SHORT STORIES
The Gentle Insurrection. By Doris Betts. Gollancz. 274 pp.
Doris Betts is a remarkably talented young American author of only 21. She won first prize with the stories in this volume in a contest organised by Putnam’s of New York and the University of North Carolina. The stories show none of the insipidity, sentimentality or tendency to simplify that might be expected of one so young. The style and technique are easy and assured, the range of subjects and themes astonishingly wide. Tackling situations which involve the relations between white and Negro or between employer and employed, the child’s view of death, the lustful fantasies of a middle-aged ladylibrarian, family tensions, or the psychology of old age, she is always capable of surprising insights and hardly ever commonplace. Occasionally her humour is a little too slick, her satire a little sharp; but a first work of such promise is very rare.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27670, 28 May 1955, Page 3
Word Count
153SHORT STORIES Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27670, 28 May 1955, Page 3
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