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Lädt ... The Town That Forgot How to Breathe (2003)von Kenneth J. Harvey
Magic Realism (358) Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. [b: The Town That Forgot How to Breathe|218409|The Town That Forgot How to Breathe|Kenneth J. Harvey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316727742s/218409.jpg|302418] was at no point quite what I expected it to be. I'd been told it was a book in general Lovecraftian style, playing on the trope of a strange isolated seaside community. I expected the usual progression such stories take: the fear of being an outsider in an insulated community, strange beliefs at odds with the modern world, the dark creatures that swim beneath the surface of the sea... Instead what I got was a bit of a treatise against the modern world and the evils of convenience. Divorced Joseph, and his daughter Robin, go for vacation in the town of Bareneed. Joseph had come from fisherman stock, but had taken up a job as a fisheries officer rather than follow in his families footsteps. The book opens with Miss Laracy, the town elder, realizing that young Robin has the sight. She can see spirits, and thus is the new life that Bareneed indeed needs. What follows is a tale of gothic horror. People are stricken with an illness that manifests as an inability to breathe automatically. They've forgotten who they are, where they are, and where they come from. It's an odd metaphor of the loss of identity that tends to rise up in places where modern ways of life clash with tradition, and plays out accordingly... It's an interesting book, and not really a bad one. I simply wished for more care to be put into the characterization of the people within it, and a bit more clarity when it came to certain people's motivations. I could easily see falling in love with this book if I cared more for the style in which it was written, but overall I just couldn't get as into it as I wished. Still an interesting book, though. Would likely make a killer miniseries if adapted to television. I wish I'd liked this novel. It had all the makings of an interesting story, but the writing was often poor and lumbersome, it seemed to go on forever, and none of the characters were particularly interesting. A lot of the scenes and character motivations were bewildering, and there seemed to be a lot of padding for very little pay off. A disappointment. Thumbs up! Good mystery, bizarre and creepy, but not too scary. What I liked: The opening character, Miss Laracy, grabbed me. Her colorful dialect pulled me in and I had to read on to get to know her better. Story line was very interesting. It had mystery, with a touch of bizarre and creepy (supernatural), but not too scary. Perfect combination. Pace was great. One part was so heart-pounding that I feared for what Joseph might do and inside I was yelling, “No, don’t do it!” The characters were colorful and really brought life to the fishing village of Bareneed. From the whispy and tragic Claudia to the straight-laced Lieutenant-Commander French, to the plump Dr. Thompson – I really enjoyed the characters. What I didn’t like: Nothing really --it was a satisfying read, but....if you forced me to “find” something, I might have two little things. 1. The dog – not sure what the dog meant to the story unless it was just for bizarre effect. 2. The ending outcome of the bizarre events/sickness (can’t spoil it for you). Not sure it completely works out in my head. Overall: Really enjoyed the book and I’ll be looking to read his other books.
The trouble began when the cod fishery closed down a few years earlier and the community lost a piece of its soul, developing a need—a bare need—for “visions… manifested as a… coping mechanism.” But the secondhand vitality of conjuring spirits, in this town, must compete with the canned visions of the twenty-first century, the electronic storytelling of TV and the internet. In these days of SARS and West Nile virus, Kenneth Harvey’s new novel about a catastrophic illness devastating an outport Newfoundland community is timely. But while whatever is filling the hospital with the stricken folk of Bareneed is severe, respiratory, and acute, it is like no known virus. And it is only one aspect of a moiling, preternatural miasma somehow connected to a crack in the ocean floor belching up bodies drowned years and even centuries before. Amber rays and disrupted electronic fields are involved. So are fish.... When Joseph is afflicted with the violent sexual hallucinations connected to the disease, we know we’re in classic Harvey territory. In his previous 13 books, this Newfoundland writer, now in mid-career, has made many forays into the heart of darkness....You can’t put down The Town That Forgot How to Breathe without thinking that economic and political decisions in remote centres of power can kill a people as effectively and remorselessly as any plague. AuszeichnungenBemerkenswerte Listen
This tale by Kenneth Harvey is set in the isolated outport village of Bareneed, Newfoundland, home to a vivid cast of characters who, one by one, come down with a mysterious breathing disorder. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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There were parts where the book stopped heaving itself forward so hard, taking time to breathe, pun not so much intended as inevitable. The progression of reading the novel was much like the mysterious illness that plagued the residents of Bareneed: Growing anger and desires of violence, then trouble breathing, followed by amnesia and a deep coma state.
The sea can take this one back. ( )