num_pages: 236
description: Janice Galloway's inventive first novel is about the breakdown of a 27-year-old drama teacher named Joy Stone. The problems of everyday living accumulate and begin to torture Joy, who blames her problems not on her work or on the accidental drowning of her illicit lover, but on herself. While painful and deeply serious, this is a novel of great warmth and energy: it's the wit and irony found in moments of despair that prove to be Joy's salvation. First published by Polygon in 1989 and Dalkey Archive Press in 1994, now available again.
language: English
title: The Trick Is to Keep Breathing
titlecomplete: The Trick Is to Keep Breathing
characters: Joy Stone
genres: 20th Century, Literature, Psychology, Scotland, Literary Fiction, Mental Illness, Mental Health, Fiction, Contemporary, British Literature
ratings_count: 3001
places: Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland
publisher: Dalkey Archive Press