take away from the book? I'm not really sure how I feel about it. What I found interesting was, after all this book does to discuss the women's darkest moments, the final commentary in the book seemed to say... "but it is worth marrying anyway since more will probably be happy then sad. " Wierd to me that most of the book did not seem to reflect this intended message.
September 25, 2010
"How to Make an American Quilt" is a patchwork of lives that make up a quilting group. The ladies all live in Grasse, California, a small town outside of Bakersfield. Otto wrote this short novel by interspersing chapters dedicated to quilting, in-between chapters dedicated to each of the quilters in the group. What I didn't figure out right away was that each chapter that described the quilting related to the character description of the next quilter. Each person was different and therefore each quilt that could be created by each woman, had different aspects to it.
I have to confess I found the chapters on quilting a bit dull, and it is probably because I am not a quilter. I love to look at quilts; I love to feel them. But reading these chapters on the process of quilting was trying my patience. However, I understood what the author was attempting to do, to compare a quilt to a group of women whose lives were patched together and somehow made them one.
The chapters that talked about the history of each character were very interesting, and I saw how they all were somehow connected to the others. Reading the book was a walk through history, as the women were of varying ages and spanned generations. We got to see Hy and Glady Joe as they are now, in their old age, but also what they were like in their younger years. We saw Anna and her daughter Marianna grow and mature as black women living in a white society.
"Why are old lovers able to become friends? Two reasons: They never truly loved each other or they love each other still."
"That is the true challenge--to work within a narrow confine. To accept what you cannot have; that from which you cannot deviate."
"The truly terrible thing about this life, was not knowing what you want, but only able to recognize what you do not want. You have to spend so much time and energy trying to find it out, time that other people spent in pursuing of their desires."
I read the book only because I loved the movie. I expected the book to contain more storyline and depth, but I was terribly disappointed in finding that the movie in fact was by far, more informative. I felt slightly disadvantaged reading this novel, after having seen and loved the movie dozens of times. When I realized the movie was based on a novel by Whitney Otto, I couldn't wait to delve into it. Because I love the movie so much, I found it very hard to be objective while reading the book. To it's credit, the movie follows the book very closely.
The book itself was very original: comparing a quilt to love and life. It's blend of fiction and non-fiction was done successfully by Otto. However, one thing that lacked in Otto's book was a main character. It seemed that there were numerous supporting characters, and an attempt to create the main character Finn, and yet Finn had the least lines out of all of them. The ultimate conclusion that Finn draws -- that marriage isn't perfect but that she hopes her own is "wonderful," left me dissatisfied and asking "what else?"
More of Purplycookie’s Reviews @: http://www.goodreads.com/purplycookie
Book Details:
Title How to Make an American Quilt
Author Whitney Otto
Reviewed By Purplycookie
I have to confess I found the chapters on quilting a bit dull, and it is probably because I am not a quilter. I love to look at quilts; I love to feel them. But reading these chapters on the process of quilting was trying my patience. However, I understood what the author was attempting to do, to compare a quilt to a group of women whose lives were patched together and somehow made them one.
The chapters that talked about the history of each character were very interesting, and I saw how they all were somehow connected to the others. Reading the book was a walk through history, as the women were of varying ages and spanned generations. We got to see Hy and Glady Joe as they are now, in their old age, but also what they were like in their younger years. We saw Anna and her daughter Marianna grow and mature as black women living in a white society.
"Why are old lovers able to become friends? Two reasons: They never truly loved each other or they love each other still."
"That is the true challenge--to work within a narrow confine. To accept what you cannot have; that from which you cannot deviate."
"The truly terrible thing about this life, was not knowing what you want, but only able to recognize what you do not want. You have to spend so much time and energy trying to find it out, time that other people spent in pursuing of their desires."
I read the book only because I loved the movie. I expected the book to contain more storyline and depth, but I was terribly disappointed in finding that the movie in fact was by far, more informative. I felt slightly disadvantaged reading this novel, after having seen and loved the movie dozens of times. When I realized the movie was based on a novel by Whitney Otto, I couldn't wait to delve into it. Because I love the movie so much, I found it very hard to be objective while reading the book. To it's credit, the movie follows the book very closely.
The book itself was very original: comparing a quilt to love and life. It's blend of fiction and non-fiction was done successfully by Otto. However, one thing that lacked in Otto's book was a main character. It seemed that there were numerous supporting characters, and an attempt to create the main character Finn, and yet Finn had the least lines out of all of them. The ultimate conclusion that Finn draws -- that marriage isn't perfect but that she hopes her own is "wonderful," left me dissatisfied and asking "what else?"
More of Purplycookie’s Reviews @: http://www.goodreads.com/purplycookie
Book Details:
Title How to Make an American Quilt
Author Whitney Otto
Reviewed By Purplycookie
July 2, 2010
What a beautiful novel. I couldn't believe how much she packed into such a slim volume. The decades, the history, the intimate details of a group of quilter's dreams and hopes.
