Some decisions are more serious than others: those for an abortion, for example. Abortion is legal in Spain for the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy. So far, this has only applied to adults, but in May the Council of Ministers approved a draft law that would soon allow 16- and 17-year-olds to have abortions without parental consent.
In general, Spain is very progressive when it comes to women’s rights. If the law is passed, there will be days off after an abortion and, so far unique in Europe, paid menstrual leave for women who suffer severely from menstrual pain. That leads a bit away from the book we are talking about, but only a few meters. Marta Orriol’s novel Gentle Introduction to Chaos is set in Barcelona. It’s about a heterosexual couple in their early thirties and that fateful decision.
Marta and Dani are a friendly, modern city couple. Life has long since begun, the main program is already running, so to speak, but they still enjoy the freedom to see everything as provisional. Marta is currently working as a photographer and Dani is writing comedy series for TV, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Marta Orriols: Gentle Introduction to Chaos. Novel. Translated from the Spanish by Ursula Bachhausen. DTV, Munich 2022. 240 pages, 22 euros.
(Photo: dtv publishing company)
They have known each other for two years and have been living together for a year. It is the most important relationship for both of them so far, but nothing can be derived from it. Both would probably have answered yes to the question of whether they were happy a short time ago. But for her 30th birthday he gave her a trip to Jordan, and that’s when it must have happened: she’s pregnant.
Already in the first sentence of the novel there is a hint of the shock that will soon befall the couple, who do not yet know about the pregnancy: “They still felt the need to be as close as possible to each other.” still: The threat is even in the very first word. 20 pages later everything has shifted. They had invited friends over for dinner. Before they arrive, Marta sends her boyfriend out with the dog to secretly take a second pregnancy test.
A first one was positive, although they are actually meticulous about contraception. Maybe they want children someday, later, there’s still time. So far they haven’t even talked about it properly. The second test is also positive. The evening goes by somehow, when the friends have finally left and Marta and Dani are already in bed, she says to him: “I’m pregnant. And I don’t want to have the child.”
Only two sentences, at night in the dark bedroom, divide the time into a before and an after
The skill of narrator Marta Orriols, whose third novel this is, lies in her accuracy. She puts the feelings of her characters under a microscope: What are the fears, hopes, longings, what are the inner contradictions that sometimes make Dani and Marta act in such a way that they don’t understand themselves? Orriols keeps changing the narrative perspective. Sometimes you find out about his, Dani’s, thoughts, then again Marta’s inner life is revealed. At one point, Orriols even empathizes with the couple’s dog for a few lines, which seems like an oversight in the carefully crafted novel.
The book tells how with just two sentences spoken one night in the bedroom, a rift suddenly forms in a relationship. There was Dani and Marta as a couple before she said she didn’t want to have their child. And there they are as a pair afterwards. Suddenly everything easy is gone, and both of them realize things that they didn’t know about themselves before.
Dani had no idea what being a father would mean to him. And Marta finds out how important it is to her to be able to overturn her entire life plan. She wants to go to Berlin, applies to the (really existing) Meyer Riegger gallery for a job, and gets an offer. Now it’s not just a matter of deciding whether you want a child or not, but also whether to move. Basically also: do you stay together or do you separate here. Suddenly something new is possible and at the same time everything is different. Two people are overwhelmed and changed by a circumstance that they did not consciously bring about. That’s what the novel is about, about huge themes, about fate and the freedom that is at the same time the burden of dealing with one’s fate.
With your hair freshly cuddled up and your heart beating, say something lightly
But the charm lies in something much smaller, and perhaps that’s where Orriols has some experience as a screenwriter. You can visualize their characters. She breathes life into them with precisely observed gestures – such as those that Marta performs before she utters the momentous sentences. “With one swift, automatic movement, she slipped a rubber band from her wrist and looped it around her hair.”
Then you suddenly know her, see her in front of you. In the dark bedroom, your hair freshly cuddled up, your heart beating excitedly, saying something important in an emphatic lighthearted manner. And you can feel her boyfriend startle under the covers next to her, but of course he too will cover up that this is a huge thing. Completely dazed, he only brings out. “Are you all right?” Of course, he himself knows that’s a silly reaction.
It is also a coming-of-age novel, increasingly age-shifting in countries where residents can afford it. Now you only become an adult in your early or mid-thirties (if ever). The “curious, enthusiastic years” just rushed past Dani, writes Orriols, “Study, first jobs, women. Over time, the elation gradually fades away and in his life, like everyone else’s, a certain sadness settles in .”
“Gentle Introduction to Chaos” is a calm, precise book about the impertinence of having to make decisions whose consequences one cannot foresee. About the difference between what will never be and what could have been. About the sadness of adulthood. Or in short: about our lives.