The gentle insurrection and other stories

by Doris Betts

The stories in this first collection are concerned with some of the most private and complicated issues: living and dying, growing old, questioning one's beliefs, and recognizing one's own failings. Whether it be an elderly man struggling to come to terms with an incident in his past before the last light falls; a mill worker attempting to bring some color and distinction to his shabby yard and to his existence; or a meddling spinster who is forced to acknowledge the dance of resentment and need conducted between the races, in each of these stories a "gentle insurrection" occurs that changes lives, however subtly, forever.