I was judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’d been doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got me to read on even though it was among 296 other books I was charged to read.

I see each of JCO’s novels as a challenge she’s set up for herself—in this case second person…
After all these years she still manages to surprise me…still these lists are what inspire me the most about her writing..fast and long pace-setting sentences.
“Skies of sharp chiseled clouds wounding to the eye, such beauty unknown in the East where the cityscape devours three quarters of the sky and the air is porous with haze. Running along the Charles River embankment, wiping your eyes of a thin suety secretion, airborne toxins from vehicle exhaust and industrial waste sucked into the tender pink tissue of the lungs, who much healthier to live in Santa Tierra, New Mexico, at a higher altitude although (in fact) it is difficult to sleep here, air and blood so thin.”

I absolutely loved this book! It was such a captivating read! I couldn’t stop reading! I loved the characters and the story! Highly recommend!

I very much enjoyed this story. It was wonderfully written. I look forward to the author’s next book!

I do love Oates, but I think I was just not in the frame of mind for this book. I was fully engaged for the first chapters, but then it just went on, mired in that same grief. I think this would be a beautiful, poignant short story or novella, it obviously came straight from her heart onto the page, beautifully written, as always. But very, very hard to read. I'd give five stars for the writing and passion, but 3 because it's just so hard to read.

While I enjoy Joyce Carol Oates' often wandering relationship with the prose in her larger novels, I found Breathe to fall flat for me. A lot of times I really enjoy when a domestic novel is populated with unlikeable characters, but that was not the case here; Michaela didn't strike me as real or sympathetic and Gerard didn't hold my interest. The plot was haunting but I wasn't invested enough in the characters to feel the horror aspect of this one.

I was given an advanced copy of this text by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book broke my heart and unfortunately ended before picking up the pieces again. Oates painted a beautiful picture with her text, but the ending needs just a bit more work.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. Breathe by Oates is an intense book. It follows a couple, Michaela and Gerard who have their life completely turned upsidedown when Gerard is taken ill. He is at first, misdiagnosed. As time passes Michaela realizes he may not get better and that she will have to face life without him. This story is about their marriage and the intensity of Michaela's love. If you've never read anything by Joyce Carol Oates, get started immediately. If you have, well, you will love this one, too.

I love JCO so so much and was very eager to dive into her latest epic with this ARC.
JCO weaves a prose filled, emotional journey showcasing a loving marriage faced with terminal illness.
In all transparency, it should come with trigger warnings for death, cancer. As I experience my own personal battle with cancer, there were moments that while honest and emotional were hard to get through. Overall, it was beautifully done.

3.5 stars
Oates is a fiction writer who needs no introduction; she is a mainstay in lists and anthologies of the past 50 years. Breathe is much more poetic and technique-heavy than her earlier works. Oates seems to have abandoned the straight, clean narrative that she had mastered so powerfully and is playing with psycho realism to convey the depths of grief. Artistically, this works, and for a cerebral, analytical reader, there is much to like. However, I miss the more direct narrative. Instead of engaging with the characters and feeling, I spent the entire work thinking. While there is a section of intensity, it passes, and the book seems to drag out and wander off the impact in the last 20%. Overall, I was disappointed.

Thank you to Joyce Carol Oates, Ecco, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This author is one of my favorites so I was really looking forward to reading this book but this time I was very disappointed. I got half way through and I just couldn't get any farther. The writing is good but the subject is depressing and there is so much repetition. This one is just not for me.I am sure there are some readers who will like this type of story. Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

In book discussions with others, I notice there are those who love JCO's books and those who seem intimidated or don't know where to start. Her fans will welcome this first person journey through the stages of grief created by a writer well acquainted with the territory. A fictional counterpart to Joan Didion's Blue Nights and The Year of Magical Thinkin, Breathe is highly recommended to mature readers. As an introduction to Oates, consider Blonde or Wonderland.

When I originally read the description for this book I was worried that it would hit too close to home and possibly be triggering from my own experiences in life losing someone to cancer so recently. But it was the exact opposite. I found the main character to be so absolutely unrelatable and unlikeable that I couldn’t move past it or get into the story. As someone whose been the person saying goodbye, been the person to sit by that hospital bed, I just couldn’t get into it. I found myself struggling to read it, pretty much forcing my way through, and genuinely didn’t care what happened next. I just wanted it to be over. That combined with all the flowery language which is supposed to feel deep and poetic, made the entire novel drag on and completely miss the mark of what I think the author was going for. I would not recommend.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Michaela is living with her husband in a small town near Albuquerque New Mexico in which they have no family or friends nearby. Shortly after arriving her husband is not feeling goods. When he is in the hospital he takes a turn for the worse. Its a spouses worst nightmare. This book was both emotional and enlightening.

