DATE: Sunday, July 13, 1997                 TAG: 9707100658

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY BERNICE GROHSKOPF 

                                            LENGTH:   77 lines

UNIQUE CHARACTERS BITTEN BY ``TEETH OF LOVE''

THE SHARP TEETH OF LOVE

DORIS BETTS

Alfred A. Knopf. 336 pp. $24.

The Sharp Teeth of Love opens in 1993 as Luna and Steven are packing up their apartment in Chapel Hill, N.C., heading for Riverside, Calif., in Luna's old van. Steven is a newly appointed assistant professor; Luna is a talented botanical artist, whom Steve had persuaded to supply the illustrations for his Ph.D. thesis on cactus. He couldn't afford to pay her, he claimed, but offered to move in and do the cooking and yard work. Luna, a virgin, longing to act out the ``first Latin verb she ever conjugated,'' is swept away by his exceptional good looks and his dimple.

In her ninth novel Doris Betts, an English professor at the University of North Carolina and an accomplished short-story writer, again demonstrates her unfailing gifts as a storyteller. Betts' previous novel was Souls Raised From the Dead.

Having been together for two years, Luna and Steve plan, as they journey westward, to be married in Reno, Nev. But en route, handsome Steven's less attractive attributes begin to surface, and as Luna observes not only his blond hair and his dimple, but his effect on waitresses, she also realizes she's been paying the bills, although he has his own money.

The reader begins to wonder when Luna is going to wake up. But as they approach gambling land, Steven heads for the slot machines; and Luna reluctantly joins him, remarking, as she pulls the lever: ``This motion reminds me of flushing a toilet.'' He can't stop gambling, and so, when they arrive in Reno, Luna leaves Steve a brief note and takes off, a departure as impulsive as many of her future actions will be. Luna, despite anorexia and a history of a nervous breakdown when in college, is the driving energy in this gripping tale of damaged people.

Preoccupied with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians while she and Steven drove west, Luna now focuses on the Donner Party, a group of 87 settlers bound for California in 1846, who were trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by early snows. Forty-seven survived by eating the flesh of those who had perished. Luna fixes on the grisly details, reading everything she can get hold of. Camping alone in Donner Park, Luna is visited by the ghost of Tamsen Donner, with whom she has conversations.

She also encounters an undernourished boy of about 12 who had been sold into prostitution, probably by his family; and ignoring the obvious risks, Luna tries to befriend him. When she fears he has run away, she sets out to find him, only to come upon Paul Cowan, a would-be Lutheran minister whose hearing has been destroyed in an accident. Anorexic Luna, with her shaky psychiatric history, and unemployed Paul, wearing two hearing aids, along with Sam, escaping from a scarred and brutal childhood, become a threesome. ``The three of us,'' Luna reflects cheerfully, ``damaged goods.''

Betts sketches in the dysfunctional family backgrounds of Luna and Steve, and while nothing is known of Sam's family, we learn that Paul was brought up on a farm in Wisconsin, and had great affection for his now deceased father. His mother, Erika, with her calm, straightforward manner and considerable courage, is one of the most endearing (and healthy) characters in the book.

Betts has interwoven conversations and reflections on subjects ranging from Elvis Presley and the Branch Davidians, to love, Catholicism, Protestantism and Kafka, plus a full account of the Donner Party story. But we wonder: How did Luna, who appeared at the opening of the story to be a passive, submissive, insecure young woman, filled with curiosity and compassion, become, as the story unfolds, a headstrong, determined woman with a quick-temper and a wild, irrational intensity?

There are other implausible aspects of this story, but to reveal them would destroy the suspense. Doris Betts, however, is obviously not concerned with plausibility, nor is the reader, who will be quickly seduced by the unique characters, her splendid descriptions of the West, superb writing and breathless pacing. MEMO: Bernice Grohskopf is a free-lance writer and editor who lives in

Charlottesville. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Doris Betts

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