You don’t need me to tell you that women are still fighting for their right to bodily autonomy. And reading Sara Gallardo’s 1956 novel, January, made me so angry at the lack of progress we’ve made in almost 70 years.
Translated into English for the first time by Frances Riddle and Maureen Shaughnessy, January is a claustrophobic work about a teenage girl, Nefer, working on a farm in Argentina. She finds herself in the impossible situation of being pregnant in a time and place that does not welcome abortion. She struggles to hide her pregnancy from her family, and cannot bring herself to seek help from others. It doesn’t end well for Nefer.
I don’t know why I read books like this; they make me so upset. Women should no longer feel helpless when it comes to basic healthcare. But this, along with Annie Erneaux’s vital book, Happening, and movies such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire, show us the importance of support, and the dangers that come when abortions are sought through sketchy means. Not to mention the lives that young, reluctant mothers can find themselves trapped in.
Anyway, I’ll dismount from my soapbox. January is a important read, and I’m so grateful for the work Riddle and Shaughnessy have done on the translation. I recommend this book to everyone. I’m just saddened that I can’t see it as an artifact of a time long past, but more a story that can happen, and is happening, almost 70 years later.
California Reading 