While I used to be an avid crocheter, knitter, embroiderer (before my wrists got all messed up from the weather in Prague) I was never able to master quilting. I'm not good with numbers and measuring, and so quilting was a challenge I could never get over. But reading this book made me wish I could quilt. The history of the artform and how inextricably woven it is with American history, just amazing, and sad, and ancient. I wanted to participate too.
So many of the stories in this novel resonated with me, and I found myself moved to tears more often than not. Since I read most of this on the tram to and from work, it got a bit awkward at times as I couldn't really allow myself to express all the emotions that came up.
I read this book for the first time when I was in highschool, and I have to say that looking back I really had no concept of what the story really meant back then. Now that I'm in my 30s, married, the women in this book resonated with me far more, and especially Constance and her Chickie's Garden seeing that she is one of the few women in the book to marry and not have children, and be a nomad of sorts. Her story struck closest to home for me, as well as Marianna's, although they both made me very, very sad. In a way the novel is a window onto what we all as women will have to experience at some point, the losses, the weight of our own histories, living with the decisions we've made.
I was also struck by the presence of the second person tense, which is a trope I use in my AMERICAN MONSTERS, and is something you just don't see often at all in novels. It can be unsettling, I suppose, when the author pulls you into the story by constantly addressing you, you, you. I got a little taste of my own medicine, and yes, it's effective. And a little bit creepy. The points are driven home with much more certainty when you imagine that it's you in the story.
This is a gorgeous book. I highly, highly recommend it.
While I used to be an avid crocheter, knitter, embroiderer (before my wrists got all messed up from the weather in Prague) I was never able to master quilting. I'm not good with numbers and measuring, and so quilting was a challenge I could never get over. But reading this book made me wish I could quilt. The history of the artform and how inextricably woven it is with American history, just amazing, and sad, and ancient. I wanted to participate too.
So many of the stories in this novel resonated with me, and I found myself moved to tears more often than not. Since I read most of this on the tram to and from work, it got a bit awkward at times as I couldn't really allow myself to express all the emotions that came up.
I read this book for the first time when I was in highschool, and I have to say that looking back I really had no concept of what the story really meant back then. Now that I'm in my 30s, married, the women in this book resonated with me far more, and especially Constance and her Chickie's Garden seeing that she is one of the few women in the book to marry and not have children, and be a nomad of sorts. Her story struck closest to home for me, as well as Marianna's, although they both made me very, very sad. In a way the novel is a window onto what we all as women will have to experience at some point, the losses, the weight of our own histories, living with the decisions we've made.
I was also struck by the presence of the second person tense, which is a trope I use in my AMERICAN MONSTERS, and is something you just don't see often at all in novels. It can be unsettling, I suppose, when the author pulls you into the story by constantly addressing you, you, you. I got a little taste of my own medicine, and yes, it's effective. And a little bit creepy. The points are driven home with much more certainty when you imagine that it's you in the story.
This is a gorgeous book. I highly, highly recommend it.
July 29, 2010
Read~July 10, 2010
3 Stars
I don't really know how I feel about this book. I know I really enjoyed the movie and maybe that is why I didn't care a lot for this book. In the movie, there were resolutions (endings if you will) to everyone's stories. I felt things were resolved somewhat. The book did not do that (I kept waiting for it, and it never happened) and for it, it fell flat because if it.
I enjoyed several of the stories..Sophia in particular and also Anna's story. But there was just something about this book that fell flat for me. The stories didn't really ring "true" to me. I wish I could explain it better. Sigh.....
I AM glad that I read this though. I didn't even KNOW it existed before this. But I think in this case (and this is REALLY rare for me), I will stick to the movie over the book.
August 21, 2016
This novel is beautifully constructed, with chapters about quilting interspersed with the stories of the quilters, a group of eight women in Grasse, California, “of varying ages, weight, coloring, and cultural orientation,” as observed by the granddaughter of one of them. Nice read.
May 21, 2020
I really want to sew a quilt now. The story was written like varied snapshots of these womens lives and i was left wanting more
July 4, 2010
Some have compared/may class this with Bridges of Madison County to some degree and while the "mush" factor is present there is SO much more to it -- and I loved the quilt theme -- like life, bits and pieces joined and changed and growing into a unique whole. I also loved the relationships of the women -- sisters, grandparent, parent and child, friends, rivals, the whole gamut.
July 2010 - this has not lost it's oomph since I read it last. I think it is a keeper in the sense that it offers new "ah-ha's" on each return visit. I'm adding some rather lengthy quotes here this time through. I MUST also amend the "mush" factor comment earlier as I found it far less obviously present than my original statement might imply. I also discovered a much wider, deeper range of topicality than I recalled form my previous reading of this book. The range of ages of the characters allows for a broad swath of history to figure in the scenarios of their lives as presented in conjunction with the quilting themes. Very well done. This definitely retains its high marks in my opinion.
