(reviewed by JD Jung)
January (Enero) first published in Spanish in 1958, follows the daily life and thoughts of sixteen-year-old Nefer, who finds she is pregnant after a rape.
Nefer works on the family farm, and lives in the shadow of her sister and the other girls in the Argentine village. There seems to be no one she can turn to. She doesn’t get along with her mother and is afraid to confide in her local priest. She contemplates visiting the infamous woman who is known to perform abortions, though they are illegal.
The late Argentinian author Sara Gallardo wrote this in a very personal tone. Though we learn the story through Nefer’s perspective, her feelings are not static. We witness her confusion, but also her anger, jealousy, and desperation. Why couldn’t this “secret” inside her be from the man she loves, though he never notices her? For this, she despises the pretty wealthier girls from the village. However, through all of this, Nefer refuses to be a victim.
What is so fascinating about January is that the story is not only very human and genuine, but also significant in a historical, cultural, and sociological sense.
