Bette Howland war eine Schriftstellerin und Kritikerin, deren Werk durch eine tiefgründige, bohrende Untersuchung des Wesens von Chicago gekennzeichnet war. Ihre Prosa wurde für ihre arrhythmische, nervöse und leidenschaftliche Qualität gelobt, die ständig ihren Rhythmus änderte, um verborgene Wahrheiten aufzudecken. Trotz ihres brillanten Talents und ihrer Auszeichnungen geriet ihr Werk in späteren Jahren weitgehend in Vergessenheit im literarischen Establishment. Die Gründe für ihren Rückzug aus der Öffentlichkeit und das anschließende Verblassen ihrer Karriere bleiben ein Thema des Interesses und der Spekulation.
This acclaimed collection highlights the work of a previously overlooked artist known for their sharp wit and remarkable beauty in writing. It showcases a range of incisive pieces that blend humor with profound insights, emphasizing the artist's unique voice and perspective. The collection's revival contributes significantly to the literary canon, inviting readers to rediscover and appreciate the depth and brilliance of this extraordinary talent.
In 1968 Howland was thirty-one, a single mother of two young sons, struggling to support her family on the part-time salary of a librarian; and laboring day and night at her typewriter to be a writer. One afternoon she swallowed a bottle of pills. This is her exploration of the community of Ward 3, the psychiatric wing of the Chicago hospital where she was admitted. Her memoir was the record of a defining moment in a her life. The book itself would be Howland's salvation: she wrote herself out of the grave.-- adapted from jacket
The three novellas collected together in Things to Come and Go showcase Bette Howland at her best. Written just before she won the MacArthur Genius Fellowship in 1984, these intimate portraits of Jewish family life are by turns equally truthful and bittersweet.
The work of a woman who has invested her life in her art, and who will, I think be remembered as one of the significant writers of her generation.' Saul BellowBlue in Chicago collects together the sharp, bittersweet stories of Bette Howland and restores to our bookshelves an extraordinarily gifted writer, who was recognized as a major talent before all but disappearing from public view for decades, until nearly the end of her life. Bette Howland was an outsider: an intellectual from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago; a divorcée and single mother, to the disapproval of her family; an artist chipped away at by poverty and perfection. Each of these sides of her life plays a shaping role in her work. Mining her most precarious struggles for her art in each of these stories, she chronicles the fears and hopes of her generation.Blue in Chicago, and other stories introduces UK readers to a wry, brilliant observer and a writer of great empathy and sly, joyous humor. Published in the US under the title Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.'If there's a Howland bandwagon (and there should be), hold me a seat, or I'll stand. No problem, I'll stand.' Paris Review