An Absorbing And Satisfying Read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  

                                             I was not aware I had even read any Elizabeth McCracken, until I discovered I had read her 2001 novel "Niagara Falls All Over Again."  "Bowlaway" turns out to be a different kind of experience.

                                              Set in the early part of the Twentieth Century, up through the present, the novel revolves an octagonal house and a bowling alley, created primarily for women.  These were started by one Bertha Truitt, who is found, mysteriously in a snow covered cemetery, in Salford, Massachusetts.  The novel sets the reader up thinking Bertha is the character who will carry one through the story.  But, like Hitchcock with Marian Crane (Janet Leigh), in "Psycho," Bertha Truitt dies one third of the way through the story.  Leaving those connected to her to carry on the story in a saga where everything is "six degrees" back to Bertha.

                                                   There is even a con artist, posing as Bertha's biological son, and a preacher, who takes up residence, but is quickly found out.  The emphasis of the novel is on mood and feeling, and there is something tranquil about a town where other things may change, but the house and bowling alley remain true to Bertha.

                                                      It is wholesome Americana, and after reading a book like "Parkland" a welcome relief!  Though I recommend this to all. it could be one of the best of the year!

                                                       Besides, I always thought I would end up working as a singer in a bowling alley lounge.

                                                        Who knows?  It still may happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!