Happenings: a memoir during abortion

Book author: Annie Ernaux

Translator: Tania Leslie

My notes & highlights

From Farhana apu’s review, I was intrigued to read this book. Two things appealed to me- it’s a non-traditional story, like a taboo and it involves womanhood. It was a short read, 96 pages. So I picked this up in no time and I loved it!

The author reflects back to 40 years ago of her life. The book is a memoir of her abortion period. What I loved about the book from the start is- it’s a straightforward tale of experience, experience through body and mind and surroundings. Not a tale filled with horror and struggle to get sympathy or to prove one’s judgment. It’s a tale of facts and the author shares her experience to let the world know that this is the way it is.

The specialty of the writing was- the story is told live. One paragraph author is giving details about 1960, next paragraph she is expressing her present feelings about that time. It’s very much like hearing a conversation. When sharing details, Annie chose letters to denote a character instead of using their actual name. And the details included the setting of the surroundings like which movie she was watching when an event occurred, how normalcy meant at that time, honest things that our memory remembers because memory has a way of remembering trivial things!

I believe people are a bit different sometimes by the proportion of hormones they have, which falls us into two large groups- men and women (not necessarily biological, more mental), where one group tends to have some hormones more or less than the other. Annie seemed like a man to me, or of that type who enjoys making love and does not want to have consequences. Which is okay. But Annie unfortunately has a woman’s body. So her decision to abort costs more than a man who sleeps with a woman, makes her pregnant and gets a phone call that he fathered a child and goes on about his life like nothing changed. Annie tried her best to go on like nothing changed. The story tells about her courage, her audacity. I might have a different choice for myself, but I looked at Annie’s experience with admiration and I felt for her. It’s definitely a story to look at other’s experiences and feel a connection for them!