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Things to Come and Go
From the acclaimed author ofÌý Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Ìýand the memoirÌý W-3, Ìýa trio of novellas about three women’s bold exploration of the desire for belonging as it comes into conflict with the fulfillment of our individual selves. With an introduction by Rumaan Alam.
Over the past several years, A Public Space has brought the work of Bette Howland back into print. First published in 1983,Ìý Things to Come and Go Ìýis her final book, and a showcase of her stunning talent—the razor-sharp observations, the elusive narrators, the language at once experimental and classical.
Nearly forty years later, it’s writing that “feel[s] revelatory and imperative to the work we might all be trying to make next� (Lynn Steger Strong).
Over the past several years, A Public Space has brought the work of Bette Howland back into print. First published in 1983,Ìý Things to Come and Go Ìýis her final book, and a showcase of her stunning talent—the razor-sharp observations, the elusive narrators, the language at once experimental and classical.
Nearly forty years later, it’s writing that “feel[s] revelatory and imperative to the work we might all be trying to make next� (Lynn Steger Strong).
164 pages, Paperback
First published February 12, 1983
12 people are currently reading
430 people want to read
About the author
Bette Howland
9Ìýbooks42ÌýfollowersWriter, critic, and MacArthur “Geniusâ€� grant recipient Bette Howland died last week at the age of 80. “No matter what her subject is, Mrs. Howland is always looking for the bone and marrow of Chicago,â€� Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote in a 1978 review of Blue in Chicago. “And always the prose with which she searches is arrhythmical, nervous, self-questioning, passionate. You can’t fall into step with her, because the moment you do she shifts her cadence and takes off for another part of town, another time, another thing about Chicago.â€� However, though much awarded and clearly brilliant, she has in recent years been more-or-less forgotten by the literary establishment. “What happened to a career that held such talent and promise?â€� A.N. Devers asked in a 2015 piece about Howland and her rediscovery by Brigid Hughes, Howland was nomadic and often lived in isolation. Why did she retreat from what she had earned for herself? What role has the literary community played in allowing her work to fall from memory? Her son Jacob thinks the MacArthur is part of the answer.â€� Indeed, she didn’t publish anything else after winning the award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 21, 2022
First published in 1983, a collection of three novella-length pieces by recently rediscovered writer Bette Howland, whose stories have been compared to Lucia Berlin’s. Although her focus on the culture and the everyday interactions of working-class, Jewish families in post-WW2 America also, inevitably, brings to mind the work of Grace Paley. Howland’s are very much character-driven narratives, at their best acutely-observed, intimate but wry, slice-of-life depictions of now-lost, social worlds. In the outstanding “Birds of a Feather� teenage Esti tries to find space to finally have sex with boyfriend Donny while enmeshed in the activities of her brash, complicated, extended family: her mysterious uncle back from the ’old country� a survivor of pogroms and the death camps of WW2, her scheming aunts and uncles; births and funerals and the challenges of scratching out a living in Chicago. In “The Life You Gave Me� a young woman travels to Florida to visit her father in hospital, a time that conjures a series of reflections on her parents� thwarted dreams and aspirations and her own, turbulent childhood. The less successful, more obviously dated “The Old Wheeze� revolves around a single mother, her child, her lover and her aging, Black babysitter all struggling to survive in a decaying, increasingly bewildering, urban environment. The people in Howland’s stories are physically, incredibly close, thrown together in their small, living spaces and cheek-by-jowl communities; able to describe each other down to the last pore, yet emotionally poles apart. Enigmatic and confusing, their words spill out, their actions seem transparent, yet they’re always at a distance from each other. This collection comes with an introduction to Howland’s life and work by Rumaan Alam and contains an extract from her memoir W-3 an account of her stay in a psychiatric facility after her failed suicide attempt.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Picador for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Picador for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
September 12, 2022
“That’s family for you. Right back where I started. There is nothing here I would ever choose—and nothing I can ever part with.�
Three novellas written by Bette Howland resonated with me because of the way in which she describes her family members� appearances and loud, opinionated personalities. Almost a caricature of the typical Jewish American family post WWII. But family nonetheless, in all its varied, “cockeyed� craziness.
Three novellas written by Bette Howland resonated with me because of the way in which she describes her family members� appearances and loud, opinionated personalities. Almost a caricature of the typical Jewish American family post WWII. But family nonetheless, in all its varied, “cockeyed� craziness.
