The Trick Is to Keep Breathing

Janice Galloway's The Trick Is to Keep Breathing opens with a woman watching herself from the corner of a darkened room. Immediately, Janice Galloway sweeps us inside her heroine's confused psychology. Alone in her flat, the woman (ironically named "Joy") sits quietly in the dark, nervously checking the clock, jumping at the shrill ring of the telephone. We learn through a series of flashbacks that the twin deaths of her married lover and her mother have brought her to this state of intense neurosis: "I don't feel as if I'm really here at all". Fragmented sentences and an irregular typography help to capture her deepening sense of dislocation and bewilderment.

With such a depressing subject matter at hand, it would be easy for Galloway's prose to become irritatingly introverted. With her sharp wit, however, Galloway skilfully prevents her narrative from sliding into egotism and self-pity. There is a host of minor characters to provide comic relief--the overweight, awkward health visitor; the pompous, irascible doctor; the man from the bookies who is desperate to seduce her; and the ever-mad Ros, another patient on the psychiatric ward where Joy inevitably ends up.

Galloway is writing in a long-established tradition of confessional fiction with mentally disturbed women at its centre. Like Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysen in Girl, Interrupted, Galloway explores the complexities of the patient-doctor relationship. Where she differs is her sustained satire of the meagre attempts of doctors and psychiatrists to help their patients out of spiralling depressions. It is this sense of social critique that helped Galloway win two top awards--the American Academy EM Forster Award and the MIND/Allan Lane Book award--for this, her first novel. --Vanessa Cook

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Great Honest Literature - Rated
I read this book for school but I absolutely loved it. It is amazing how it conveys real feelings yet it is not overly moving/disturbing. I came away from this book with a greater understanding of myself and society as a whole. It's a must-read for young women.

A great fearless little book - Rated
'The Trick is to Keep Breathing' is one of my favorite books. It is beautifully constructed: a gripping story, powerfully told. The prose is deceptively simple, using a variety of forms (including the typesetting itself) with elegance and poignancy. Although the subject is bereavement and loss, it is ultimately about forgiveness and recovery. And quite a journey. Very moving. Highly recommended. BTW: has also been adapted for stage and radio.

Not bad - Rated
Not a bad book at all. Quite hard to get into at some parts though, and quite frustratng to understand with its constant sentence trailing and randomness. Still, I had to study this book for a course and its excellent to write about for academic purposes. Janice Galloway is an excellent writer (and a lovely woman who I had the plesure of meeting) and this is certainly exceptional for a first book. Dont be put off it though, its a must read and certainly an amazing story. Only problem is, if you sit and read it in half an hour streches or more, you feel like you're going mad yourself!!

Great style, and a worryingly good read. - Rated
An excellent book that shows how fragile the human mind is, and how little it can take to push someone over the edge. If you take a little time to read it, it's easy to see a bit of oneself - those slightly "irrational" things you do for your own reasons that no-one else knows of or understands. The writing style - fluid, personal, yet coherent enough to make a good book - is a pleasure to read and a welcome break from traditional novels. The only complaint I would have is that the ending is a little twee, but luckily this doesn't detract from the main content of the book.

Whilst this book isn't hard to read, for me it is a more significant read than the lighter "Girl, Interrupted". I found "Girl, Interrupted" a little too disjointed in its storytelling, and somehow doesn't get across the feeling of personal distress that is apparent in The Trick is to Keep Breathing.

very sad , intense but very rewarding. - Rated
this book is the best she has written so far , its very sad and heartbreaking and makes you value your relationships with loved ones (BOYFRIEND IN THIS CASE) and think thank god hes still here !!i recommended this book to my boyfriend who took so long to read it , as he did not share my views on " a great novel " that he renamed it "THE TRICK IS TOO KEEP READING " HA .. HA .. .still to me janice galloway is an excellent writer and i look forward to reading further material by this author .