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A review by ninarg
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
4.0
This is a story about growing up, fitting in and being different, about mental health, family relationships and life on a small Scottish island in the late fifties. And I highly recommend it.
Neighbours and classmates Sylvie and Lorrie become friends (and sometimes not friends), and through their ups and downs we also get an insight into life on the island in general. Lorrie is interested in boys, especially Sylvie’s stepbrother Zach, while Sylvie is wholly uninterested in boys and dating. Lorrie wants to fit in, to be popular and hang out with the cool kids, while Sylvie is very aware that she is the odd one, an outsider. But there are also hints throughout the story that Sylvie is not just different because of her personality, but because she IS different; I found myself wondering if maybe she was a sprite, a fairy, a changeling, something almost but not quite human. It seemed there was a secret that she and her mother tried hard to keep hidden from everyone.
I liked the narrative styles and how distinct each girl’s voice was; Sylvie with words from her local dialect sprinkled into her story, Lorrie with her descriptions of people based on smells, palate etc, rather than “normal” descriptions. It was also through their descriptions that Sylvie’s mother, Bunny, really sprang into focus – as a quirky woman obsessed with Tupperware in Lorrie’s perspective, as a strict, restrictive, smothering mother in Sylvie’s. It became clear that Sylvie had no right to a private life, her mother would go through all her belongings and clear away everything unseemly – scrapbooks, love letters, even real books. In Bunny’s eyes, everything is corruptive; books, music, magazines, makeup etc., everything has a bad influence on her daughter and I understand why Sylvie was choking within those tight bounds.
But everything is not rosy in Lorrie’s family life either. She has more freedom than Sylvie and a loving mother and brother, but it is clear that her father is not really part of the family. He is there, but he is not really there, and the atmosphere between him and Lorrie’s mum becomes colder as the story progresses. Especially as the mother’s past love, Rook Cutler, is constantly hovering on the scene.
This was so enjoyable with many characters that felt real and scenes that are vividly painted; I felt Joe Clark’s shame when his mother insisted Sylvie should kiss him at the kissing booth, felt Lorrie’s longing to get away from Blair and the boys at the other island, Sylvie’s horror at the book burning. And underneath it all was the growing sense of mystery; why is Sylvie so different? Who leaves dead birds at the front door of Lorrie’s house?
Yes, highly recommended!
Some favourite quotes:
Sylvie:
“It was only discovering the secret life in the wallpaper that had stopped me crying. Sometimes it’s only the small things I find for myself that make sense. I asked Lorrie once what she throught the shapes on the wallpaper looked like, and she said ‘just swirls’. I suppose normal people don’t stare at everything and find other worlds. Sometimes I think I’d love to be like everyone else, just to fit in. But sometimes I think I’d miss the wonders of wallpaper. I don’t hate that part of myself.”
Sylvie and Lorrie looking through a magazine:
“She flicks the page. It’s all vests and skids. Spidery-looking hair crawling out of their vests. Their undies look like they’ve got a bunch of keys in there, a Fry’s Chocolate Cream, a bag of marbles and a shitload of other stuff they’re storing for later. Maybe that’s why fellas don’t need handbags.”
Neighbours and classmates Sylvie and Lorrie become friends (and sometimes not friends), and through their ups and downs we also get an insight into life on the island in general. Lorrie is interested in boys, especially Sylvie’s stepbrother Zach, while Sylvie is wholly uninterested in boys and dating. Lorrie wants to fit in, to be popular and hang out with the cool kids, while Sylvie is very aware that she is the odd one, an outsider. But there are also hints throughout the story that Sylvie is not just different because of her personality, but because she IS different; I found myself wondering if maybe she was a sprite, a fairy, a changeling, something almost but not quite human. It seemed there was a secret that she and her mother tried hard to keep hidden from everyone.
I liked the narrative styles and how distinct each girl’s voice was; Sylvie with words from her local dialect sprinkled into her story, Lorrie with her descriptions of people based on smells, palate etc, rather than “normal” descriptions. It was also through their descriptions that Sylvie’s mother, Bunny, really sprang into focus – as a quirky woman obsessed with Tupperware in Lorrie’s perspective, as a strict, restrictive, smothering mother in Sylvie’s. It became clear that Sylvie had no right to a private life, her mother would go through all her belongings and clear away everything unseemly – scrapbooks, love letters, even real books
Spoiler
she even burns books! Burning “Alice in Wonderland” for being corruptive is a cardinal sin as far as I am concerned. Absolutely horrificBut everything is not rosy in Lorrie’s family life either. She has more freedom than Sylvie and a loving mother and brother, but it is clear that her father is not really part of the family. He is there, but he is not really there, and the atmosphere between him and Lorrie’s mum becomes colder as the story progresses. Especially as the mother’s past love, Rook Cutler, is constantly hovering on the scene.
This was so enjoyable with many characters that felt real and scenes that are vividly painted; I felt Joe Clark’s shame when his mother insisted Sylvie should kiss him at the kissing booth, felt Lorrie’s longing to get away from Blair and the boys at the other island, Sylvie’s horror at the book burning. And underneath it all was the growing sense of mystery; why is Sylvie so different? Who leaves dead birds at the front door of Lorrie’s house?
Yes, highly recommended!
Some favourite quotes:
Sylvie:
“It was only discovering the secret life in the wallpaper that had stopped me crying. Sometimes it’s only the small things I find for myself that make sense. I asked Lorrie once what she throught the shapes on the wallpaper looked like, and she said ‘just swirls’. I suppose normal people don’t stare at everything and find other worlds. Sometimes I think I’d love to be like everyone else, just to fit in. But sometimes I think I’d miss the wonders of wallpaper. I don’t hate that part of myself.”
Sylvie and Lorrie looking through a magazine:
“She flicks the page. It’s all vests and skids. Spidery-looking hair crawling out of their vests. Their undies look like they’ve got a bunch of keys in there, a Fry’s Chocolate Cream, a bag of marbles and a shitload of other stuff they’re storing for later. Maybe that’s why fellas don’t need handbags.”