January 9, 2023
There are no two ways about it: Bette Howland knew how to write a sentence. The prose in this was fantastic, and I'm so glad I gave her fiction a go. The stories themselves didn't grab me quite as much (I often struggle with short stories where you as the reader feel like you've been dropped into a story halfway through) but I will definitely be trying out more of her fiction () and perhaps her memoir () too.
Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
August 11, 2022
three beautiful novellas about family, tradition, heavy melancholy of growing up, set in prohibition era united states, very very good!
November 25, 2008
I found this at a bookstore that was relocating and practically giving away their inventory. Never heard of Bette Howland before, but these stories are delightful--plotless, but what great characters.
January 24, 2023
the stories ranged from beautiful to mediocre, but the prose in this kept me going
April 30, 2023
“Why would he want to pass on such pain; why should he be so bound and determined to inflict this bitterness, I can’t say. But we have to pass on something, don’t we? Otherwise, what’s the good? What are children for?�
June 13, 2022
“People were always waiting for me to say something. It made me nervous. I could never tell what it was they wanted me to say.�
Howland is a great character creator; despite the shorter length of each story, her characters feel rich and capable of leading a whole book or even more. They’re very unique and described by a detached narrator, allowing an intimate sort of storytelling.
Each of the short stories is largely plotless - just a bit too plotless for me. If you love completely character-driven stories though, you’ll thoroughly enjoy this lovely collection.
Howland is a great character creator; despite the shorter length of each story, her characters feel rich and capable of leading a whole book or even more. They’re very unique and described by a detached narrator, allowing an intimate sort of storytelling.
Each of the short stories is largely plotless - just a bit too plotless for me. If you love completely character-driven stories though, you’ll thoroughly enjoy this lovely collection.
April 14, 2024
The first and third short stories in first person worked for me. The second I think I get now and is sort of centred around Mark even when he’s not there but I’m not sure - it might work for you. The other two are centred on families. It’s an interesting introduction to Bette Howland and I’d read more of her work at some point. Honestly the last one has a surgery and it’s a bit on the nose for me but the claustrophobic of parental love and worry for them is very well written and contrasts beautifully with the first story of a younger relative of an immigrant family both insider and outsider as they don’t speak the mother tongue. All of these stories are American and the second one is a childminder alone, the child, the mother alone but the end is odd. Maybe because I’m still thinking about it it’s done its job. See what you think. They’ve fairly short stories and it’s a small book!
October 6, 2024
Enjoyed these three novellas - they are the kind that just throw you in, which is my preferred method. "Birds of a Feather" seems to be everyone's favorite and rightly so, its a series of intimate and brutal character sketches of a messy family. "The Old Wheeze" seems to be everyone's least favorite, but I was partial to it - again a series of character sketches, just four this time. Sydney the young single driftless mother was particularly well-drawn: "She had never picked out a life for herself so she thought they were all still available." I was less enamored with the "The Life You Gave Me" - the scope is much smaller here and it didn't connect for me. Look forward to reading more from her.
July 2, 2023
First published in the early 80s, Howland has a perfect eye and ear for mid century Chicago. So glad to know others will enjoy these three fresh and haunting novellas. Can be compared to our finest: Lorrie Moore, Lucia Berlin,Tessa Hadley.
December 26, 2022
"She would have been pleased--flattered--a kind of discovery; like finding out that we speak in prose."
I can't believe it..............
I can't believe it..............
February 28, 2024
Un libro compuesto por tres nouvelles que retratan a la perfección las relaciones humanas bajo la mirada de tres mujeres diferentes. Se nota la perspicacia afilada de Bette para retratar a las personas 🤎
December 7, 2023
Lo primero que debo decir es: la prosa de la autora se lee muy fácil, y con poco nos dice un montón. Algunos temas fuertes los pasa como algo más y es tan real que duele💔
Este libro contiene tres historias, para mà están ambientadas en la segunda mitad del siglo XX, en Estados Unidos, por detalles del contexto de los protagonistas.
Estas tres historias tienen un punto en común: tratan las relaciones familiares en la vida diaria de sus personajes.
Primera nouvelle: Dios los crÃa 4🌟 Esti es la narradora protagonista de esta historia, adolescente en una familia inmigrante que tiene mucho que contar.
Segunda nouvelle: El viejo bromista 2🌟 Narrador omnisciente que sigue a cuatro personajes que interactúan en esta historia, pero a la par conviven con la soledad.
Tercera nouvelle: La vida que me diste 3🌟 Sally es nuestra narradora protagonista, vemos cómo analiza "El Futuro" al ir viendo cómo envejecen sus padres.
No sé si este libro sea para todo el mundo, pero definitivamente es interesante de leer.