First: pg.5
Then Sam asked me to marry him.
It seemed to me a good idea.
Yet it somehow led me back to my educational concern, which was how to mesh halves into a whole, only in this case it was how to make a successful link of unmarried to married, man to woman, the merging of the roads before us. When Heathcliff ran away from Wuthering Heights, he left Cathy wild and howling on the moors, I am Heathcliff, as if their love were so powerful, their souls so seamlessly mated, that no division existed for them, save the corporeal (though I tend to believe they got "together" at least once), which is of little cocnsequence in the presence of the spirit.
All of which leaves me wondering, astonished, and a little put off. How does one accomplish such a fusion of selves? And, if the affection is that strong, how does one avoid it, leaving a little room for the person you once were? the balance of marriage, the delicate, gentle shifting of the polished scales.
Let me say that I like Sam tremendously. I love him truly.
Second: pg.11
There is the Civil War, which is a conflict of the blood tie. No one fights dirtier or more brutally than blood; only family knows its own weakness, the exact placement of the heart. The tragedy is that one can still love with the force of hatred. Feel infuriated that once you are born to another, that kinship lasts thorugh life and death, immutable, unchanging, no matter how great the misdeed or betrayal. Blood cannot be denied, and perhaps that is why we fight tooth and claw, because we cannot, being only human, put asunder what God has joined together.
Third: pg.12
You want to keep these things in mind: history and family. How they are often inseparable. In the twentieth century you may feel that all those things that went on before have little to do with you, that you are made immune to the past by the present day: All those dead people and conflicts and ideas - why, they are only stories we tell one another. History and politics and conflict and rebellion and family and betrayal.
Think about it.
Fourth: pg.13
Anna said, "This house is a strange house, haunted, I think it could be said. But it is an odd haunting, not as if something extra were here as much as something missing; not a void, only the powerful absence of a thing lost."
Fifth: p.38
Contemplate crumpling the paper pattern of the pictorial quilt. A pattern by its very nature, should repeat. It is your nature as well. To do as your mother did. As much as you hate it, as much as it grieves you.
Sixth: p.39
Follow your parents' footsteps. This is what quilting is about: something handed down - skill, the work itself. Hold it in your hand. dondle it. Know in your heart that you long to rebel; look for ways in which you are different from your mother; know that you see her in yourself at your worst times. Laugh as you contemplate the concept of free will, individuality.
Seventh: p.40
Once you love, you cannot take it back, cannot undo it; what you felet may have changed, shifted sl ightly, yet still remains love. You still feel -- though very small -- the not-altogether unpleasant shock of soul recognition for that person. To your dismay. To your embarrassment. This, you keep to yourself.
Eighth: p.50
One more thing about partings; no two are alike.
Ninth: p.89
...you've reached the point in your life (oh, too long ago to remember) where you are too angry for "polite" conversation; you don't want to nurture or have your hand held in sympathy; why you even surprised yourself with wanting to rip the world from its axis. you want it to stop rotating one more frustrating day. And you suppose all this makes you not quite a woman and certainly not a man, but a complete outsider. And there you are.
Tenth: p.107
Waiting. The worst dream of the night, when you are parted from someone you love and do not know exactly where he is but you know he is in the presence of danger. you are suspended in a state of ignorance and worry and fear. It can tear you aprt like the razor teeth of a sudden beast. You are tormented by a desire to keep the one you love safe. But he may be in a far-off land, fighting a good war like Wolrd War II or an undeclared war like the Vietnam War. It makes no difference to you; these conflicts call forth men you have given birth to, men you have married, men who have fathered you. The men fight. The women wait. It takes the patience of Job.
Eleventh: p.109,110
The newest quilt is the Names Quilt, representing those Americans who have died youthful deaths from an incurable disease. This quilt is eclectic in its beauty (consider that America is the great melting pot and no two deceased are alike), staggering in its implication of waste. It covers nine acres and bears nine thousand names. Say it slowly: nin thousand. .... the quilt weighs tons. Cloth, thread, appliques individually weigh next to nothing but combined, bearing nine thousand patches, it is a heavy burden. It has the capacity to crush, It originally began as a 3X6-foot patch. Wonder at and decry its weight gain and growth; insist that it should have been stopped at, say thirty pounds. Express outrage that it ever grew to one hundred pounds. Be grief-stricken that it represents only 20 percent of htose deceased, does not even begin to measure those aflicted. It is a waiting disease. But all this may be too sad to contemplate if you are a beginner.
Twelfth: p.127
A Guyanese story says of black slaves that the only way they can be delivered from "massa's clutch" is to see the extra brightness of the moon in their lives. The darkness will always be ethere, but they can use the light of the moon as hope. The light of the moon. the dancing buffalo gal with the hole in her stocking.
