W-3 - A Memoir (Hardcover)

'W-3 is one hell of a debut' Lucy Scholes, Paris Review 'At moments dazzlingly and daringly written' Rachel Cook, Observer 'Howland is finally getting the recognition that she deserves' Sarah Hughes, iNews W-3 is a small psychiatric ward in a large university hospital, a world of pills and passes dispensed by an all-powerful staff, a world of veteran patients with grab-bags of tricks, a world of dishevelled, moment-to-moment existence on the edge of permanence. Bette Howland was one of those patients. 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 labouring 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 a vivid - and often surprisingly funny - portrait of the extraordinary community of Ward 3 and a record of a defining moment in a writer's life. The book itself would be her salvation: she wrote herself out of the grave. Originally published in 1974 and rediscovered forty years later, this is the first edition of W-3 to be published in the UK. With an original introduction by Yiyun Li, author of Where Reasons End. '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 . . . At last it had dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.'

General

Imprint:	Picador
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	June 2021
Authors:	Bette Howland
Introduction by:	Yiyun Li
Dimensions:	224 x 144 x 30mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	224
ISBN-13:	978-1-5290-3587-2
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Literary Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social welfare & social services > Care of the mentally ill Books > Biography > Literary
LSN:	1-5290-3587-2
Barcode:	9781529035872

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!