𝐈𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐨𝐫.

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the best authors to read if you want characters whose emotions are unfiltered, bloody and raw. With Oates, the guts are on full display- every single one of their fears, flaws, strengths, desires, shame, regrets, hopes, delusions, illnesses both physical and mental- are magnified. I don’t think there is a surface left unscratched nor depths remaining to be explored. It’s not always pretty but it makes for magnificent writing. The horror of this novel is in the diagnosis and the crashing terror of pending doom, because what is loss if not doom?

Death is an ever present threat, a stark reality that nothing can stop-certainly not Michaela’s loyal, bottomless love for her husband, Gerard (nine years her senior). Gerard McManus has taken an eight-month residency at the Institute for Advanced Research in New Mexico. Having left behind their comfortable life in Cambridge, Massachusetts they have taken on the challenge of living in a desert terrain, with all it’s exotic surroundings and where they don’t know a single soul. Michaela discovers, in their new home, artifacts that horrify her with their ugliness, particularly an awful female figurine. In time, those native pieces feel like a curse. She means to make the best of it, this ‘time-out-of-time’ in an unfamiliar place. She must adjust her expectations and not weigh Gerard down with her fears nor disappointments. Neither expected what would come next, that Gerard would succumb to a mysterious illness, before they’ve barely settled into this new life.

Michaela is accustomed to her role as Gerard’s happy wife. He has always been her protector, like a father figure in numerous ways. She has lived the past twelve years of their life together being defined by his love, his presence. As his condition worsens, she must face what could be a future without him. With childish faith, hope, she believes her love will save him, chase death out of the room. She remains by his side, faithful as a dog. Gerard faces the terror of failing health, chasing diagnosis and treatments while Michaela wants to believe that by offering herself (her hope, her goodness) that he will be saved, that soon they will put this catastrophe behind them. She uses her teaching as an escape, working as an adjunct in the English Department at a University, nothing so prestigious as her beloved husband’s career. If only she could focus on the students, but living what feels like a tragedy makes her feel like a fraud and yet it is a chance to pretend everything is fine in her life, this stolen time away from her suffering husband. She is ill too, sickened by sorrow, plagued by terrors real and imagined. There is no one else to lean on, Gerard has always been her pillar. He cannot abandon her like this! He must Breathe! “Breathe, Darling!” If she could, she would let him take the oxygen from her own lungs.

Maybe she doesn’t know him, after all these years, which should in and of itself allow for more time. She is afraid for him, sometimes of him when he becomes confused, uncertain. The doctor’s words alarm her, everything feels like a curse, payback for all the happiness and love they’ve shared. Disease, illness, it is a threat to the world they share, and how could she possible continue to exist the world in which he is no more? Who is she without him? No one. Nothing. She cannot process this frightful reality, its hit them too fast, leaving her reeling, shocked!

A story about a loved one dying has never felt so sinister. Her childish petitions to what, who- God, universe- leave us feeling as helpless as Michaela. This is what it means to exist, to be in the bed or beside it, either way no one is winning and death is not a romance. Our failing bodies are a horror show, nature’s cruel trick. Michaela is fading from her life as much as Gerard, unable to deal with the practical details that never stop demanding our attention, to hell with what we’re dealing with, what crisis is haunting our soul. She is sleepless, vulnerable, on the verge of madness and no one is there to bear witness, to comfort her, that is Gerard’s role. Her universe is shrinking! She is guilty, ashamed of the life inside of her while Gerard’s light grows fainter. Who wants the remains of this life? She’d rather be dead.

Widow or widower, it’s a bleak future for the spouse left behind. Oates doesn’t tread lightly when it comes to these ‘common’ subjects. It’s scary because it’s not really fiction, is it? Love costs us, it’s dreadful to have a heart. We all come to the end, and there is no bigger abandonment than death, no greater nightmare than watching the deterioration of our beloved. Some of us have already been there and if we’re lucky, have recovered, been spared more time. Her writing is heavy no matter the subject. I’ve long been a fan-I don’t think there is another writer that can take life events and unearth every emotion quite like her. In her stories, as in life, there is no such thing as ‘one size fits all’ for how we react when our lives are upended. Those of us familiar with loss, illness (if you aren’t yet, you will be) can understand Michaela’s decline. There is no escape, not for any of us.