One can survive without liberation but one cannot live without freedom. You know it is essential to find one's freedom.
Thirteenth: p.163
Fusion, union, grafting, joining, sex, friendship, love; the difficult combination of disparate elements.
Fourteenth: p.176
The quilters accepted Anna and Marianna, and no one ever made the mistake of saying, "We don't even notice color; they are just liek us." It was this recognition of thier differences that allowed the group to survive, not pretending to transcend them. The impulse to unify and separate, rend and join, is powerful and constant.
Applicable to quilting and life?
July 2010 - this has not lost it's oomph since I read it last. I think it is a keeper in the sense that it offers new "ah-ha's" on each return visit. I'm adding some rather lengthy quotes here this time through. I MUST also amend the "mush" factor comment earlier as I found it far less obviously present than my original statement might imply. I also discovered a much wider, deeper range of topicality than I recalled form my previous reading of this book. The range of ages of the characters allows for a broad swath of history to figure in the scenarios of their lives as presented in conjunction with the quilting themes. Very well done. This definitely retains its high marks in my opinion.
First: pg.5
Then Sam asked me to marry him.
It seemed to me a good idea.
Yet it somehow led me back to my educational concern, which was how to mesh halves into a whole, only in this case it was how to make a successful link of unmarried to married, man to woman, the merging of the roads before us. When Heathcliff ran away from Wuthering Heights, he left Cathy wild and howling on the moors, I am Heathcliff, as if their love were so powerful, their souls so seamlessly mated, that no division existed for them, save the corporeal (though I tend to believe they got "together" at least once), which is of little cocnsequence in the presence of the spirit.
All of which leaves me wondering, astonished, and a little put off. How does one accomplish such a fusion of selves? And, if the affection is that strong, how does one avoid it, leaving a little room for the person you once were? the balance of marriage, the delicate, gentle shifting of the polished scales.
Let me say that I like Sam tremendously. I love him truly.
Second: pg.11
There is the Civil War, which is a conflict of the blood tie. No one fights dirtier or more brutally than blood; only family knows its own weakness, the exact placement of the heart. The tragedy is that one can still love with the force of hatred. Feel infuriated that once you are born to another, that kinship lasts thorugh life and death, immutable, unchanging, no matter how great the misdeed or betrayal. Blood cannot be denied, and perhaps that is why we fight tooth and claw, because we cannot, being only human, put asunder what God has joined together.
Third: pg.12
You want to keep these things in mind: history and family. How they are often inseparable. In the twentieth century you may feel that all those things that went on before have little to do with you, that you are made immune to the past by the present day: All those dead people and conflicts and ideas - why, they are only stories we tell one another. History and politics and conflict and rebellion and family and betrayal.
Think about it.
Fourth: pg.13
Anna said, "This house is a strange house, haunted, I think it could be said. But it is an odd haunting, not as if something extra were here as much as something missing; not a void, only the powerful absence of a thing lost."
Fifth: p.38
Contemplate crumpling the paper pattern of the pictorial quilt. A pattern by its very nature, should repeat. It is your nature as well. To do as your mother did. As much as you hate it, as much as it grieves you.
Sixth: p.39
Follow your parents' footsteps. This is what quilting is about: something handed down - skill, the work itself. Hold it in your hand. dondle it. Know in your heart that you long to rebel; look for ways in which you are different from your mother; know that you see her in yourself at your worst times. Laugh as you contemplate the concept of free will, individuality.
Seventh: p.40
Once you love, you cannot take it back, cannot undo it; what you felet may have changed, shifted sl ightly, yet still remains love. You still feel -- though very small -- the not-altogether unpleasant shock of soul recognition for that person. To your dismay. To your embarrassment. This, you keep to yourself.
Eighth: p.50
One more thing about partings; no two are alike.
Ninth: p.89
...you've reached the point in your life (oh, too long ago to remember) where you are too angry for "polite" conversation; you don't want to nurture or have your hand held in sympathy; why you even surprised yourself with wanting to rip the world from its axis. you want it to stop rotating one more frustrating day. And you suppose all this makes you not quite a woman and certainly not a man, but a complete outsider. And there you are.
Tenth: p.107
Waiting. The worst dream of the night, when you are parted from someone you love and do not know exactly where he is but you know he is in the presence of danger. you are suspended in a state of ignorance and worry and fear. It can tear you aprt like the razor teeth of a sudden beast. You are tormented by a desire to keep the one you love safe. But he may be in a far-off land, fighting a good war like Wolrd War II or an undeclared war like the Vietnam War. It makes no difference to you; these conflicts call forth men you have given birth to, men you have married, men who have fathered you. The men fight. The women wait. It takes the patience of Job.
