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25th out of 148 books
—
101 voters
The Abortion: An Historical Romance, 1966
The Abortion is a genre novel parody about a California library which accepts books in any form & from all who wish to donate—children submit crayoned tales of toys; teens of angst & elders drop of memoirs—"the unwanted, the lyrical & haunted volumes of American writing". Summoned by a silver bell at all hours, submissions are cataloged by librarian's discreti...more
hardback, 226 pages
Published
January 1973
by Vintage/Ebury (Random House Group)
(first published 1971)
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Beautifully done.
The library can be seen as a metaphor for so much. I see it as a repository for lost things. These books are put into the library because they won't be published and they won't be read. These are all books that will go unused. They'll be sealed up in a cave and never seen again, much like the librarian and everything that matters to him.
The trip to the Mexican abortion clinic was almost like having a lucid dream. I was aware of my surroundings and knew I wasn't thinking my own...more
The library can be seen as a metaphor for so much. I see it as a repository for lost things. These books are put into the library because they won't be published and they won't be read. These are all books that will go unused. They'll be sealed up in a cave and never seen again, much like the librarian and everything that matters to him.
The trip to the Mexican abortion clinic was almost like having a lucid dream. I was aware of my surroundings and knew I wasn't thinking my own...more
This book has the most random premise EVER.
It starts out in a mythic realm: a man lives in an eternal library, part of which is built deep into a mountain, where he never leaves and it is never closed. Everyone that comes to the library comes for one reason only; to deliver to it a book they have written and intend to let no one else read. A woman arrives and he is struck by her beauty. They fall in love.
He gets her pregnant and they go to Mexico for an abortion THE END.
I am completely serious....more
It starts out in a mythic realm: a man lives in an eternal library, part of which is built deep into a mountain, where he never leaves and it is never closed. Everyone that comes to the library comes for one reason only; to deliver to it a book they have written and intend to let no one else read. A woman arrives and he is struck by her beauty. They fall in love.
He gets her pregnant and they go to Mexico for an abortion THE END.
I am completely serious....more
Another fantastic book by my fave writer. Whenever I'm reading him I start to notice an incredible amount of sychronicity between the things he's describing and the little things that are happening around me. For example, while reading this book my bus pulls into the Fresno greyhound depot right as the hero flies over Fresno and looks down from his plane window. May seem boring in type but it gets increasingly strange as they add up.
*spoiler (doesn't matter)
His style is so strange I think that...more
*spoiler (doesn't matter)
His style is so strange I think that...more
Trovatemi un titolo più fuorviante di questo. Perchè davvero non so se la colpa sia del traduttore o dell'editore ma da un libro intitolato "La casa dei libri" mi immagino un'enorme edificio pieno di libri, con vicende che si svolgono qui, con chissà quali titoli... ed invece la biblioteca fa solo da sfondo agli eventi, per i primi capitoli è il centro di tutto, poi relegata a sfondo e infine lasciata a sè stessa e liquidata in quattro e quattr'otto. Il titolo originale è invece "The abortion: a...more
"La casa dei libri" parla di una misteriosa "biblioteca" nella quale vengono accolti e raccolti tutti i dattiloscritti e manoscritti più strambi della terra. Si tratta di libri che se proposti ad un qualsiasi editore non verrebbero mai pubblicati, ma che invece nell'edificio con la campanella d'argento e la porta a vetrate trovano sempre qualcuno, 24 ore su 24, a dargli un entusiasta benvenuto e a catalogarli. Ma la casa dei libri rappresenta soltanto la parte iniziale della vicenda; è allo stes...more
It pretty much breaks my heart to knock this book down from five stars to four, but that's the chance you take when you re-read something that you loved many years ago. The book is still great, of course, with an outstandingly original premise (a library for books people write one copy of, that will never ever get published, let alone read by anyone else), and the characters are super... But it just wasn't as knock-out fantastic this time as it was when I was nineteen.
1 like · like · see review
This is an odd book that left me feeling pleasantly uncomfortable. This is the type of book I know would never get published today for reasons that stretch beyond the shocking title. Brautigan's prose is delicate and sticky, meandering and directed and balances a surreal state and reality with groovy smoothness. It's fresh and easy in a way that I feel like must have BEEN the 70s. The protagonist is an all-hours, in-house librarian to a backwards library in which patrons bring in books they have...more
A book about a library where people take books that they have written themselves but don't intend to publish. The books are read by the librarian and nobody else. You couldn't check one of these books out if you wanted to. When the library gets too full of donations the older ones are stored in caves.
