The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966
 Front cover of The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966. | |
| Author | Richard Brautigan |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Edmund Shea |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | March 23, 1971 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 226 pages (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 978-0-671-20872-1 (hardcover) |
| OCLC | 132408 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.B826 Ab PS3503.R2736 |
| Preceded by | The Revenge of the Lawn (1970) |
| Followed by | The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western (1974) |
The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 is a novel by Richard Brautigan first published in 1971 by Simon & Schuster. In subsequent printings the title is often shortened to simply The Abortion.
Plot summary
The Abortion is a genre novel parody[1] concerning the librarian of a very unusual California library which accepts books in any form and from anyone who wishes to drop one off at the library—children submit tales told in crayon about their toys; teenagers tell tales of angst and old people drop by with their memoirs—described as "the unwanted, the lyrical and haunted volumes of American writing" in the novel.[2] Summoned by a silver bell at all hours, submissions are catalogued at the librarian's discretion; not by the Dewey Decimal system, but by placement on whichever magically dust-free shelf would, in the author's judgment, serve best as the book's home.[3]
One day a woman named Vida appears at the library's door. Although shy and awkward she is described as the most beautiful woman in the world, who American admen "would have made into a national park if they would have gotten their hands on her."[2] . It is not described how admen working in the private sector would profit from the proceeds of publicly funded parks. Vida describes a lifetime of trauma and body dysmorphia, and the narrator proceeds to have sex with her. When Vida suggests turning the lights off during sex, the narrator says it is "startling to hear her panic." Afterwards, Vida describes women who desire a body like hers and move "hell and high water with dieting, operations, injections, obscene undergarments" to modify their appearance as "dumb cunts."
Vida later becomes pregnant. The narrator calls Foster, a character who guards part of the library's extended collection in a cave and spends his free time objectifying and "chasing" women of color. Foster asks the narrator if he has any money to pay for some or part of the abortion. The narrator asks Foster if he is kidding. Foster asks the narrator if Vida is "good-looking," and then says that the procedure costs two hundred dollars "if you make the good doctor toe the line. He likes to speculate sometimes—it's the businessman in him." Foster expresses admiration for the narrator, saying that he never thought the narrator "had it in him" to impregnate someone who did not want a child.
Foster travels to the library and asks the narrator if he is sure that Vida wants an abortion. The narrator answers for himself and Vida in the affirmative. Foster also asks Vida if she is sure. She says she is. The narrator expresses extensive concern about his absence from the library for a day or two during Vida's procedure. Vida and Foster reassure the narrator that Foster will take care of the library during Vida's procedure. Vida and the narrator go to sleep smiling at each other, and then wake up very early in the morning. Vida cooks breakfast for the narrator and Foster, which she cannot eat due to her procedure that day. She then convinces Foster that she is capable of driving a van, so that she may drive the van to the airport for her procedure. Though skeptical of Vida's capacity to drive a van, after Vida describes many vehicles and vans that she has driven, as well as experiences piloting a plane, Foster relents and allows Vida to turn on the van. After seeing Vida turn on the van, the narrator says that "Foster was pleased with her performance, nodding as if she were an equal." Foster then allows Vida to drive herself and the narrator to the airport.
The narrator is overwhelmed and bewildered by the world outside of the library. Vida expresses that she would like the narrator to leave his job at the library, which require his presence twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year. She offers to support him if he leaves his unpaid job and moves in with her. The narrator evades this conversation. Vida also asks Foster if he is anxious about her procedure. She reassures him that her procedure will go smoothly. She also reassures him that the library will not be harmed in his absence.
At the airport men gawk at Vida and the narrator describes her breasts, and the breasts of other women relative to Vida's breasts. He also describes the general beauty of lack thereof of other women at the airport relative to Vida's beauty, and explains that all the other women hate Vida due to their aesthetic inferiority.