Este libro contiene tres historias, para mà están ambientadas en la segunda mitad del siglo XX, en Estados Unidos, por detalles del contexto de los protagonistas.
Estas tres historias tienen un punto en común: tratan las relaciones familiares en la vida diaria de sus personajes.
Primera nouvelle: Dios los crÃa 4🌟 Esti es la narradora protagonista de esta historia, adolescente en una familia inmigrante que tiene mucho que contar.
Segunda nouvelle: El viejo bromista 2🌟 Narrador omnisciente que sigue a cuatro personajes que interactúan en esta historia, pero a la par conviven con la soledad.
Tercera nouvelle: La vida que me diste 3🌟 Sally es nuestra narradora protagonista, vemos cómo analiza "El Futuro" al ir viendo cómo envejecen sus padres.
No sé si este libro sea para todo el mundo, pero definitivamente es interesante de leer.
November 26, 2022
In movies, directors or actors will often write backstories for their characters. Backstories are not fully fleshed out stories, they are supplements to what we see on screen. They don't make for compelling reading.
The three stories by Howland collected here have that quality of unnecessary supplements to other material, but in this case, these are the only stories of these characters that we actually get to read. They feel like backstories of characters we should have been introduced to elsewhere in far more detail, and in far more compelling narratives. The problem here is not that these are "character" stories without much plot, because I love character stories. The problem, instead, is that we're getting characters who simply are not very interesting. Howland was an excellent prose stylist, but judging by the material here, she wasn't a great storyteller. These stories read like those written by a gifted writer who was short on ideas, but decided to write what little she came up with.
The three stories by Howland collected here have that quality of unnecessary supplements to other material, but in this case, these are the only stories of these characters that we actually get to read. They feel like backstories of characters we should have been introduced to elsewhere in far more detail, and in far more compelling narratives. The problem here is not that these are "character" stories without much plot, because I love character stories. The problem, instead, is that we're getting characters who simply are not very interesting. Howland was an excellent prose stylist, but judging by the material here, she wasn't a great storyteller. These stories read like those written by a gifted writer who was short on ideas, but decided to write what little she came up with.
June 13, 2022
DNF . Nothing wrong with it as such just very dated. If i'd read at the time it was written I would have loved it
February 27, 2023
Ice cool, smooth prose.
January 14, 2025
“There is nothing here I would ever choose � and nothing I can ever part with.� I am a Bette Howland devotee, happy to have finally read her third and final book, Things To Come And Go, a triptych of novellas; I’ve loved her work since Blue In Chicago (aka Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) was first and finally published in the UK in 2020, and loved her more when I read W-3 in 2021. The trinity of her works intersect clearly in this book, her preoccupations vivid throughout. First, in ‘Birds of a Feather�, a family and their idiosyncrasies are depicted via conversations and vignettes, a playful, evasive, fixated narrator moving from childhood into adolescence; in the Abarbanels, Howland shows the lines between love and hate, desire and disgust. “I kept waiting for him to say something more; something else that I could understand. But he never did.� The epistemic distance is rife elsewhere; ‘The Old Wheeze� features Mrs Cheatham, a babysitter who “went into people’s houses, she knew what their lives were like�; Mark, a sweet, frightened child following his mother (“Missing her was his life�, and “It was closest to his mother; she was […] out there. Darkness was falling; he couldn’t see where.� ); his nervous mother Sydney, her aloof boyfriend Leo, who “doubted if Sydney had ever consciously chosen anything.� Lastly, in ‘The Life You Gave Me�, a woman reckons with a difficult relationship to her father (“We hadn’t shot all the arrows in our quivers�) and wonders about familial legacy: “why he should be so bound and determined to inflict this bitterness, I can’t say. But we have to pass on something, don’t we? Otherwise, what’s the good?�
January 7, 2024
En estos tres relatos, la autora estadounidense Better Howland, nos permite husmear en la intimidad de tres mujeres distintas, con pequeñas y profundas cosas en común.
El amor y la familia, los poderosos vÃnculos que atraviesan y definen nuestras vidas.
De igual manera, Howland explora el paso del tiempo, la vejez y la innegable muerte de quienes amamos, hasta que llega la propia.
"La vida que me diste" es el relato que más me gustó. En el, una hija recibe la temida noticia de que su padre tuvo un accidente, aunque esté bien. Vuela de urgencia, y en su recorrido vemos su infancia, el personaje que fue su padre, la forma en la que marcó su vida, las palizas, las peleas y las grandes victorias, el dolor de lo que alguna vez dijimos y que nos dijeron.
