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


4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This American debut for Canadian novelist Harvey (Directions for an Opened Body) is a genre hybrid boasting impressive literary flair. It's a heartwarming romance: fisheries investigator Joseph Blackwood pines for the wife he adores while vacationing with their daughter, and their passion is rekindled in the midst of tragedy. It's a creepy horror story: menacing sea creatures and the eerily unsullied bodies of long-dead seafarers are bobbing to the surface of the waters around the picturesque Newfoundland fishing community of Bareneed, as the villagers are gripped by a mysterious epidemic that causes its victims to forget how to breathe. It's a subtly didactic political allegory: the intrusion of the outside world—and something about too many radio waves in the air—is eroding the companionable insularity of Bareneed's quirky residents, setting off undercurrents of nightmarish, utterly alien violence. And it's a fascinating regional novel: Harvey, a Newfoundlander himself, captures with his haunting voice the earthiness of an insular culture that's as distinct from the rest of Canada as smalltown Southerners are from the rest of America. Comparisons with Stephen King's commercial power and Annie Proulx's literary warmth are apt but glib. Harvey is an author whose storytelling prowess can speak for itself.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
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4.4 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars KEPT ME BREATHLESS, Jul 12 2009
By Bernie Koenig (London, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Town That Forgot How to Breathe (Paperback)
Art Matters: The Art of Knowledge/The Knowledge of Art
Natural Law, Science, and the Social Construction of Reality

I recently discovered Ken Harvey and am trying to make up for lost time.
This book can be read in a number of ways, as other reviews show.
It is horror story, and old fashioned ghost story, a moral parable, a story about how technology is destroying what makes us human, a story about the revenge of nature, and a story about what it means to be one's self.

There are actually two stories going on that overlap. Doug Blackwood and his daughter Robin leave St John's for a holiday and go to a small fishing village on the coast. The village is depressed due to the closing of the Cod fishery and the processing plant.

When the troubles arise, which affect Robin, he calls his ex-wife Kim, who also comes to town. They all get caught up in the events.

There is a ghost girl in the house across from where Robert and Robin are staying. The ghost wants Robin as a permanent playmate, and, when Robin has real medical problems, they are, of course, complicated by the ghost issues.

Meanwhile, Tommy, who had been born stillborn but came to life but had brain damage draws pictures of things to come. And Old Miss Laracy keeps people grounded with her tales and ability to see spirits.

When all kinds of old drowned people appear it is Miss Laracy who can identify them. The dead people are all related to the people in the town who develop an inability to breathe. And with the loss of breathe comes a loss of identity.

People dig up old records and determine that something like this happened 70 years before, just when all kinds of electrical communications were being used.

In all a complex read that works on many levels, especially with regard to the identity of both the people and the places of the Newfoundland Outports.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Unfulfilling Thriller, Jul 28 2008
By Karl Shawfield (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Town That Forgot How to Breathe (Paperback)
This book is practically begging to be turned into an M Night Shyamalan movie. It starts out as a captivating and mysterious story, but as more and more stock characters are introduced and the action heats up, it seems like Harvey didn't really know how to wrap things up and we're left with a rather boring and nonsensical thriller, which then degenerates further into a polemic against electricity. The comparisons to Alistair McLeod are very misleading.
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1.0 out of 5 stars The Town That Forgot How to Breathe, Aug 28 2007
This review is from: The Town That Forgot How to Breathe (Paperback)
This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I kept reading to give it a chance and I did finish it. I've heard Harvey is such a good author and representative of the Newfoundland voice. Well, I find his writing repetitive and flat but not flat in a good and interesting way. I kept hoping it would get better. I really did. I understand that magic realism is at play in this novel and I enjoy a well written magic realism story but this isn't one. The plot was interesting but predictable and not fleshed out so that I kept feeling hammered over the head with the underlying theme of the book and the reason for the town "dying". And the title....oh couldn't someone have helped with the title?

I'll try some of his other books to give him another chance but I did not enjoy this one. Sorry.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes it takes the dead to show what life really is
What is a ghost, anyway? Why do they stay here and not just move on? What makes people even care one way or the other about their ancestors? Read more
Published on April 6 2006 by Columbine Phoenix

5.0 out of 5 stars Alienation and the Painful Loss of Family Connection
The Town That Forgot to Breathe is one of the most original and interesting novels that I have ever read. Read more
Published on Aug 21 2004 by Professor Donald Mitchell

5.0 out of 5 stars The Town ... review
A book that you can't put down! Kenneth Harvey masterfully brings the delightful rural characters of Bareneed, Newfoundland to life and makes you feel that you are there sharing... Read more
Published on Jul 7 2004 by Reviewer from Ottawa, Ontario,...

5.0 out of 5 stars The Town That Forgot How To Breathe
"The people react against the invading culture or the loss of identity. A mass hypnosis kicks in, one that everybody believes because they have to, in order to survive... Read more
Published on Jun 7 2004 by Brian Alger

5.0 out of 5 stars Hold YOUR breathe ....
After reading only a few pages I knew I was in for a great read .. Joseph Blackwood and his eight year old daughter,Robin arrive in rural Newfoundland for a brief holiday only to... Read more
Published on Jun 4 2004 by Meg Walter

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting!
Town That Forgot How To Breathe by talented Canadian writer Kenneth J. Harvey is an interesting book I had trouble putting down after I began reading it. Read more
Published on May 28 2004 by V. T. Murray

5.0 out of 5 stars The Town That Forgot How To Breathe
"The people react against the invading culture or the loss of identity. A mass hypnosis kicks in, one that everybody believes because they have to, in order to survive... Read more
Published on Feb 9 2004 by Brian

5.0 out of 5 stars what a whirlwind
This book swept me up and wouldn't let go.
Great descriptions of life in Newfoundland
and tons of characters. It's funny, scary,
poetic and full of suspense. Read more
Published on Nov 21 2003

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