I read this one shortly after leaving the Hare Krishna movement. At the time I was working on a memoir of my experiences which would eventually become The Life And Times Of Bhakta Jim. I had few hop...more
I read this one shortly after leaving the Hare Krishna movement. At the time I was working on a memoir of my experiences which would eventually become The Life And Times Of Bhakta Jim. I had few hop...more
Mar 10, 2009
Lee Anne
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favorite-author,
re-read
I hadn't read this in about twenty years, I'm guessing, and I wondered how it would hold up. Richard Brautigan writes like no other, and I still love him to death, but reading him at 40 instead of 20 is a different experience. I used to recommend him to "young people" who read the usual counter-culture stuff (Bukowski, Burroughs, Thompson [that's Hunter S., not Jim, who's fallen back out of style it seems:] and Kerouac), but I'm not sure I would now. He's very of his time, and I hate to go so fa...more
One of the more enjoyable Brautigan works I've read, and not just for its lovely title. It follows a traditional plot line, which differs from some of Brautigan's other novels, and while I don't normally go for beginning-middle-end-type stories, I loved the parody and humor laced through this from start to finish.
Or maybe I'm just in love with the library, a building housing unpublished, handmade manuscripts by every unknown from old women to five-year-olds, organized completed at random. Seriou...more
Or maybe I'm just in love with the library, a building housing unpublished, handmade manuscripts by every unknown from old women to five-year-olds, organized completed at random. Seriou...more
Here some keywords I came across before reading Brautigan for the first time (a.k.a. this novel): hippie, cult, outsider, naïve, lunatic, beatnik etc. etc. Oh those lazy critics and their stereotypes.
I'll tell you what he is: an excellent writer of (in this case) a very tender story. Terrific.
PS Yesterday I finished Kafka on the Shore and funny enough I just discovered that Haruki Murakami cited him as a major influence. Well, perhaps he is, but Brautigan is obviously a more gifted writer.
I'll tell you what he is: an excellent writer of (in this case) a very tender story. Terrific.
PS Yesterday I finished Kafka on the Shore and funny enough I just discovered that Haruki Murakami cited him as a major influence. Well, perhaps he is, but Brautigan is obviously a more gifted writer.
The perfect book for a librarian to read while on vacation in San Francisco as the main character is a librarian who lives in San Francisco. The copy I read was loaned to me by a friend and read by two friends before me prior to being returned to its owner. The owner of this book asked me on a bus in San Francisco - "Did you like the Abortion?" To which I replied that I did. I went on happily chatting about how it was a nice to read something so different for the wonderful book that I had just r...more
Tre stelle non proprio pienissime ma assegnate sulla fiducia. Il romanzo è scorrevole e interessante perlomeno nella prima parte, dove ci vengono presentati dei personaggi bizzarri e simpatici alle prese con un tipo di biblioteca molto particolare. Poi però la narrazione prende una piega molto differente, che tiene fede al titolo originale del romanzo (Abortion: An Historical Romance) mentre l'italiano La casa dei libri induce a credere che tutto sia centrato sulla biblioteca di libri inediti. I...more
For me, Richard Brautigan has always walked a fine line between simplicity and genius, and this novel may tip too far to the former side. Perhaps this is a generational thing- I suppose in 1971, people talking matter-of-factly about traveling to Mexico for an abortion probably held a deeper meaning than the story did for me today. I can't say I'd recommend this book for anyone, but it did have moments of beauty - phrases that make you stop and re-read them to absorb everything they have to offer...more
Brautigan's books are best read in single seatings. This book is about a librarian who gets his girlfriend pregnant and then they have an abortion. However, I am told that the library where he works, where people drop off whatever they have written as opposed to a library where you take out books, is a symbol for the sixities. If this is true, then the library is a story of hedonism, a great moment that produces nothing, hence the abortion. I did enjoy the book enough, as I usually do with Braut...more
Jul 05, 2011
Hermgirl
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone.
