Elizabeth McCracken’s First Novel in 18 Years Has Whimsy to Spare

Feb 04, 2019 · 6 comments
Liesa Healy-Miller (Boston)
And don't forget duckpin bowling, which also started as a New England phenom. The ball is a bit bigger than a candlepin ball, and the pins are shorter and squatter. Not the point of the review, of course, but worth a mention for those who follow bowling trivia...
Rick Rorapaugh (Frändefors Sweden)
In Baltimore in the 50s and 60s they called it duckpin bowling. Hugely popular.
Sheila Blanchette (Exeter, NH)
I wrote a book with a bowling scene. It's a little love story, a late in life romance and it's title is Take Me Home. The bowling alley is in Bozeman, Montana. The setting for me was irresistible.
Elliot Silberberg (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
We had a candlepin bowling alley in my Connecticut town back in the 1950s. We just called it bowling and the pin boys who set ‘em up again were as much a target as the pins. The ball without finger holes was a little bigger than a softball and felt good, like a huge, heavy marble, in your hand. When I graduated to bowling bowling with those two ton giant balls with finger holes, it just didn’t make sense.
Dave H. (Rochester, NY)
@Elliot Silberberg When I tried "bowling" bowling it was too weird. In the 60s near Boston candlepin was cool ! I miss also the trampoline parks (often allied with miniature golf) which liability insurance killed.
Alyce (Pacific Northwest)
I'll put this on my list- I enjoyed her other work.