Rebecca Davidson's, This is rubbish..

''The Trick Is To Keep Breathing,'' by Janice Galloway is a novel with a particularly arresting opening. The stream of consciousness narrative used by Galloway pushes the reader into finding themselves trapped inside the troubled mind of the main character, Joy Stone and is then left there by Galloway to witness Joy's suffering and eventual recovery. Joy Stone is revealed to be a severely depressed woman due to the sudden drowning of her lover Michael, this haunts and controls Joy's emotions throughout the novel. The opening section of, ''The Trick Is To Keep Breathing,'' sets the tone for the rest of the novel through Galloway's early uses of typography and imagery, all of which are further developed in the later sections of the novel. This essay will examin to what extent the opening provides a successful introduction to the text as a whole, whilst referring particularly to Galloway's continuous use of typography and imagery.

From the early pages of the novel, the reader is given broken up clues into Joy's past through Galloway's use of flashbacks of Michael's death. These flashbacks act as a subconscious interruption in Joy's mind, reminding her of the event that shapes her frame of mind for most of the novel, as if she is trying to remember certain events of her past which she has chosen to blank out, ''You never know what you might need to recollect later.'' The reader at this point knows of Joy's unstable mind but is unaware of the causes. These flashbacks are in pieces that the reader must place together to find out the full picture of Joy's depression, this also closely represents Joy's frame of mind at this early stage of the novel as her thoughts are scattered and Joy herself is using these flashbacks to look back and understand her own thoughts. This intrigues the reader into looking closely into these flashbacks and placing them together, in order to understand what has happened to Joy in the past. This idea is later developed in the later parts of the novel, ''I must always wake up from these dreams and know he's really dead after all.'' This reveals clearly to the reader a sign of recovery by Joy, a contrast to the earlier Joy who was just coming to terms with the death of Michael but now realises that he is no longer alive and the flashbacks are only memories of him.


Light and water imagery also play a significant part in revealing Joy's state of mind to the reader. Light and water imagery is also used in the very early stages of the novel and throughout. Light and water are described by Joy as being dangerous things when they are, to normal people, everyday things in life. At the start of the novel Joy choses not to look at light but prefers to sit in the dark, ''for a number of reasons''. This clearly reflects Joy's mood at this point as the dark room sets a depressed atmosphere which is how she feels now that she no longer has Michael in her life. Light imagery used by Galloway also helps to show the recovery that Joy makes. In the last few pages of the novel the reader sees Joy transformed, ''I hear the rise and fall, the surf beating in my lungs. Reach for the bottle. Watch the lights'', she is no longer scared of light and begins to see it in a positive way.

Water also plays a significant part in Joy's recovery. Joy's fear of water originates from the loss of Michael due to the water drowning him, she therefore sees it as a threat, ''sucking at the sole,'' this is a play on the word ''sole'', as water took Michael's life away and the word, ''sucking'', may represent the water sucking Michael out of this world and away from Joy. However, by the end of the novel Joy also shows her recovery made in this area too, ''I going to swim,'' this shows Joy's realisation that water will not hurt her and she begins not to see it in such a negative way.

The opening section of, ''The Trick Is To Keep Breathing,'' does provide a very effective opening to the rest of the text. The opening introduces the main indicators of Joy's recovery that will be used by Janice Galloway in the stream of consciousness narrative such as flashbacks and imagery. Galloway's use of flashbacks from the early moments in the novel intrigue the reader into wanting to know more about Joy and how she has became as troubled as she is revealed to be in the opening section. This captivates the reader into Joy's mind and allows the reader along with Joy to piece these flashbacks together, which encourages the reader to read on. Light and water imagery are Galloway's main sources of conveying key points of recovery made by Joy in the novel. The light and water imagery used by Galloway in the opening is used to be at a complete contrast in the light and water imagery at the end, showing clear signs of recovery being made by Joy.

Becca D