Shelves:
favorites,
cool-fiction
Read this, and like I do with most Brautigan, I found myself alternating between feeling "That's so beautifully written, I want to cry. Why can't *I* write like that?" and busting out laughing at his subtle humor.
I think people think Brautigan is that hippy-dippy "Watermelon Sugar" guy, but he really was a deeply gifted writer, I think if people read this and "Confederate General from Big Sur" they will definitely see what lies beneath the hippy surface.
He is one of my favorite writers of all ti...more
I think people think Brautigan is that hippy-dippy "Watermelon Sugar" guy, but he really was a deeply gifted writer, I think if people read this and "Confederate General from Big Sur" they will definitely see what lies beneath the hippy surface.
He is one of my favorite writers of all ti...more
"During the years that I had known Foster, I'd never seen him when he wasn't sweating. It was probably brought about by the size of his heart. I was always certain that his heart was as big as a cantaloupe and sometimes I went to sleep thinking about the size of Foster's heart. Once Foster's heart appeared to me in a dream. It was on the back of a horse and the horse was going into a bank and the bank was being pushed off a cloud. I couldn't see what was pushing the bank off, but it's strange to...more
I read this quite a few years ago, and it was lovely to read it again. I love Richard Brautigan, but this isn't my favourite of his. The first half is great though - in the library where he lives day and night and where people bring their handwritten books to store in the library where they will be kept forever and yet never read - and then the second half is about the abortion, which brings a big of gravitas to the book.
His writing is perfect though - quirky, charming, odd, witty, and strange...more
His writing is perfect though - quirky, charming, odd, witty, and strange...more
First of all, so you know I’m not giving the whole story away, what I tell here all happens in the first few pages of the book. I loved what I’d heard about this book: a library, but one like no other, because the books in it are one of a kind. They are all written by unknown people who have never written a book before and will never see the public reading them. The only stipulation is that the author bring the book in personally. Beyond that, the books can be printed, typed, handwritten, writte...more
About 20 years ago, a good friend introduced me to Richard Brautigan. I'm adding this review of one of his best known works so that I can also share it with a friend.
'The Abortion' is the story of a man working in a small, private library in San Francisco. However, this library isn't one that provides books for people to borrow. This library is a place where your bring a book that YOU have written. The librarian helps you enter it into the register and then you leave your book for storage at one...more
'The Abortion' is the story of a man working in a small, private library in San Francisco. However, this library isn't one that provides books for people to borrow. This library is a place where your bring a book that YOU have written. The librarian helps you enter it into the register and then you leave your book for storage at one...more
Ho iniziato a leggerlo e dalle prime pagine mi sembrava carino... sapete com'è: una biblioteca, un bibliotecario che vive per lei, scrittori che trovano accoglienza per i loro libri.
Insomma un'atmosfera piacevole.
Poi la caduta, ma che dico, la precipitazione verso il fondo.
Forse non mi sono mai incazzata così tanto per un libro, non mi sono mai sentita così presa in giro.
Leggi un titolo e t'immagini tutto un mondo.
Poi è ovvio che non sia tutto come te lo aspettavi, ma da qui a intitolare un...more
Insomma un'atmosfera piacevole.
Poi la caduta, ma che dico, la precipitazione verso il fondo.
Forse non mi sono mai incazzata così tanto per un libro, non mi sono mai sentita così presa in giro.
Leggi un titolo e t'immagini tutto un mondo.
Poi è ovvio che non sia tutto come te lo aspettavi, ma da qui a intitolare un...more
With the death of George Tiller, my thoughts returned to a book I'd read a year or so back by Richard Brautigan. Because it's been awhile since I read it, this will most likely be a minipost.