Vida and the Narrator eventually arrive in Tijuana, Mexico to secure an abortion. The doctor performing the procedure asks the narrator if he would like to watch Vida's procedure. The narrator declines to watch Vida's procedure, opting instead to listen to it outside of the operating room. Afterwards, he sits next to unconscious Vida and eavesdrops on the procedures of three other women in three chapters entitled "My First Abortion," "My Second Abortion" and "My Third Abortion."
When Vida and the narrator return to the library, the narrator discovers a woman whose main characteristic is "middle aged" has taken his unpaid job. Vida dances on the steps within twenty-four hours of being fully anesthetized when she hears that the narrator will no longer be working an unpaid position twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year. She invites the narrator and Foster to come to her apartment, as she has plenty of space for them both.
The book concludes with Foster watching an unnamed new character described as "Pakistani" and "his girlfriend" cooking him dinner of Pakistani food in a house they live in with Vida and the narrator. Vida is working as a sex worker. The narrator is not contributing to household income, and is instead fundraising for the foundation that funds the library where he was formerly not paid to stay in twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year. He concludes that Vida was right all along: he is, indeed, "a hero in Berkeley."
Characters in The Abortion
- Narrator: The main character is an unnamed narrator who lives and works at a library housing only unpublished manuscripts. He got the job from the previous librarian who quit because he feared children. He is thirty-one years old. The narrator has not left the library in three years. He meets a twenty-year-old woman named Vida, an attractive but awkward-acting woman who falls in love with him. The narrator primarily describes women based on how attractive they are to him or how much they envy Vida. He objectifies every woman he meets in his head. When Vida becomes pregnant they travel to Tijuana, Mexico, to secure an abortion. When he and Vida return from Tijuana, he loses his job at the library to a middle-aged woman.
- Vida: Vida is the supporting character in the story about her own abortion. She meets the narrator in the library when she brings in a poetry collection about her body. She describes suffering from what might be body dysmorphia, and/or trauma from constant objectification and harassment. Vida describes a man who dies because he is so busy objectifying her while driving. When Vida meets the librarian, she details her trauma and body dysmorphia, and he proceeds to have sex with her. Some weeks later, Vida discovers she is pregnant. During the course of their relationship the narrator says that he has made Vida more comfortable with her body. Vida later becomes a sex worker.
- Foster: An exuberant, earthy man named Foster, who is described by the author as great hearted but whose dialogue primarily involves objectifying Vida and tokenizing women of color, packages books from the library if the librarian is out of room and takes the overflow books to be stored in caves. Foster thinks the librarian's job is too monastic as well as a bit wacky. When the narrator and Vida have to leave for Tijuana, Foster has to watch over the library while they are gone. At the end, Foster lets a woman who has come to leave her book at the library watch over the place. The woman takes over, and the narrator loses his job.
The Brautigan Library
In an homage to Richard Brautigan, The Abortion's concept was put into practice in the form of the Brautigan Library. Housed in a section of the larger Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, Vermont, the library accepts only unpublished manuscripts and had a catalogue of 325 works as of 2004.[4]
According to the News from the Fletcher Free Library, there were once plans to move the Brautigan Library to the San Francisco Public Library. However, according to the Brautigan Library's website, the contents of the Library were moved to and put permanently on display at the Clark County Historical Museum (a Carnegie Library building like the San Francisco Library) in 2010.
Footnotes
- ↑ eNotes.com LLC (2006). Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Richard Brautigan 1935-1984. Retrieved October 17, 2006.
- 1 2 "The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966" by Joseph Butwin.Saturday Review 12 June 1971. Electronic abstract at Brautigan Bibliography and Archive. Retrieved November 4, 2006.
- ↑ AHA Books (1995 - 2005). Put your Book in the Brautigan Virtual Library. Retrieved November 4, 2006.
- ↑ The New York Times Company (2004). Boston Globe article: Unusual library may get new chapter by Kevin O'Kelly. Retrieved November 4, 2006.