Para, al final de todo, entender que cuando crecemos vemos las cosas diferentes, nos damos cuenta que exageramos algunas y que decidimos olvidar otras.
Excelente libro para descubrir una autora que, según reza la contraportada, ha sido una escritora largamente olvidada...
Una injusticia total.
El amor y la familia, los poderosos vÃnculos que atraviesan y definen nuestras vidas.
De igual manera, Howland explora el paso del tiempo, la vejez y la innegable muerte de quienes amamos, hasta que llega la propia.
"La vida que me diste" es el relato que más me gustó. En el, una hija recibe la temida noticia de que su padre tuvo un accidente, aunque esté bien. Vuela de urgencia, y en su recorrido vemos su infancia, el personaje que fue su padre, la forma en la que marcó su vida, las palizas, las peleas y las grandes victorias, el dolor de lo que alguna vez dijimos y que nos dijeron.
Para, al final de todo, entender que cuando crecemos vemos las cosas diferentes, nos damos cuenta que exageramos algunas y que decidimos olvidar otras.
Excelente libro para descubrir una autora que, según reza la contraportada, ha sido una escritora largamente olvidada...
Una injusticia total.
May 25, 2021
“The marriage had not been happy, and not really, Sydney felt, a marriage. Not that she knew what a marriage really was; but she was sure there ought to be more to it than that. She didn’t miss her former husband (Sydney didn’t car for the term ‘ex�; it suggested something acquired rather than lost, some status she could not connect with herself; but she did have to admit it was a lot easier to say.) She didn’t miss him, and she was never as lonely now as she had been with him; though often she was more frightened. And yet in that respect also; that there was nothing much to be sorry about, nothing special to regret; no very great loss because there had been so little to lose � she felt short-changed. She would rather have had regrets.� � "The Old Wheeze"
August 12, 2023
My appeal to these three short stories was the promise of exploring Jewish characters in Chicago (and therefore like me, though a few decades earlier).
And while all the stories did touch on those topics, I wish the stories dug more into them.
Take the father who only occasionally chooses to follow Jewish law, but when he does is strictly orthodox. I would like to have known more, but it's incidental to the story.
The description, and the introduction, point out the "elusive narrator," which was interesting in those 2 stories. I wish the middle story had done that too, because the focus switches in the middle and the story meanders.
I think the author wanted to make a point that was different than what I was looking for, which is OK, but I wasn't able to find it.
And while all the stories did touch on those topics, I wish the stories dug more into them.
Take the father who only occasionally chooses to follow Jewish law, but when he does is strictly orthodox. I would like to have known more, but it's incidental to the story.
The description, and the introduction, point out the "elusive narrator," which was interesting in those 2 stories. I wish the middle story had done that too, because the focus switches in the middle and the story meanders.
I think the author wanted to make a point that was different than what I was looking for, which is OK, but I wasn't able to find it.
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March 25, 2025I read this back in 2022 when A Public Space Books put this trio of short fiction gems back into print, and I recently wrote a review of it on my blog: thebookedescapeplancom.wordpress.com
This is the beginning of my efforts to launch a book review blog which focuses on small literary presses, works in translation, and overlooked out-of-print gems.
This is the beginning of my efforts to launch a book review blog which focuses on small literary presses, works in translation, and overlooked out-of-print gems.
April 20, 2023
There were some absolutely beautiful passages across these 3 short stories but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’m just not a novella girly but for whatever reason it was so hard for me to get invested in these and pay attention.
Read
September 26, 2022well that was very good. Last story felt tacked on in order to make it a book. Also was full of typos??
October 22, 2022
Of the three, The Life You Gave Me is the best, with Howland's descriptions spinning out to a breath-stopping ending.
August 30, 2023
I found this a confusing read, if I’m honest.
September 7, 2023
It was the third novella, The Life you Gave Me, that really knocked me over. Each sentence is a shorty story and I’m tempted to read it again in a week or so to capture everything I missed.
February 15, 2024
beautiful use of imagery
November 29, 2022
kind of a master class in observational writing, really beautiful descriptions
January 23, 2025
loved devoured will love and devour again soon
the life you gave me was my favorite section
“things were going to get better. in the future. the everlasting future. and now all of a sudden they see the truth. the Future? what Future? what’s everybody talking about?� :,) love love loved
the life you gave me was my favorite section
“things were going to get better. in the future. the everlasting future. and now all of a sudden they see the truth. the Future? what Future? what’s everybody talking about?� :,) love love loved
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