The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 has the tagline: "This novel is about the romantic possibilities of a public library in California." And really, that's what it is about. The narrator works in a library that accepts only unpublished works by anyone--children who write about trikes with crayons or wom...more
The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 has the tagline: "This novel is about the romantic possibilities of a public library in California." And really, that's what it is about. The narrator works in a library that accepts only unpublished works by anyone--children who write about trikes with crayons or wom...more
Wow, what a weird book. I've read Brautigan before, but never any of his novels. The thing that struck me most about this book was Brautigan's use of simile and metaphor. Like Orwell calls for in Politics & the English Language, the connections Brautigan makes in/with his metaphors are wholly original. It's strange; the writing is really simple, almost casual, and you might get the impression that Dick B is nothing more than a slacker hippie with a slight aptitude for the written word and a...more
The unnamed narrator of The Abortion works in a library, but nobody ever checks out or reads the books in his library. It's not that kind of library. It's a repository for unpublished manuscripts. Authors brings in the manuscripts. The narrator logs them in. The author can then place his or her manuscript on the "magically dust-free shelves." Here are some samples from the narrator's log:
LEATHER CLOTHES AND THE HISTORY OF MAN by S.M. Justice. The author was quite motorcyclish and wearing an awfu...more
Sep 19, 2008
Tom Hall
added it
this is shit. Don't read it. Don't waste your motherf***ing time! It would be too obvious to say that the very idea for the story (what a joke, there barely is one) shsould have been aborted before pen was put to paper so I won't say it. Damn I just did, oh well. Nothing happens aside from the event of the title and even that is barely described. In fact the book could have been saved (just) by having an extremely graphic description of what an abortion entails but no that event is just as twee...more
with the name it has, you might not pick this book off the shelf, but it's not as harsh as you might first assume. it's actually a very sweet love story about the 1960's and a very special, very wonderful library. if you've never read any brautigan before, pretend this book is entitled something else, like "reflections on magnolia blossoms in the late summertime" and read it. brautigan would support that completely, and then you'll be entranced with his skill, craft, and mind.
when i read this in high school, it seemed like a great short piece about a fanciful library, with a novel about some chick getting an abortion stapled onto the end of it. this time around it all came together and did that "hey check it out, i'm a diamond!" thing. that richard brautigan, he knew what he was doing. he might have been a paranoid schizophrenic, an alcoholic, and a generally funny-lookin' dude, but he was a genius, one of a kind, and not to be replaced.
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3 stelline a questo strano libro, una scrittura stralunata, come qualcuno incontrato per caso su un treno che ti racconta una storia e mentre lo fa si chiede perché lo sta facendo e perché proprio a te. La trama è inconsistente (peccato la biblioteca faccia solo da scenografia degli eventi) e i personaggi sono un po’ goffi, ma nello stesso tempo teneri per questo loro essere impacciati.
Una storia che mantiene meno di quanto il titolo prometta.
Una storia che mantiene meno di quanto il titolo prometta.
I really enjoyed this slice of Brautigan. Especially as I often read it in 'inappropriate' settings, (ie with a 4 week old baby in one hand).
Things I noticed -
1. He really does have a thing for ladies with long dark hair
2. Of the books by him I've read so far, the food he mentions the most is hamburgers
I liked the premise of the library that our protagonist works in. All the characters are likeable, especially his pal who works in the caves. Vida is a lovely character who is beautiful inside a...more
Things I noticed -
1. He really does have a thing for ladies with long dark hair
2. Of the books by him I've read so far, the food he mentions the most is hamburgers
I liked the premise of the library that our protagonist works in. All the characters are likeable, especially his pal who works in the caves. Vida is a lovely character who is beautiful inside a...more
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Richard Brautigan was a 20th century American writer. His novels and stories often have to do with black comedy, parody, satire, and Zen Buddhism. He is probably best known for his novel Trout Fishing in America. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1984.
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“My God, ma'am, you're so pretty I'd walk ten miles barefooted on a freezing morning to stand in your shit.”
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43 people liked it
“Congratulations," I said. "It's so wonderful to write a book." "I walked all the way here," she said. "I started at midnight. I would have gotten here sooner if I weren't so old." "Where do you live?" I said. "The Kit Carson Hotel," she said. "And I've written a book." Then she handed it proudly to me as if it were the most precious thing in the world. And it was. It was a loose-leaf notebook of the type that you find everywhere in America. There is no place that does not have them. There was a heavy label pasted on the cover and written in broad green crayon across the label was the title: GROWING FLOWERS BY CANDLELIGHT IN HOTEL ROOMS BY MRS. CHARLES FINE ADAMS”
—
2 people liked it
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I hate how individual stories can disappear into statistics and B&W "ethics."
Mar 30, 2010 12:17pm
Mar 30, 2010 12:40pm