Eleventh: p.109,110
The newest quilt is the Names Quilt, representing those Americans who have died youthful deaths from an incurable disease. This quilt is eclectic in its beauty (consider that America is the great melting pot and no two deceased are alike), staggering in its implication of waste. It covers nine acres and bears nine thousand names. Say it slowly: nin thousand. .... the quilt weighs tons. Cloth, thread, appliques individually weigh next to nothing but combined, bearing nine thousand patches, it is a heavy burden. It has the capacity to crush, It originally began as a 3X6-foot patch. Wonder at and decry its weight gain and growth; insist that it should have been stopped at, say thirty pounds. Express outrage that it ever grew to one hundred pounds. Be grief-stricken that it represents only 20 percent of htose deceased, does not even begin to measure those aflicted. It is a waiting disease. But all this may be too sad to contemplate if you are a beginner.
Twelfth: p.127
A Guyanese story says of black slaves that the only way they can be delivered from "massa's clutch" is to see the extra brightness of the moon in their lives. The darkness will always be ethere, but they can use the light of the moon as hope. The light of the moon. the dancing buffalo gal with the hole in her stocking.
One can survive without liberation but one cannot live without freedom. You know it is essential to find one's freedom.
Thirteenth: p.163
Fusion, union, grafting, joining, sex, friendship, love; the difficult combination of disparate elements.
Fourteenth: p.176
The quilters accepted Anna and Marianna, and no one ever made the mistake of saying, "We don't even notice color; they are just liek us." It was this recognition of thier differences that allowed the group to survive, not pretending to transcend them. The impulse to unify and separate, rend and join, is powerful and constant.
Applicable to quilting and life?
April 3, 2024
Interesting but slow and sometimes boring. I liked the movie much better!
November 26, 2018
Whitney Otto’s debut novel How to Make an American Quilt is a patchwork of stories about a group of women who share a weekly quilting circle. Each chapter delves into the life of a particular woman within this circle, tracing her arc from young womanhood to maturity. With lyrical prose and fine detail she creates a study in miniature of the lives they lead. There are the ‘flower girls’ Glady Joe and Hy, so alike and yet so different. Will sisterly love endure loss, heartache and infidelity? There is Sophia Darling who as a young woman finds freedom in diving and swimming. She’s swept off her feet by a young engineer and soon finds herself married and with child. Will her dreams endure motherhood and marriage or will she harden herself to her new reality and push her hopes and dreams aside forever? There is Constance Saunders who, despite her parents incredulity, finds peace and contentment in solitude at the age of thirty-three. When she finds someone that seems able to respect her independent spirit she decides to try marriage after all. Will her tranquility endure the vicissitudes of marriage and how will it change her? These and four other stories are framed by ‘Instructions’, chapters which are ostensibly lessons on the techniques and history of quilting but which serve as metaphors, commenting on and enriching the subsequent chapters.
Ms. Otto’s prose is evocative and poetic. Although billed as a novel it very much has the feel of a series of loosely tied-together short stories with interweaving characters and perspectives. Those who require straightforward narratives and tidy plot resolutions may find themselves disappointed. It is a series of character studies and a meditation on love, death, marriage and friendship. Otto employs finely crafted language that deserves to be savored as opposed to devoured.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this novel. I knew that it had been turned into a movie and I guess I brought in certain assumptions about what it would be like. I suppose I was expecting a fluffy piece of ‘chick lit’ (to use that rather misogynistic phrase) but found it to be a skillful piece of literary fiction that happens to be centered on the lives of women. Admittedly, this is not the type of fiction I usually read but I have to say I’m glad I did read it.
Ms. Otto’s prose is evocative and poetic. Although billed as a novel it very much has the feel of a series of loosely tied-together short stories with interweaving characters and perspectives. Those who require straightforward narratives and tidy plot resolutions may find themselves disappointed. It is a series of character studies and a meditation on love, death, marriage and friendship. Otto employs finely crafted language that deserves to be savored as opposed to devoured.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this novel. I knew that it had been turned into a movie and I guess I brought in certain assumptions about what it would be like. I suppose I was expecting a fluffy piece of ‘chick lit’ (to use that rather misogynistic phrase) but found it to be a skillful piece of literary fiction that happens to be centered on the lives of women. Admittedly, this is not the type of fiction I usually read but I have to say I’m glad I did read it.
March 28, 2007
Favorite Quotes
No one fights dirtier or more brutally than blood; only family knows it’s own weaknesses, the exact placement of the heart. The tragedy is that one can still live with the force of hatred, feel infuriated that once you are born to another, that kinship lasts through life and death, immutable, unchanging, no matter how great the misdeed or betrayal. Blood cannot be denied, and perhaps that’s why we fight tooth and claw, because we cannot—being only human—put asunder what God has joined together.
Why are old lovers able to become friends? Two reasons. They never truly loved each other, or they love each other still.
All you have to go on is the faith of a kiss.
