Souls Raised from the Dead: A Novel
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.