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 (Blue in Chicago) and perhaps her memoir (W-3) too.

This was a little too descriptive for me. The stories focuses on the physical attributes of people a little too much for my comfort. It is clever writing, but I was unable to read it all the way through an therefore cannot provide a complete review.
I think the writing style, will appeal to many who like reading books about people in general

Things to Come and Go by Bette Howland contains a collection of character-driven stories from a bygone era.

Beautifully written and insightfulness stories. Howland brings characters to life and uses minute details to create the worlds in which they live. Three interesting stories that I would recommend if you enjoy character led pieces and excellent writing.

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

NOTE: The Picador edition hasn't been entered on Goodreads

This was a character driven collection of short stories, which I sometimes like but don't always work as well for me. Overall, I think these stories need to be credited for the time when they were published!

First published in 1984, Things to Come and Go, Bette Howland’s final book, is a collection of haunting urgency about arrivals and departures, and the private, insoluble dramas in the lives of three women. These three novellas showcase her talents as an early master and pioneer of autofiction,However unlike the writings of Tove Ditlevsen, I find these stories to be slightly dated partly because they are so clearly rooted in their time and their perfect depictions of setting and character and the minutiae of day to day existence are captured in such exquisite and quirky detail that it is impossible to relate to them in any universal manner.

I very much enjoyed the authors prose which displays her intelligence, insightfulness, and incomparable eye for illuminating detail and ear for captivating dialogue as well as her ability to evoke a specific place and time and the emotional complexities of close relationships. Unfortunately this title didn't work for me but I would pick up another work by her especially her memoir W-3, a 1974 memoir of her time in a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt.

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.