The best men tell you the truth because they think you can take it; the worst men either try to preserve you in some innocent state with their false protection, or are ‘brutally honest.’ When someone tells, lets you think for yourself, experience your own emotions, he is treating you as a true equal, a friend…And the best men cook for you.
I have an affection for those transitional seasons, the way they take the edge off the intense cold of winter, or heat of summer.
…she eventually forgave him, because she understood him.
The worst dream of the night, when you are parted from someone you love and you do not know exactly where he is, but you know that he is in the presence of danger. You are tormented by a desire to keep the one you love safe.
…brotherhood of the firstborn, which can be both a blessing and a curse: the overwhelming attention to the detail of their lives and development. The expectations that run too high: being the bridge between adults and children, one foot in either place and the accompanying hollow lonely feeling of being nowhere.
…that would be too much like running away, and that, she would not do. She does not run—they cannot make her—she walks.
…she is admired from afar. These admirers court her in secret, in the safety of their dreams.
No one fights dirtier or more brutally than blood; only family knows it’s own weaknesses, the exact placement of the heart. The tragedy is that one can still live with the force of hatred, feel infuriated that once you are born to another, that kinship lasts through life and death, immutable, unchanging, no matter how great the misdeed or betrayal. Blood cannot be denied, and perhaps that’s why we fight tooth and claw, because we cannot—being only human—put asunder what God has joined together.
Why are old lovers able to become friends? Two reasons. They never truly loved each other, or they love each other still.
All you have to go on is the faith of a kiss.
The best men tell you the truth because they think you can take it; the worst men either try to preserve you in some innocent state with their false protection, or are ‘brutally honest.’ When someone tells, lets you think for yourself, experience your own emotions, he is treating you as a true equal, a friend…And the best men cook for you.
I have an affection for those transitional seasons, the way they take the edge off the intense cold of winter, or heat of summer.
…she eventually forgave him, because she understood him.
The worst dream of the night, when you are parted from someone you love and you do not know exactly where he is, but you know that he is in the presence of danger. You are tormented by a desire to keep the one you love safe.
…brotherhood of the firstborn, which can be both a blessing and a curse: the overwhelming attention to the detail of their lives and development. The expectations that run too high: being the bridge between adults and children, one foot in either place and the accompanying hollow lonely feeling of being nowhere.
…that would be too much like running away, and that, she would not do. She does not run—they cannot make her—she walks.
…she is admired from afar. These admirers court her in secret, in the safety of their dreams.
February 22, 2013
I'm not sure why this book was a bestseller.
There were numerous problems that made it hard for me to finish this book. I found it very hard to connect with or care about the characters, the plot, or the setting. The plotline...was there one, really? It just seemed to jump around between characters, time periods and situations with lots of wordy pontificating on life.
I received this book as a gift from a swap partner, and will pass it on to someone else to read, as I have no interest in keeping it on my shelf.
There were numerous problems that made it hard for me to finish this book. I found it very hard to connect with or care about the characters, the plot, or the setting. The plotline...was there one, really? It just seemed to jump around between characters, time periods and situations with lots of wordy pontificating on life.
I received this book as a gift from a swap partner, and will pass it on to someone else to read, as I have no interest in keeping it on my shelf.
April 18, 2020
I wanted to like this more than I did. I get what the author was trying do do, use the Crazy Quilt as a visual representation of how disparate lives can come together and join into something meaningful, much the way fabric scraps are stitched together into a work of art.
But instead of flowing, the story jerked around between characters, quilting instructions, and odd interjections.
A second read might be make more sense, since it took me about half the book to figure out what she was doing
.
But instead of flowing, the story jerked around between characters, quilting instructions, and odd interjections.
A second read might be make more sense, since it took me about half the book to figure out what she was doing
.
April 2, 2023
After sitting on my bookshelf for 20 years, I finally got ‘round to reading this gem. Delightful the whole way, especially for an Americanist and quilt lover. Beautiful writing, characters with depth, sociopolitically provocative and introspective—all the feels. Dated, certainly. Themes of gender, race, class, and marriage. The sustained quilt metaphor was something I came to eagerly anticipate between chapters and the cause of much reflection. Also, inspirational. Now, I think I’ll watch the 1995 movie— I’ve always enjoyed Winona Ryder. UPDATE: you can skip the movie without remorse.
March 30, 2022
Boring. Lots of profanity and sexual references. Apparently it's mostly about romantic relationships, and I'm not interested in that. I was interested in the quilt theme, which appears to be more of an afterthought.
July 18, 2023
Second attempt at reading. Really enjoyed reading it this time! Great story!
October 1, 2021
Il est question d'un groupe de femmes, dans une petite ville d'un état des USA, qui se réunissent toutes les semaines pour travailler sur ces couvertures piquées, dont le dessus est composé de morceaux de tissus assemblés. Au départ récupération, ce travail devient œuvre d'art, ou même archives familiales.
