She even marries the doctor, Leviticus Sprague. She hires Joe Wear to run it, and Jeptha is her loyal pin-setter. While in the hospital together, Jeptha sleeps under Bertha's bed, and sets up her one pin at the end of the hallway so she can throw her ball and knock it down over and over again.īertha's past remains as mysterious as her appearance, but she soon enmeshes herself within the community when she decides to build a six-lane candlepin bowling alley.

Bertha's only belongings are 'one abandoned corset, one small bowling ball, one slender candlepin, and under a false bottom, fifteen pounds of gold.' She is taken to the hospital where she soon adopts-or is adopted by-another misfit, Jeptha Arrison, who is recovering from swallowing a bottle of Aspirin. The watchman, Joe Wear, a teenager who is 'uneasy among the living and not much better among the dead,' discovers her, and is soon joined by Leviticus Sprague, an African-American doctor. The book opens with the mysterious appearance of Bertha Truitt, who is found asleep on the grounds of the Salford Cemetery. It is a generational story-or collection of stories-about the people whose lives are influenced by this town gathering place, beginning in the early 20th century and spanning 50 years. This exquisitely written saga centers around a small town candlepin bowling alley in Salford, Massachusetts. A whimsical novel exploring the lives of the patrons and staff at a New England candlepin bowling alley in the early 1900s.

Bowlaway mccracken