"Happening" is a memoir by Annie Ernaux; I chose it at a time when I couldn't read anything lengthy. It was listed among great novellas, though I don't think it is fiction. It's intimidating to read something by a Nobel winner--why not start with a novella? Ernaux begins with an HIV test. She sits in a waiting room and listens as a biologist speaks into a phone. "No, your cell count is normal, perfectly normal." She immediately understands what is being not said but instead implied: "You have AIDS, and I can't comfort you. But perfectly is a word with three syllables. It takes a long time to say. So I might just say it several times." Immediately, Ernaux is sending a subtextual message: I'm a writer, and I notice things. She proceeds to make a character out of herself. In her fury and terror, she imagines that a particular man she just saw ("half-heartedly") is a villain from a comic book; he roams the streets of Europe; h...