SOURCE: “A Fine Debut,” in Saturday Review, Vol. 37, No. 28, July 10, 1954, pp. 14–15.

In the following assessment of The Gentle Insurrection, Eaton describes the collection as “twelve fine stories, free from banality of thought and commonplace theme, exploring deep dimensions of experience with a mature authority.”

It is often interesting, sometimes moving, and once in too great a while unexpectedly and satisfactorily exciting, to read the first published work of a new “serious” young writer, using the French word sérieux, which does not preclude comedy, but is simply the word of tribute that nation of individual critics and craftsmen chooses to give to the man or woman presenting a well-finished, properly polished piece of work to an equally “serious” public. Doris Betts's The Gentle Insurrection is such an occasion for excitement.

Here we have twelve fine stories, free from banality of thought and commonplace theme, exploring deep dimensions of...