Ces femmes n'ont pas le même âge, pas la même histoire, ne sont pas nées dans cette ville, c'est un peu comme si le vent de a vie les avait rassemblées là.Le livre se compose des histoires de chacune, et de passages consacrés à la confection de ces "quilts" (courtepointes) et surtout à leur sens profond.
J'ai beaucoup aimé suivre les histoires de ces femmes qui s'étalent des années 30 aux années de la guerre du Vietnam. On traverse la vie de l'Amérique profonde, et aussi la vie de ces femmes face au mariage, aux enfants, aux deuils, au racisme, et le livre devient universel... J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé la façon dont l'auteur donne vie à cette tradition du patchwork, qui en fait n'est peut-être que le livre d'image de toute une existence...
Ces femmes n'ont pas le même âge, pas la même histoire, ne sont pas nées dans cette ville, c'est un peu comme si le vent de a vie les avait rassemblées là.Le livre se compose des histoires de chacune, et de passages consacrés à la confection de ces "quilts" (courtepointes) et surtout à leur sens profond.
J'ai beaucoup aimé suivre les histoires de ces femmes qui s'étalent des années 30 aux années de la guerre du Vietnam. On traverse la vie de l'Amérique profonde, et aussi la vie de ces femmes face au mariage, aux enfants, aux deuils, au racisme, et le livre devient universel... J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé la façon dont l'auteur donne vie à cette tradition du patchwork, qui en fait n'est peut-être que le livre d'image de toute une existence...
January 17, 2023
Not quite as good as the movie, but the book stands on its own. I like that Anna and Marianna end up being more of a focus in the book, but I missed the closure for Glady Jo, Hy, Constance, and Em that the movie offered. I love the central metaphor, and had forgotten how much I liked this book when I read it years ago.
January 30, 2023
The cleverness of comparing lives to quilting was unique. What I didn’t care for was how depressing every single character was portrayed. Did no one have a good enough life that averaged out to more happy and less “I’d like to jab a fork into my jugular on a bi monthly basis”?? It’s fiction, I get it. Life wasn’t easy, people aren’t easy, etc. I’m not sure I’d read another book by this author.
July 24, 2017
RemArkably entertwining.
Like life.
Like life.
March 24, 2020
This book must have been suggested by Franklin Habit when I took a crazy quilt class with him last fall. So glad I finally had the time and concentration to read it.
October 29, 2022
Un libro coccola, delizioso, leggero, perfetto per svagare la mente. Eppure ci sono tantissimi spunti per riflettere spaziando tra vari argomenti, tutti fin troppo moderni.
February 10, 2008
I'm quickly losing patience with this book, and I don't think I'll be finishing it (unless I run out of books and get desperate). It's not badly written, which is why it's getting two stars instead of one. However, I'm finding it difficult to empathize with some of the sentiments being expressed. Although I usually find it stimulating to read about characters who think differently than I do, I feel there should be some kind of inner logic to their beliefs rather than a feeling of, "Huh?" on the reader's part.
For example, one of the passages reads:
"Sit with the other women and express confusion as to why a mutual friend, so deserving of love, is living without it. Think of a million reasons as to why this is so, except the true reason, which is that it is an unusual and singular thing, having nothing to do with personality and worth...in the dark of your room you may be moved to admit to yourself that you only *thought* you fell out of love...when in reality you may not have felt love at all...Once you love, you cannot take it back..."
I'm really not into this rare and singular love crap. This view is probably influenced by a combination of personal experience, professional experience, and downright cynicism, but I strongly believe that real love is a product of effort and commitment, not some unique spark between two people which somehow lasts. I find the idea that love is simply this rare and magical thing that only happens to the lucky extremely juvenile and simplistic.
OK -- I kept reading after that, even though I was pretty disgusted. But then I got to the part about the young woman whose father abandoned her, who then gets pregnant at 17 and marries the guy who did it, who's conveniently madly in love with her as opposed to being a deadbeat like her dad. But when he expresses his commitment to her, her reaction is, "'That doesn't mean anything...that because we are married you'll come back. Not a damn thing." Huh? Why would her husband's commitment to her and to the marriage be worthless in her eyes? Why would someone whose father abandoned her take this for granted? I couldn't find anything else in the story to help me understand this reaction, which I found completely counterintuitive.
I don't have to agree with a book in order to enjoy it, but I do need to be able to follow the logic. It felt like the author was superficially making these pseudoprofound statements, expecting the reader to go, "Wow -- how very deep." I was also not sufficiently engaged with the characters and/or the story to continue despite this flaw.
For example, one of the passages reads:
"Sit with the other women and express confusion as to why a mutual friend, so deserving of love, is living without it. Think of a million reasons as to why this is so, except the true reason, which is that it is an unusual and singular thing, having nothing to do with personality and worth...in the dark of your room you may be moved to admit to yourself that you only *thought* you fell out of love...when in reality you may not have felt love at all...Once you love, you cannot take it back..."
