Approaching New Bethel

Approaching New Bethel is set in a fictional town in Kentucky and narrates the story of Linda, a bright young Kentuckian who is stifled by the middle-class genteelism and small-town conventions that surround her. Linda is continually defeated by the people who are “trying to do the best thing for her” until she tragically takes her own life. The novel opens with Linda’s suicide, but flashback scenes portray different episodes in Linda’s life that move her toward her suicide while scenes in the present reveal the effect of her death on those close to her.