Boys Don’t Knit
Summary:
Ben Fletcher is a cautious and thoughtful teenager who finds himself in trouble with the law after an unfortunate series of events means he ends up causing a lot of damage to two cars. He is put on probation for 12 months and is required to keep a journal throughout his probation, though he is keen to point out he has already been keeping a diary for more than half his life. Ben is also required to take up a course at the local community college, and when knitting is the only available option, Ben is keen to keep his new extra-curricular activity quiet. Ben’s adventures through knitting extend far beyond the class and opens his life out in new and exciting ways.
Edited by: Dublin City University
Comment:
The form of this novel is striking, drawing self-consciously on its journal format as part of the “female domain” and joining a lineage of classic books for teenagers. From the outset, Ben is clearly uneasy within what is constructed as a typically male world: he observes his father’s inclusion of him in his embarrassing innuendos and links his father’s obsession with WWII and Nazis to “men of a certain age”; he doesn’t like any of the things he is supposed to like, such as football, cars, and fighting, and he feels uncomfortable around his rule-breaking friends. Ben’s discovery that he enjoys and is good at knitting and design ultimately allows him a route to the things more stereotypically valued by male teenage protagonists: overcoming bullies and gaining the attention of a girl he likes. There are keen observations of the world that teenage boys live in and are exposed to throughout, and these are sometimes gently picked apart.