HappeningIn 1963, Annie Ernaux, 23 and unattached, realizes she is pregnant. Shame arises in her like a plague: Understanding that her pregnancy will mark her and her family as social failures, she knows she cannot keep that child. This is the story, written forty years later, of a trauma Ernaux never overcame. In a France where abortion was illegal, she attempted, in vain, to self-administer the abortion with a knitting needle. Fearful and desperate, she finally located an abortionist, and ends up in a hospital emergency ward where she nearly dies. In Happening, Ernaux sifts through her memories and her journal entries dating from those days. Clearly, cleanly, she gleans the meanings of her experience. |
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17th arrondissement abor abortionist afternoon ANNIE ERNAUX asked bathroom began belly body Bordeaux Boulevard de l'Yser Café Métropole called diary I wrote diary read dirty linen doctor door dorm embryo empty event eyes face Faluche fear feel felt foetus fucking plumber gave girl gynecologist hand hospital Hôtel-Dieu hundred francs images imagined Impasse Cardinet injections inside January Jean kitchen knew knitting needle Kosovar Le Mont-Dore leaving legs lives Madame P-R Malesherbes Métro mind Mont-Dore months mother never night pain parents Paris Passage Cardinet pregnancy certificate pregnant prescription realized Rouen Saint-Charles-Borromée scene seemed Soeur Sourire stared station stomach stomatologist stood stopped story street student sure take penicillin TANYA LESLIE tell thighs thing tion told took umbilical cord university canteen vagina waiting walked wanted woman womb women who abort words writing young