I'm really not into this rare and singular love crap. This view is probably influenced by a combination of personal experience, professional experience, and downright cynicism, but I strongly believe that real love is a product of effort and commitment, not some unique spark between two people which somehow lasts. I find the idea that love is simply this rare and magical thing that only happens to the lucky extremely juvenile and simplistic.
OK -- I kept reading after that, even though I was pretty disgusted. But then I got to the part about the young woman whose father abandoned her, who then gets pregnant at 17 and marries the guy who did it, who's conveniently madly in love with her as opposed to being a deadbeat like her dad. But when he expresses his commitment to her, her reaction is, "'That doesn't mean anything...that because we are married you'll come back. Not a damn thing." Huh? Why would her husband's commitment to her and to the marriage be worthless in her eyes? Why would someone whose father abandoned her take this for granted? I couldn't find anything else in the story to help me understand this reaction, which I found completely counterintuitive.
I don't have to agree with a book in order to enjoy it, but I do need to be able to follow the logic. It felt like the author was superficially making these pseudoprofound statements, expecting the reader to go, "Wow -- how very deep." I was also not sufficiently engaged with the characters and/or the story to continue despite this flaw.
May 7, 2009
A book that has been on my "to read" list for quite a while, since I saw the movie (or part of it) on TV a number of years ago. I recently saw the book at the library's used book store and bought it. The book tells the story of a grouop of quilters in a small California town. The back story, more so in the movie, is the summer prior to the wedding of Finn, the granddaughter and great niece of two of the quilters. The women in the quilt circle are Glady Jo, Hy (the Flower sisters), Sophia, Constance, Em, Corria, Anna, the leader, and her daughter, Marianna. Each of the seven chapters is preceeded by "quilting instructions", which also relate to love, marriage and life.
One of my favorite quotes from the book:
"The best men tell you the truth because they think you can take it; the worst men either try to preserve you in some innocent state with their false protection or are 'brutally honest.' When someone tells you the truth, lets you think for yourself, experience your own emotions, he is treating you as a true equal. As a friend.
And the best men cook for you."
I loved this book and want to watch the movie (and read the book again).
One of my favorite quotes from the book:
"The best men tell you the truth because they think you can take it; the worst men either try to preserve you in some innocent state with their false protection or are 'brutally honest.' When someone tells you the truth, lets you think for yourself, experience your own emotions, he is treating you as a true equal. As a friend.
And the best men cook for you."
I loved this book and want to watch the movie (and read the book again).
July 21, 2014
I found this book in the used section of a charming local bookstore in Camden, Maine. Having vague memories of enjoying the movie many years ago, I bought it. It was not at all what I expected, reading more as a collection of short stories about the (most romantic) lives of a group of women who quilt together. Each chapter tells a woman's story, and in between each are "directions" for quilt making, focusing on a step or issue that serves to foreshadow what is to come in the proceeding chapter. I found it a bit disjointed at times. It was an interesting sampling of what love means and the different forms it can take. It also brought up interesting points on what it means to be a wife as well as racial issues of the time. Parts certainly felt antiquated (hey- we can work and have a family now!), and many of the women seemed complacent in settling into their own unhappiness, but none the less, parts were compelling at it was a pretty quick read.
March 8, 2008
I liked this book so well that I reviewed it for the R.E.A.D
Book Group. I loved the way the author took seven sets of quilting instructions and used them to bind together her story of the women who sit together to make the quilts. It is a beautiful story about women and the passages in their lives. It deals with many different issues and experiences. It addresses things like infidelity, youth, aging, betrayal, grief, misunderstandings, friendship, motherhood, forgiveness, joy and love. It takes the reader through the pasts and the present of each character in an easy to read way. I love to read books that use an interesting concept to tell the story and that is exactly what Whitney Otto has done with her interwoven tale of quilting while exploring the lives of each of the characters.
Book Group. I loved the way the author took seven sets of quilting instructions and used them to bind together her story of the women who sit together to make the quilts. It is a beautiful story about women and the passages in their lives. It deals with many different issues and experiences. It addresses things like infidelity, youth, aging, betrayal, grief, misunderstandings, friendship, motherhood, forgiveness, joy and love. It takes the reader through the pasts and the present of each character in an easy to read way. I love to read books that use an interesting concept to tell the story and that is exactly what Whitney Otto has done with her interwoven tale of quilting while exploring the lives of each of the characters.
September 9, 2016
I really enjoyed the stories of each of these women. However, I was waiting for the author to tie it all together with Finn's life at the end of the book, but that never happened. I honestly felt like I had picked up a book that was missing chapters, which was disappointing because I liked the characters so much.
August 24, 2015
I loved A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity, but this one was plain boring.
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