Happening

Book by Annie Ernaux

The book is so short and strong.

It is an autobiographical story that describes the obstacle course of a young student to have an abortion.

Annie Ernaux wrote about her experience in 1963.

Four years before the legalization of the contraceptive pill and twelve years before the Veil Law.

The craziest moment in the book is the moment of the fetus coming out.
What an experience.
Common to many.
Such a real and vivid drama.

The fetus is a true agent and the main protagonist in the book.

Which soaks into the memory and becomes flesh.

It’s not an experience that belongs to me.
Yet, feeling the difference between man and woman in the flesh:

a girl having sex who wants to have pleasure;
a guy having sex who wants to have pleasure;

One (the boy) can be asleep to his own actions;

The other (a young girl; the young Annie Ernaux) has no choice but to be awake by her actions.