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tiareleine's review against another edition
DNF at page 95.
This is really just not doing it for me. Nearly 100 pages in and there's no forward momentum in the plot, no hook, just a lot of meandering and a bunch of characters I barely know. I'm also not a fan of books that just keep jumping years at seemingly random. Bertha shows up and some things happen and now it's a few years later and she gets pregnant and has a daughter and now her daughter is three and now she's six and now she's 12 and as a reader I can't feel that time passing. I'm being told time is passing but it all feels the same. I'm not experiencing it with the characters. I'm also not experiencing romance, friendship, anything emotional with the characters.
This is really just not doing it for me. Nearly 100 pages in and there's no forward momentum in the plot, no hook, just a lot of meandering and a bunch of characters I barely know. I'm also not a fan of books that just keep jumping years at seemingly random. Bertha shows up and some things happen and now it's a few years later and she gets pregnant and has a daughter and now her daughter is three and now she's six and now she's 12 and as a reader I can't feel that time passing. I'm being told time is passing but it all feels the same. I'm not experiencing it with the characters. I'm also not experiencing romance, friendship, anything emotional with the characters.
acton's review against another edition
5.0
This is a wonderfully quirky family saga revolving around a bowling alley. How could that not be original? And it starts with a woman found (alive) in a cemetery. What was she doing there? Where did she come from? This is Bertha Truitt, who claimed to have invented candlepin bowling. Readers will discover that she'd certainly reinvented herself; the only story Truitt ever gives is the present one. During this first scene, we get a first impression of Bertha, Leviticus Sprague, the doctor she marries, and Joe Ware, who will become an important part of her future business.
Very quickly, it seems, she's built a bowling alley and become the focus of the little town of Salford, Massachusetts. This happens around the turn of the century, when women bowling in public (without a curtain to hide them!) is a bold undertaking. But then, Truitt has also wed the black doctor we met in the cemetery. This may raise eyebrows, but the reaction is subtle.
As time rolls on, the alley goes through changes, as do the people. A series of unpredictable events occur, and the first seemed too strange to be true. I thought the book was taking some kind of mythical turn, but no, it's based on a real event and I'm not going to reveal it. Read it before someone spoils this for you! It's a major plot twist that changes everything. It won't be the last twist.
Bowlaway surprised me in its seriousness. It's about love and grief and it's actually profound. Odd people who go forth and either set up or knock down their lives have stories that are vividly engaging. I rooted for everyone. Well... almost everyone.
The farther I got into this novel, the faster I read. If Elizabeth McCracken intentionally wrote this to be like a ball gathering speed, she nailed it.
I highly recommend this! This was my first experience with this author.
(note: Years ago, my husband and I were visiting Mount Snow, Vermont, and found some random local place to have lunch. I don't remember what we ate, but the place also had a small, different sort of bowling alley-- what I think they called pin bowling. We wound up trying it, and enjoyed it. Spontaneous bowling! Who knew? Too bad I don't remember more about it.)
Very quickly, it seems, she's built a bowling alley and become the focus of the little town of Salford, Massachusetts. This happens around the turn of the century, when women bowling in public (without a curtain to hide them!) is a bold undertaking. But then, Truitt has also wed the black doctor we met in the cemetery. This may raise eyebrows, but the reaction is subtle.
As time rolls on, the alley goes through changes, as do the people. A series of unpredictable events occur, and the first seemed too strange to be true. I thought the book was taking some kind of mythical turn, but no, it's based on a real event and I'm not going to reveal it. Read it before someone spoils this for you! It's a major plot twist that changes everything. It won't be the last twist.
Bowlaway surprised me in its seriousness. It's about love and grief and it's actually profound. Odd people who go forth and either set up or knock down their lives have stories that are vividly engaging. I rooted for everyone. Well... almost everyone.
The farther I got into this novel, the faster I read. If Elizabeth McCracken intentionally wrote this to be like a ball gathering speed, she nailed it.
I highly recommend this! This was my first experience with this author.
(note: Years ago, my husband and I were visiting Mount Snow, Vermont, and found some random local place to have lunch. I don't remember what we ate, but the place also had a small, different sort of bowling alley-- what I think they called pin bowling. We wound up trying it, and enjoyed it. Spontaneous bowling! Who knew? Too bad I don't remember more about it.)
bookwormhomebody's review against another edition
2.0
Her writing is fantastic, but this book is so expansive that the story lacks focus and the characters lack the depth of her previous work. Skip it and read The Giants House instead - it’s fantastic
vickijustwantstoread's review against another edition
3.0
The main word that comes to mind is WEIRD. In a can't look away from a wreck on the side of the road kind of weird. I couldn't stop listening to this audiobook. Someone asked me is it about bowling and I said , well, there's bowling in it. Its about a lot of things.
cmarie1665's review against another edition
2.0
This book just started to fall apart for me around page 50. I think it would have been a really good short story. The characters felt unbelievable, their actions left unexplained, or explained with some pat sounding interesting sounding description that sort of worked for a moment, but not when you stopped to think about it. I just stopped caring about the characters and also about the plot, or the language, or the setting. So there was just nothing to care about. I'm not trying to be mean about it. It just didn't work for me. It felt like really interesting clothes on a mannequin that was just falling apart. The character's eccentricities, which were so lovingly and interestingly described, weren't enough for me to stay interested. I needed more meat, more stable characterization.
I really loved An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, (perhaps because I have some personal experience with perinatal traumatic grief) and A Giant's House, so I was disappointed with this book. I wonder if maybe it started out as a collection of linked short stories, and then was perhaps expanded without a lot of meat to hang on the bones?
I really loved An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, (perhaps because I have some personal experience with perinatal traumatic grief) and A Giant's House, so I was disappointed with this book. I wonder if maybe it started out as a collection of linked short stories, and then was perhaps expanded without a lot of meat to hang on the bones?
cjeanne99's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
How this gets labeled as “historical fiction” is beyond me. Story of a woman who mysteriously appears in a New England town - opens a candle pin bowling alley - and starts a multi generation business. Interesting cast of characters with quirky behaviors.
wordnerdy's review against another edition
3.0
This novel starts with an unconscious woman being found in a cemetery; soon she is starting a local candlepin bowling alley (and claiming to have invented the sport) and marrying a local (black) doctor. From there, a sort of family epic unrolls, dealing with several generations in a changing town. I will say that while I was reading this, I enjoyed it a lot, but when I put it down, I was never in a huge hurry to pick up up again. After the first few chapters, it kind of introduces characters and drops them again, so that I never felt super invested in most of them. I thought the writing itself was excellent though--a few sentences had me like oh dang! I liked the way it wrapped up, too. B+.
jwmcoaching's review against another edition
2.0
Did Not Finish.
There's a fine line between charming and precious, and although Bowlaway starts out firmly in the former category, it quickly finds its way into the latter. McCracken is a truly gifted writer but after 60 pages, the quirk thickened into twee treacle that kind of became nauseating. Plus, the plot just didn't seem to be going anywhere.
There's a fine line between charming and precious, and although Bowlaway starts out firmly in the former category, it quickly finds its way into the latter. McCracken is a truly gifted writer but after 60 pages, the quirk thickened into twee treacle that kind of became nauseating. Plus, the plot just didn't seem to be going anywhere.