The Abortion by Richard Brautigan
"The Abortion: An Historical Romance" by Richard Brautigan is a unique exploration of love, literature, and the complexities of human relationships against the backdrop of the abortion experience in mid-20th century America. The story follows an unnamed narrator who leads a reclusive life as a librarian in a bizarre library filled with books authored by society's outcasts and misfits. This library symbolizes both isolation and refuge, housing works that often mirror the struggles of its contributors. The narrator's relationship with Vida, a strikingly beautiful woman facing an unexpected pregnancy, serves as the central plot, leading them on a journey to Mexico for an abortion.
Brautigan infuses traditional romance elements with zany humor, creating a narrative that reflects on the dissonance between literary expectations and the realities of life. The characters grapple with themes of identity, societal pressures, and the pursuit of meaning, while the narrator's self-imposed detachment from the world highlights a struggle for connection. Ultimately, the novel is a commentary on the complexities of crafting a meaningful existence in a rapidly changing America, illustrating how literature can shape our perceptions and experiences.
On this Page
The Abortion by Richard Brautigan
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1971
Type of work: Novel
The Work
The Abortion: An Historical Romance was Brautigan’s first book to which he gave a subtitle; by doing so he clearly indicated that the work was based on an already established subgenre. A writer of such originality, however, does not produce the sort of romance that most readers might expect. Instead, he infuses the form with his own themes and zany humor.
The unnamed narrator of The Abortion, though distinguished by eccentric attitudes and gentleness, is not as fully developed a character as the narrators of several other of Brautigan’s books, most notably Jesse of A Confederate General from Big Sur and the unnamed narrator of In Watermelon Sugar. While he is admirable for his view of humanity, a self-imposed isolation and his chosen role in life reduce him in stature. Distant from most of society and remote in his feelings, he lives a life apart, both in the depths of his distinctly odd library (where he also lives) and in the labyrinth-like rooms of the Mexican abortion doctor later in the story.
Early in the story, the narrator describes his strange library: The books are all donated by the people who write them, society’s sad losers and misfits, and Brautigan goes into considerable detail with titles (Growing Flowers by Candlelight in Hotel Rooms, The Stereo and God) and descriptions of the often unhappy or disturbed people who get to shelve their books themselves. Included in the catalog is a book called Moose, written by one Richard Brautigan, “who looked as if he would be more at home in another era.”
In a flashback, the narrator relates how he met Vida, the extremely beautiful woman with whom he is living when the story opens. She, too, had brought her story, a tale of how her body does not really suit her, to be dutifully accepted and cataloged. Wherever she goes, even on the abortion trip to Mexico, her beauty brings chaos by the attention men pay to it. The stereotype of the mayhem-producing beautiful female can be traced in American literature from Katrina Van Tassel in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1819) to Eula Varner in William Faulkner’s The Hamlet (1940). Vida, as a character name, is derived from the Latin vita, meaning life.
This allegorical naming of a character is matched by the allegorical nature of the library itself. The narrator is the thirty-fifth or thirty-sixth librarian, which corresponds to the numbering of American presidents at the time the work was written—a split term for one president accounting for the confusion. In addition, the library is run by America Forever, Etc.
After they discover Vida’s pregnancy, she and the narrator travel by plane to Mexico for the abortion, and this trip ironically represents the quest found in traditional romances. From beginning to end, Brautigan adheres closely enough to the traditional romance form so that readers familiar with it can recognize the various necessary items and feel its subjective intensity. At the same time, Brautigan’s treatment of these essential forms is humorous, which casts an ironic light upon the entire novel.
Upon returning to San Francisco after the abortion, the narrator learns that he has lost his position at the library. While this forces him into the harsh realities of life outside his pleasantly numbing cocoon, where he had essentially retreated, Vida and his friend Foster welcome the change. He will become a hero in Berkeley, they assure him, and the final scene finds him outside among the students, contentedly collecting money for America Forever, Etc. Like the better-known Trout Fishing in America, this work deals with the problem of creating a meaningful life in the United States during the middle of the twentieth century.
The Abortion is the story of a man who has been strongly influenced by the literature he has read and obviously absorbed. The difficulties he encounters in the broader world are caused in part by his belief that life is—or ought to be—like literature. Literary forms, Brautigan suggests, provide a framework for thoughts and expectations. The Abortion shows how skewed a life based on these kinds of expectations can become.
Bibliography
Barber, John F. Richard Brautigan: An Annotated Bibliography. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1990.
Bradbury, Malcolm. The Modern American Novel. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Brautigan, Ianthe. You Can’t Catch Death: A Daughter’s Memoir. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.
Ch netier, Marc. Richard Brautigan. New York: Methuen, 1983.
Foster, Edward Halsey. Richard Brautigan. Boston: Twayne, 1983.
Iftekharuddin, Farhat. “The New Aesthetics in Brautigan’s Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970.” In Creative and Critical Approaches to the Short Story, edited by Noel Harold Kaylor. Lewiston, Ky.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.
Keeler, Greg. Waltzing with the Captain: Remembering Richard Brautigan. Boise, Idaho : Limberlost Press, 2004.
Mills, Joseph. Reading Richard Brautigan’s “Trout Fishing in America.” Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1998.
Seymore, James. “Author Richard Brautigan Apparently Takes His Own Life, But He Leaves a Rich Legacy.” People Weekly 22 (November 12, 1984): 40-41.
Stull, William L. “Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America: Notes of a Native Son.” American Literature 56 (March, 1984): 69-80.
Wright, Lawrence. “The Life and Death of Richard Brautigan.” Rolling Stone (April 11, 1985): 29.