Children of God Go Bowling: A Novel Hardcover - 2004

by Shannon Olson

We first met Shannon Olson our semifictional heroine in Welcome to My Planet. Now, in Children of God Go Bowling, we find Shannon in her mid-thirties and still besieged by reminders that her life is anything but normal. Her friends are blossoming in marital bliss, everyone seems to own a home, and even her baby sister is having a baby. Why, in the march to adulthood, has she been left behind?

In an effort to be proactive, Shannon embarks upon a feng shui-inspired campaign to make room in her life for a future or at least the hope of one. She joins group therapy (to meet new people), accepts blind dates (hey, you never know), and even gives organized religion a go (with mixed results). Of course, surprises await her in the struggle against anxiety and from some unlikely sources.

With encore performances by Shannon's mother, Flo (called 'one of the great moms of American fiction' by Garrison Keillor), and other indelible characters from Welcome to My Planet, Children of God Go Bowling is the heroic, heartbreaking, hilarious story of a woman making her life happen when it didn't quite happen for her.