A look at The Town That Forgot How to Breathe

This post is a something a little out of the norm when compared to my other book reviews.  It will, at some point soon, be a full-fledged review.  For now, it’s a bit of a preview of sorts.  I have read most of the book, but haven’t had a chance to finish it before today’s post.  As I didn’t really have anything else to cover, I decided to be a little unorthodox with my post.

First, let me get this out of the way.  It seems like the fates conspired against me getting to actually finish this book in a reasonable amount of time.  I started reading it a couple weeks ago, just before my brother came to town for the family reunion.  I figured I’d still have time to read while he was here–I really didn’t.  So, when he left the reading started to pick up a bit.  When this week arrived, though, I was thrown off by the arrival of the school semester.

Now I have really gotten into it, and have begun to enjoy and appreciate it a bit more.  I am almost done, but I can pretty much surmise my feeling about the book as a whole.  If something comes up, namely with the ending, that makes me think less of the book, then I will be sure to update this piece with that information.

The Town That Forgot How to Breathe, by Kenneth J. Harvey, is a pretty eerie piece of work.  Set in the Newfoundland town of Bareneed, the novel paints a lovely picture of seaside life.  While Bareneed looks quaint and picturesque, everything is not as it seems.  As novels like this tend to showcase, nothing out of the ordinary really happens until an outside makes his or her (in the case of this novel his and her) way into town.

The outsiders in this story are a young father, Joseph Blackwood, and his daughter Robin.  Though Joseph’s family was originally from Bareneed, his father had left it, and he grew up outside of the small town.  Because of him familial ties Joseph takes Robin there for a vacation.

Upon their arrival, they meet an eccentric old woman named Eileen Laracy who just happens to clue the reader in on something about Robin: she is “blessed”.  Blessed, in this novel, is sort of like having “the shining”.  Robin can see things that others cannot (spirits, the future, etc.), and tends to sketch them in a notebook she keeps with her.  What she sees, and it’s almost immediate, is the ghost of a young girl in the barn on the rental property her and her father are staying in.

After the initial sight of the ghost girl, things slow down a bit story-wise.  Harvey introduces a few new characters, one of which can see the future like Robin.  Tommy Quilty has the same habit of drawing what he sees in notebooks of his own.  Not long after, though, peculiar things begin to happen again, and these odd occurrences culminate in the sea regurgitating the bodies of those that have been lost in it.  Though these bodies are dead, they don’t look like drowning victims should.

As all this is happening, certain townsfolk begin to die mysteriously.  First they succumb to rage, then their bodies just stop breathing–seemingly forgetting how to do so.

The story itself is good.  The setting is great, and beautifully described.  Harvey’s cast of characters are well rounded and quite believable.  There is a bit of a problem with too much inane description–description that really serves not purpose as the story goes along.  I think those descriptions bog it down a bit.

While I enjoyed–and am still enjoying–this novel, I will not yet make a recommendation.  When I finish it, and have time to digest what happened, then I will update this odd post.  Until then, later!