Doris Betts (1932–2012)

SPOILER WARNING.

A runaway bride, a boy escaped from sex slavery, and a seminary student deafened by an explosion come together in the mountains around Reno. The book is suspenseful. though it is, in the Shakespearean sense, a comedy: it ends with a wedding (or the promise of one). At about a third of the way through, after the boy is kidnapped, I thought it was going in a different direction, in which all the characters (except for the protagonist) were evil, but happily, I was wrong (and show more the hint about not trusting trustworthy faces was, I guess, a red herring.) As a classic comedy, the book should be allowed its one-dimensional characters. The two men that Luna must escape, her father and her fiance, have no redeeming virtues. The author gives a nod to this problem when, at one point, she writes that a film would have shown the soft heart hidden behind the father's gruff exterior, but this wasn't that film. And one has to grant Betts that not all people do have that warm gooey center... but books are generally richer when we can, at least, pity, those whom we dislike. In any case, the book kept me engrossed and left me satisfied. show less

The book's opening scene provides fun and excitement that soon changes to boredom. The book contains no chapters, just one long and wordy descent into the chasm. The books description predicted the death of the main character, and that death was long in arriving. I expected a better novel. I am sure that Doris Betts thought she was emulating James Joyce when she wrote this stream on consciousness, but the method deteriorated the story.

I am amazed that very few American readers seem to know of or read Doris Betts. She is a magnificent American writer of the south, earlier in the 20th century. These stories are wonderful. I have to admit that I discovered Ms Betts only in 1999. A musical called "Violet" was composed by a prominent Broadway writer based on one of her stories. In Canada our then 11 year old daughter played and sang and acted the role of young Violet, to rave reviews I might add. I then bought and read a show more number of Ms Betts' books and enjoyed all of them. show less

Is it trite to say that this collection of stories made me laugh, made me uncomfortable, and made me cry? It did all of those things and more.