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Richard Brautigan: Ai no yukue (Japanese language, 2002, Hayakawa Shobō)

263 pages

Japanese language

Published March 3, 2002 by Hayakawa Shobō.

ISBN:
978-4-15-120021-2
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4 stars (1 review)

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.

he Abortion is a genre novel parody 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.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.

7 editions

Review of 'The Abortion' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I cannot fully understand, or put into words, the effect The Abortion had on me, and I have the feeling that overanalyzing the work will only dilute its already-fragile nature. There is very little in the way of plot, and the work as a whole has the effervensence of nostalgia. It's part fantasy, part romance, and part jarring clash with reality. There is no way the narrator's job can exist, and I never once believed it could (although I desperately wanted to believe). The Abortion is a clumsy little beast, and hard to defend from any traditional narative standpoint. But it is one that engenders great affection.

Read the rest of the review here.