Souls Raised from the Dead: A Novel [Paperback]

Doris Betts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 1995

The author of Heading West and Beast of the Southern Wild and Other Stories returns with a poignant, powerful novel of a small town in the tradition of Faulkner, O'Connor, and Welty. Reprint. 12,500 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A writer as wise and humane as Betts should be a household name. It's been a decade since her last novel, the poignant and funny Heading West , and in that time her eye for human frailty has grown both sharper and more compassionate. Here she chronicles a family in crisis and pain as a child battles a serious illness, yet, as always, her ironic insight and natural wit enliven the tale. Still clearing the emotional debris left after his selfish, narcissistic wife, Christine, decamped three years earlier, North Carolina state trooper Frank Thompson is lovingly raising their 12-year-old daughter, Mary Grace. Mary is a typical adolescent, masking her insecurities with a nonchalant air. When she becomes obsessed with horses, Frank begins a romance with her young riding instructor, but the balance of all their lives goes askew when Mary develops kidney disease. Medication and dialysis fail, a kidney transplant is indicated and Christine, the only possible donor, shows her true colors. As always, Betts's characters are ordinary people etched in indelible detail; Frank Thompson's love for his daughter is rendered achingly real, and the feckless Christine and the grandparents on both sides are at once idiosyncratic and resoundingly believable. While yearning for her absent mother, Mary acquires a stoic acceptance of her illness and a deeper understanding of the inequities of life, filtered through a youngster's misperceptions and fantasies. Betts does not settle for sentimental, easy answers in this deeply moving tale.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

When 13-year-old Mary Grace Thompson is diagnosed with life-threatening kidney disease, her father, a divorced North Carolina state trooper, immediately volunteers to donate one of his own, forgetting momentarily that a gunshot wound has left him with only one. Mary's estranged mother, Christine, whose life revolves around makeup and the latest fashions, is a more logical donor candidate. However, as Christine herself admits, she can't even bring herself to get breast implants, much less face a serious kidney operation. As Mary's condition worsens and dialysis fails, Christine suddenly departs for an extended European vacation with her new boyfriend, leaving no forwarding address. Betts's first novel since the critically acclaimed Heading West (1981) examines the different ways a family and friends respond to unexpected tragedy. A well-told tale for readers of popular fiction.
- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (February 9, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684801043
• ISBN-13: 978-0684801049
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,700,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good writing triumphs over unpromising material, June 9, 2000

By 

Robert J. Ritzema (Fayetteville, NC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Souls Raised from the Dead: A Novel (Paperback)

I almost gave up on this book after the first 100 pages. After encountering the overprotective father, the plucky but seriously ill daughter, and the narcissistic, self-indulgent mother who had deserted the family two years earlier, the stars seemed in alignment for an overwrought, maudlin tearjerker. Instead, Doris Betts has given us a finely told, thoughtful story about those things we cling to when disaster befalls, especially about the exercise of faith in the absence of any reason to hope. The writing is often superb, as in this observation about the girl's grandmother: "Sex was more important to men than it had ever been to Tacey. Maybe those old Jewish male prophets valued sex so highly it had attained to them the level of sin; she did not, so it had not." Or this, a description of women waiting for their men in the hospital emergency room: "These women wasted no energy by pacing. None of them touched a magazine. They solidified themselves in the first chairs they had taken some time ago, and waited like stones for something external to make them move." Most characters are well-developed; the plot is only moderately suspenseful, but surprisingly compelling nonetheless. I wished that the author had delved more into the inner life of Frank, the main character, and I thought a few plot turns bordered on the implausible. Nonetheless, Betts has done remarkably well telling a story which initially appears unpromising.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel that deserves more attention, February 24, 2009

By 

G. M. Poteat "Gnostic" (East of Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Souls Raised from the Dead: A Novel (Paperback)

I read a lot and enjoy everything from good junk fiction to the western canon. I have recently started reading Elizabeth Spencer's short stories and pick up Souls Raised from the Dead after hearing Doris Betts read a short passage when receiving a literary award for NC literature (from the North Carolina Literature Review).

This is what I think of as a naturalistic novel. It is a portrait of ordinary people living through a difficult time. It is true that the emotions of some characters (especially Frank -- the father) are not explored in detail, but then Frank's inability to verbally express emotion is a major focus of the book. He loves his daughter and hovers over her. He is depicted as a good man, but cannot emotionally connect with the two women who comfort him except through what we used to call (quaintly) "making love" which is tastefully depicted.

This is not Dostoevsky but it is a venture into the lives of others. I am a North Carolina native and appreciate many of the southern women writers. I preferred this novel to some of those by women who have received far more recognition. I have read and met some of the others (e.g. Jill McCorkle and Lee Smith) and think Souls Raised from the Dead is in the same league as their prose. Betts is not as colorful or as funny as either McCorkle or Smith, but her novel is a realistic view of life and the South.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soul Stirring, February 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Souls Raised From The Dead (Hardcover)

A wonderful novel that stirs the emotions with characters that stay on your mind. The writing is crisp but what shines the brightest are the complex and REAL characters in the novel. A novel that is sure to move even the most stoic of readers.