A reclusive young man works in a San Francisco library for unpublishable books. Life's losers, an astonishing number of whom seem to be writers, can bring their manuscripts to the library, where they will be welcomed, registered and shelved. They will not be read, but they will be cherished. In comes Vida, with her manuscript. Her book is about her gorgeous body in which she feels uncomfortable. The librarian makes her feel comfortable, and together they live in the back of the library until a trip to Tijuana changes them in ways neither of them had ever expected.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Richard Brautigan was born in Washington in 1935. During the 1950's he moved to California and became involved in the Beat Movement while developing his writing career. He died in 1984.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the plain and beautiful novel,
By Eisuke Umehara (Tokyo, JAPAN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 (Hardcover)
This is one of the best works of Richard Brautigan. One day a man who lives in a unique library meets a girl who has perfect beauty, and a strange love story starts off. The plain and beautiful style, which has influenced Raymond Carver, is easy to read, but what it says is never a simple matter: this book is written about the loneliness that everyone who lives in this modern world has. But you needn't worry that you'll get depressed after you read this. I assure you that, instead, you'll feel a gentle optimism at the end of the novel.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just a closer walk with thee,
By Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 (Paperback)
Somewhere out there maybe there's a library for all the books never published, by people who weren't authors, for readers who weren't interested. Maybe my reviews should be sent there ! Richard Brautigan imagined himself working in such a place, where the overflow was stored in caves (but what about seepage? Whoa, man, what a bummer !) He no doubt thought melancholy thoughts about how his own writings would wind up just in such a place. But as for me, that's the wrong tune. He captured so much about his times, about human nature, about life itself in those minimalist little chapters of his. THE ABORTION is more lineal than his other works-it has a plot that he sticks to, a plot that even got me feeling tense as with some kind of pop thriller. He meets a most beautiful girl who is disgusted with her own beauty, doesn't feel it becomes her true soul. She settles down with the author in his weird library, a place where he has been hiding away from the "real world" for three years. But one thing leads to another, and an abortion becomes necessary. Given the way our great nation is going, someday soon this book is going to be burned; read it while you can. The couple fly down to San Diego, cross over to Tijuana, and find the abortionist. What happens ? Meatball doesn't reveal endings. Sorry.The Brautigan humor, the whimsical observations plunked down in the middle of a totally different conversation. I like non-sequiturs. Perhaps enlightenment is found in such bouncing, scintillating simplicity. In any case, if you liked any others of Brautigan's work, you'll like this one for sure. Read the rest of them too. Richard Brautigan is gone. We will not see his like again, more's the pity.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There is no more elegant use of prose.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 (Hardcover)
"The Abortion" by Richard Brautigan may be one of the greatest works of American literature. A simple story of a librarian at an unusual library in San Francisco, who accompanies his girlfriend to a Tijuana abortion, the book spares no detail, but is so spare as to let the imagination run wild; yet is so precise that no scar is left on the mind. It can be read in an afternoon, and will impress one forever
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