The Fragile Thread

Webb, whose Twelve Golden Threads: Lessons for Successful Living from Grama's Quilt found a receptive audience, pushes the needle just a little too far in this message-heavy tale about a widow, a cutesy quilt shop and a quaint, endangered town square. With her three children grown and her husband dead, 47-year-old Aggie gives up her counseling practice, jettisons her physical and emotional baggage and moves to Clareville, a small colonial town built around an old square, to start a new life. Clareville was her husband's hometown and the place where Grama, Aggie's beloved mother-in-law, mentor and guide, had lived. Aggie buys a small fabric shop on the square and renames it Grama's Quilt Shop. She wants it to be ""the creative center for women in the community. I was going to be true north, the spiritual guide, a lighthouse."" But the pathway's far from clear. A fireman named Daniel, who turns out to be a closet quilter, and Grama's irritating ghost (""As Grama used to say, `When life hands you scraps, make a quilt,'"" etc.) both haunt the shop. Then there's the mayor, Uncle Al, a used car salesman turned politician, and his sleazy son Al Jr., described as ""half a yard short of a bolt,"" who is spearheading a plan to tear down the shops around the square and build a shopping center. Aggie joins a group of indignant women, the Wombats (Women of Menopause Business Association and Terrorist Society), to wage war against the redevelopers. Saving Smalltown USA, like hand-sewing a quilt, is a noble endeavor, but Webb layers so much New Age spirituality over the campaign, the fragile thread of her narrative snaps and we lose interest in the battle's outcome. (Oct.)