A Termination

by Honor Moore

Not my lover, not my parents, and they said I couldn't tell a friend. . .

In 1969, Honor Moore was twenty-three, a theater student yearning for love and working for radical change, but studying administration and keeping secret, even from herself, her wish to imagine the world by becoming a poet. There was an older lover, a professor, and, with another man, an unwanted sexual encounter. That spring, she had an abortion.

A Termination is the story of the young woman who made that decision, and of how that act of resistance, then shrouded in fear and silence, has reverberated throughout her life since. Angry, nostalgic, questioning, and romantic, the memoir pursues the associations of memory, moving from the New Haven of Yale Drama School, the Living Theatre, and the Black Panthers; to the New York City of theater, jazz, and the Chelsea Hotel; the Berkshires of rock and roll at Tanglewood, and Chicago in the wake of the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Framing the story is a self-portrait of the author fifty-five years later, a woman with a sexual past, a poet who has made her own way. A lyric, searching memoir, A Termination asks what it means to write with full honesty about one's life—to explore who we were, and how our choices shape and allow who we become.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Womens

112 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2024

About the author

Honor Moore is the author of Our Revolution; The Bishop’s Daughter, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; The White Blackbird, a New York Times Notable Book; and three poetry collections. A professor at the New School, she lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, an abortion memoir! Bring it out of the shadows and keep it front and center, especially when the account is so beautifully written as this one.

[Nikki Benecke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a memoir by a poet, and so unsurprisingly, you will not find a linear, straightforward narrative in it. You will find a _story_ though, not just of Moore’s abortion but of her whole life, painted bit by bit through short vignettes or even single images, conversations with herself and others, dreams.

[Lizzi Skalka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was certainly not the book I expected it to be. Like any good abortion, it is not the story of a procedure but the story of the circumstances around the procedure, and the effect it left. But Moore tells that story in fragments and vignettes, not surprising given her career is rooted in playwriting and poetry. As a fan of the classic, linear memoir, I found this book to be asymmetrical and unconfined. Still, there were parts I liked. My favorite quotes:


“Termination. I like the valence of the word, from the Latin ‘terminare,’ to mark an end, or boundary, somehow free of the wreckage and pain, the fraught history of the word ‘abortion’.”

“I did not grieve the loss of my pregnancy, but I did grieve the loss of a younger self who had not yet made a momentous decision on her own behalf. A termination. A loss of innocence?

[Liza · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love books that get me excited to write too

[Elizabeth Benedict · Rating 5 out of 5]

An original, penetrating and intimate account of the author's abortion in 1969, some years before Roe v. Wade, when she had to get a letter from a psychiatrist in order to obtain the procedure--in a hospital. Because she had resources, she could pay for the it and the psychiatrist required to get it. Woven into her tale are stories of friends not so fortunate, and Honor Moore's fears about the future given restrictions to abortion since the Dobbs' decision.

Honor Moore is a distinguished poet and memoirist whose previous books, including the The Bishop's Daughter, have explored the complex worlds she came from. Her father was the Episcopal archbishop of NYC, Paul Moore, the son of a hugely wealthy family, with a secret life of his own. Honor Moore was deeply involved with the women's movement and has edited collections of writings (poetry and prose) about it.

A Termination could not be more timely and essential as we face the 2024 election, in which abortion rights is front and center.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

i got this at the library after voting & i knew absolutely nothing about the author before reading this. finished it in a few hours? less than that? solidly finished it in one sitting in an afternoon. really enjoyed and was sometimes confused by the very drifting energy of the piece. section to section within the chapters are absolutely not set in the same time and place and it took me a while to get used to that. once I was though, I really enjoyed the way this piece ambled from thing to thing. it feels like how my brain works, i absolutely get it. i really adored how the author would use parenthesis citations of songs & movies in the text. this delighted me to no end. this is a weird little book that i enjoyed basically and i'm glad that i read it. i myself have been thinking about what to do about All Of This now based on election results so. sigh. we will see. again, glad i have read this now. the timing feels right

[Hannah Jury · Rating 3 out of 5]

While beautifully written, clearly crafted under the care of a true poet, I can’t say that I enjoyed this book, as I thought its themes were troubling and largely untrue. However, that’s the thing about memoirs: even if it wasn’t written for me per se, I have to give it credit for giving voice to someone’s story, and just because it isn’t true for me doesn’t me it isn’t true for everyone. It was a nice quick read that reflects on life, sexuality, female-ness, and artistry, and to its credit it did really get me thinking. I’d recommend to anyone who’s beginning to get critical about the machine of modern motherhood.

