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Title details for W-3 by Bette Howland - Available

W-3

by Bette Howland
Yiyun Li
ebook
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An extraordinary portrait of a brilliant mind on the brink: A new edition of the 1974 memoir by the author of the acclaimed collection Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. With an introduction by Yiyun Li.
"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life could begin. At last it had dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."
From the author of the acclaimed collection Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage comes W-3, the account of a brilliant mind on the brink. In 1968, Bette 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, while staying at her friend Saul Bellow's apartment, she swallowed a bottle of pills. W-3 is both an extraordinary portrait of the community of Ward 3, the psychiatric wing of the Chicago hospital where she was admitted; and record of a defining moment in a writer's life. The book itself would be her salvation: she wrote herself out of the grave.
First published in 1974, the memoir that launched Bette Howland's career is being reissued as part of A Public Space's ongoing revival of "one of the significant writers of her generation." (Saul Bellow) With a new introduction by Yiyun Li.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 12, 2021

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781733973052

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781733973052
      • File size: 1109 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      December 1, 2020
      With the publication of the story collection Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (2019), the reading world rediscovered the vaulting talent of trenchant Chicago writer Howland. Now her first book resurfaces with all its epigrammatic, disconcerting, and incandescent firepower intact. This clinically observed yet compassionate, drolly and bravely matter-of-fact memoir recounts Howland's 1968 stay in a university hospital psychiatric ward after a suicide attempt. A divorced mother of two young sons left in the care of her parents, Howland struggles with the drastic mysteries of her illness and the appallingly inadequate treatments provided on Ward 3. One way of coping is to focus on her fellow patients and turn them into complex characters in a microcosm of pain, chaos, and longing. The descriptions are breathtaking: ""Her eyes blaze like some cold undiscovered element." And how crisply she charts the desperate dramas, penetrating strangeness, mordant humor, and transcendent alliances. Among the many chronicles of depression and psych wards, Howland's is uniquely arresting in its omniscient attention, radiant artistry, zealously pursued insights, and abiding respect for those who share her struggle.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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