Category Archives: Betts, Dorris

Doris Betts. Souls Raised From the Dead. New York: Knopf, 1994.

The novel looks into the troubled relationship between Mary Grace Thompson, the teenage daughter of state trooper Frank Thompson, and her estranged mother, Christine. Mary Grace has a life-threatening kidney disease and the story takes us through the emotions and spiritual questioning a family faces during a tragedy. The novel is set in Carrboro, Hillsborough, Durham, Jacksonville, and Chapel Hill at the UNC hospital.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1994, Betts, Dorris, Orange, Piedmont

Doris Betts. The River to Pickle Beach. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

In the turbulent summer of 1968, Jack and Bebe Sellars take over the management of Pickerel Beach on the North Carolina coast. Hoping for a peaceful, easy summer, their plans are disrupted by the arrival of several difficult people, including a violent, racist former Army buddy of Jack’s. The story, though written in third-person, is told from the alternating viewpoints of Bebe and Jack, with the events of the summer triggering memories of their past together. Throughout the novel, the racial violence and volatile national political struggles never seem far from the surface.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1970-1979, 1972, Betts, Dorris, Brunswick, Coast