[Patricia McMillen · Rating 3 out of 5]

confusing Half-memoir, half-prose porn

Moores A Termination was recommended by a nonfiction writer friend who had heard it was interesting, but hadn’t read it herself. There’s a mystery in the center—the young woman Moore was at the time she sought an (illegal at the time) abortion wasn’t sure who fathered her fetus—but the reader isn’t led to believe that matters, even to the younger Moore. The whole affair is very distant (of course it is a recollection some decades after the fact), unemotional, even unsympathetic—I’m afraid that in the end the story fails to engage me.

[Little · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a very important person, talking about all the sex I had, in nonchronological order. Which makes my book longer, because I have to switch time periods every 2 paragraphs, so there needs to be some orientation words, but it's still a short book, because I have so little to say. I am important. Once I had an abortion, and I guess this book is about reconciling something about that and the culture and women's rights, but mostly it's just about how important and special I am. Pay attention to me.

[Mariana Mendez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro es sobre la vida de la autora y las circunstancias alrededor de su aborto antes de Roe V Wade. Pone sobre la mesa esta conversación que habla sobre su proceso, conversaciones con ella misma y con otros. El libro no tiene una redacción común que se me hizo un poco confuso mantener el hilo porque no sigue uno en específico, tiene saltos en el tiempo y las conversaciones son narradas por ella.
Me gustó porque nunca había leído algo así y leer sobre las vidas de las personas es súper interesante, pero la manera de redactar fue algo confusa.

[Jazlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a beautiful memoir that dove into the life of a 23-year-old theater student navigating the complexities of love, societal expectations, and ambition. Her decision to have an abortion and the lasting impact of one was described through a turmoil of emotions. The book is structured in a way that allows a reader to jump into different experiences in her life. Great read, especially with what's going on with current abortion rights!!

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. Super lyric, definitely in conversation with Ernaux’s Happening, but not that Ernaux flatness. It meanders, hard to describe the structure beyond that but what beautiful prose, drenched with difficult emotions, shame, loneliness, filtered through the retrospective gaze of a long life. Also beautifully embodied writing about sex, pleasure.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Termination is a non linear, highly poignant memoir. The writer goes through her life with the framing of her abortion before Roe V Wade was enacted into law, something that’s far too familiar now in the years since it’s been overturned. Not the easiest read but certainly a good one.

[Lorri Steinbacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the meandering poetic style of the book and it really helped me reframe abortion not as a choice but a decision--a decision about your life and how you want it to unfold, a decision about your own ability to be a other, a decision about your own identity.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Termination is a quiet, powerful collection that explores grief, memory, and the emotional weight of choice. Moore’s writing is intimate and restrained, letting emotion build slowly. Some poems feel a bit distant, but the honesty at the core makes it resonate. It's a thoughtful read.

[kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up on a whim and am so glad that I did. Riveting memoir of Honor Moore and the legacies of having an abortion in a pre Roe vs. Wade world.

[Steven Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fragmented structure diminished this one’s impact for me at least. I wish the author had fleshed this out more. That said, a striking voice. Wow

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wise and gut wrenching given where we are now… post roe

[Jenny Tang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes poetry, sometimes journal, sometimes prose… the work explores some deep and abstract topics that I would have loved to see filled out a bit more. Beautiful writing.

[Veronica]

A stream of consciousness that is hard to follow, unfortunately. Got through 37% of the book.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to try reading something different than what I normally reach for. The topic felt poignant given the state of everything going on in the world.

[Courtney Bagby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very powerful and very beautiful writing, honest and needed.

[Sydney Kinsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

4/4 for book club - so much less about abortion than about the circumstances of a life surrounding it, just a bit too wandering at times to land with me fully

[Deborah Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

With reproductive rights being eroded all over the country, Honor Moore's memoir about her pre-Roe abortion--and how it still resonates in her life nearly 50 years later--couldn't be more timely or more searing. This book is both personal and political; fiercely feminist; an honest treatise on a woman's right to control her own body; and a beautifully written tribute to the author's young self.