Knowing what the trick is... (The Trick Is to Keep Breathing - Janice Galloway)

Member Name: joolzroolz

Product:	The Trick Is to Keep Breathing - Janice Galloway
Date:	16/02/01 (1125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality of writing

Disadvantages: That there aren't more books like it

Undoubtedly the 'best' work I have ever read - this book is profound in it's exploration of the process of 'cracking up'. Galloway's easy writing style almost forces the reader to become the main character; there is no way you could read this book and keep a distance from it. It's not about story lines or plots ( although there is a thin one spread throughout), it's simply about the life of 27 year old Joy Stone; drama teacher, alcoholic, bereaved, depressive. And don't get me wrong, this has nothing to do with labels either.

Completely unassuming, the book tells it 'as it is'. Miniscual details and references threaded into the chapters make it all the more real, all the more difficult to get away from. Dealing with themes of depression and bereavement, it's not melodramatic either, just tragicallly realistic and sharply witty at times too. When I read this book I could not get over the sensation that I was reading a dialogue of my mind, bar all the differences between 'Joy's' life and mine, it was as if I was reading about myself, told by myself - except I obviously was not that person. I wish to write this opinion as a credit to the book - although I know nothing I could write could ever fully do it justice.

Joy's unconscious thougths play a really interesting part in the development of her character, and Galloway has used a technique of placing small snippets of text outwith the boundaries of the usual paragraphs, so that sometimes it is not possible to read all of it. This is an innovative and effective way of physically representing mental thought on paper - you catch sight of it out of the blue, but can't always understand or access all of it...

The complete honesty of the writing leaves me thinking that the book must be partly autobiographical. Galloway expresses exactly what she wants to say, in a way that could not have been done as convincingy if it were pure sp
ecualtion. (She even picks up on the fact that many nurses in psychiatric hospitals in Scotland are called 'Moira' and that psychiatrists are not as clever as you would expect).
She has a knack of taking every day fleeting experiences, that most of us forget about as soon as they are passed, and putting them into words which we all recognise, but would never think to mention ourselves. It is these shared idiosyncrasies which i find makes her work so appealing. After first reading "The Trick..." (albeit around 4 times), I searched out some of Galloway?s other works; mainly collections of short stories, and wasn't dissapointed. I can recommend 'Blood' as a good way to get familiar with her writing.

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