The Town That Forgot How to Breathe: A Novel (2003)

see http://www.sfsite.com/07a/to227.htm ( )

Everyone has heard the phrase, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. Yet, that is precisely what I do... a lot of the time. Okay, so I don’t judge exactly, but I have to admit I can be greatly influenced by a book’s cover art as well as the title; that is what possessed me to purchase Kenneth J. Harvey’s novel The Town That Forgot How To Breathe.

I purchased my paperback copy live and in person from the now defunct Border’s. The background color of the book’s cover is black with the only additional color being white. The title of the book is written in a raised white font which is spindly in nature; it is centered in the upper half of the front cover. On the bottom of the front cover slightly off centered to the right in white is a bald dolls head. The eyes are vacant, the head appears to be coming out of a splash of raised water which follows the book completely around to the back where we find a synopsis of the book again written in the same, albeit smaller, white spindly font. Some words are larger than the others… these words drew me in; mythical creatures, corpses, gothic thriller, H.P. Lovecraft, haunting. I had to read this book!

Scanning the inside I come upon the table of contents. There are fourteen chapters with titles such as; Thursday, Eight Days Ago, Thursday Afternoon and Night, Friday, Friday Night and this continues to Tuesday night and then the Epilogue. I like the simplicity of the titles and it also shows me that what occurs within these 471 pages take place in a span of 6 days.

I expected so much more from this book. I wanted to be on the edge of my seat, turning the page to find out what happens next. Alas, this never happened.

In the beginning of the book the character of Miss Laracy was not my favourite; her dialect was hard to read and it threw me off, however, by the end of the book she had endeared herself to me.

Throughout the book I held out hope for the relationship between Joseph and Kim and every time Claudia came into the picture, I held my breath… pun not intended, ok maybe a little.

Characters were brought in and then dropped out of the story without incident; as was the case of Luke and the albino shark. We learn from Tommy Quilty that the shark starts to regain its colour on the way back to St. John’s but it was never explained or elaborated on. It was like the only reason for that piece of the story was to allow Kim to travel to Bareneed.

I was mostly drawn to the story of Joseph and his daughter Robin. At times I felt they were being possessed by Reg and Jennifer. However, Joseph’s decent into madness seemed to have happened off page. He was sane at the end of one chapter and the next he was over the edge. His madness had me fearing for Robin’s life.

The character Claudia was most confusing, especially at the end. Was she the black dog? Sand pouring out of her wound, and why was Sergeant Chase seeing a little girl? Was Chase actually seeing Jennifer?

For me, there were too many story lines going on that never really seemed to connect.

Was it worth the read? I think so, and I would not discourage anyone from reading the book. Would I run up to my bibliophile friends exclaiming, “You’ve got to read this book!”? Sadly, I would not.

I felt that the cure for “forgetting how to breathe” was the telling of stories; the tall tales.

My overall emotion as the book wound to its end was a deep sadness… a sadness that we all have seemed to have misplaced or lost our stories; the oral tradition of history and storytelling. ( )

A hauntingly beautiful novel of the supernatural, The Town That Forgot How to Breathe explores one of the most original ideas I've come across in my lifetime of reading. Mythical sea creatures, such as albino sharks, mermaids, flying fish which really fly (not just jump), are being spotted around the fishing village of Bareneed, Newfoundland in remote Atlantic Canada. Corpses of missing townspeople presumed drowned at sea, some over 200 years ago, are amassing in the waters and floating to shore. And a mysterious illness is causing people to literally forget how to breathe - patients who fall asleep without mechanical breathing assistance will die because their unconscious minds are no longer able to regulate respiratory activity.

Into this bizarre sea and landscape comes a recently separated father and his young daughter for a few weeks of vacation. Soon after arriving, we begin meeting some of the paranormally talented residents of the village, including an elderly woman who sees auras, a sculptress who is visited by her missing and presumed dead young daughter and a mildly mentally challenged painter whose works portend the future.

Harvey explores the nature of identity and love but reserves his primary thrust for the dichotomy between tradition and modernism. The use of the supernatural to explore this chasm is brilliant in its execution and is ably served by a lyrical prose. We are put in the minds of the characters: as they are unsure who is who and who is dead, neither are we.

Highly recommended for those looking for a different kind of horror story. ( )

I want to love this book, but for me it needed some rewriting: Beautiful concept, average realization. Michael Crummey's "Galore" was everything I wanted this book to be. ( )

This was pretty good, especially the first part, it was hard to put down but the writing was so well done I didn't want to rush through. Very creepy, little glimpses that wet the appetite and kept you turning the pages. It lost some momentum, and I started getting annoyed with the father. The premise started out really good, but for some reason fell kinda flat towards the end. It's hard to put my finger on when the story unravelled and lost it's forward motion. It's a concept that's never been done and for that I give it 4 stars. ( )