Publication Date: August 3, 2021 Available Today

Ecco

Breathe by Joyce Carol Oates is a heart-wrenching novel following Michaela, a woman reckoning with a sudden tragedy that forces her older husband to remain in the hospital with a mysterious illness. The book follows their daily lives as they struggle with misdiagnoses, the physical fallout of the illness, and the emotional it takes on a caregiver and the patient.

This book focuses on the important, but difficult topic of chronic illness and how it affects the person that is ill as well as the individual's in their life. It is heartbreaking to see how illness changes Gerard and takes away the things that mean most to him. To compound this, it is painful to learn how Michaela is coping with an unexpected tragedy and reckoning with a life she never expected. It was powerful seeing from Michaela's perspective how Gerard and his health were changing over time and how serious illness can change the fiber of someone's being.

I thought the character development in this book was fantastic. Michaela was messy but had very real and complicated responses to an unimaginable situation. Her flashbacks also helped provide context for their relationship before the tragedy and underscored how much this situation changed both Michaela and Gerard, and their relationship. My one difficulty was the writing style as it is stream of consciousness, which at times was chaotic jumping from thought to though or different memories. However I do think it ultimately added to the tense, claustrophobic feeling that grief and fear can create after tragedy. Overall this a powerful, yet difficult read that I recommend for anyone wanting to learn more about grief after loss.

Many thanks to the publisher Ecco and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Breathe is a raw, painfully real, and emotional look at love, loss, and grief.

Michaela and Gerard have been happily married for 12 years. Their home is in Cambridge, MA, but they are currently living in New Mexico where Gerard is teaching at an academic institute. When Gerard first falls ill, they both assume it is a small bump in the road and that he will be back on his feet shortly. That is not the case.

As Gerard's health quickly worsens, they both come to realize that he is in his final days. How does Gerard handle his remaining time? How can Michaela face and handle the death of the person who has been her home and center? Their love defined her; who is she now? Is it possible to survive such grief?

Joyce Carol Oates once again takes a difficult subject and handles it with depth, realism, and skill.

My thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for allowing me the privilege of reading an ARC of this book which is scheduled to be published 8/3/2021. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received an advance copy of, Breathe, by Joyce Carol Oates. I found this book sad and depressing at times. Grief does not affect everyone the same way though.

This book details the guilt and grief associated with losing a loved one. Split into two parts, the first section details the long monotonous hospitalization. The feelings a spouse may have that they are not doing enough. Not doing it right. The second part details the weeks after. The guilt and anger of being the survivor. This process is particularly hard for Michaela how is seemingly alone in the world. As she loses herself further and further to the role of widow, she become a less reliable narrator. The lines of reality and fiction become more and more blurred.
In short, this book was raw, sad, and a little perplexing. Being a master of her craft, the tale is artfully told. However, it was at times hard to take. The subject matter was simply heart wrenching. The switch between second and third person left me wondering what was real and what was a delusion. I recommend this book the fans of JCO who are in the mood for something melancholy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC! This one releases on 8/3.

My favorite author has done it again—looks like, barring an unexpected favorite, <i>Breathe</i> will be my favorite novel of the year.

But it took a while for me to warm up to it.

The first third or so of this novel is incredibly insular and white-hot, off-putting, and written in a sort of stream-of-conscious style. I was reminded of JCO’s <i>Black Water</i>. It was still good, mind you, just incredibly visceral and . . . weird? But I warmed up to the novel, and I must say this is one of Oates’s best stories about grief yet. She’s still processing the death of her husband(s) in her art, and the result is an emotionally vulnerable and honest story in <i>Breathe</i>.

Even more open-ended and gleefully unpredictable than JCO’s other novels, which is really saying something, this isn’t one for impatient readers or readers expecting easy, neat answers. Ends are left loose, the narrative often zigging when you expect a zag. I am so glad my favorite writer is still willing to challenge her readers with works that can easily measure up to her well-loved classics.

Joyce Carol Oates is one of my favorite authors of all time; so naturally when I saw this book on Net Galley I hoped and hoped that I would be approved to read the ARC. Unfortunately, this was not an enjoyable reading experience, as EVERY OTHER book by JCO was for me.

This book deeply examines loss and anguish after the protagonist Michaela loses her husband early in the book. The first few chapters for me were very hard to push through as Oates shoves the panic down the readers through, but my internal monologue was saying “okay okay get on with it.”

Throughout the book I struggled to understand what was real and what was fantasy as Michaela jumps to past, present, and future. There were several parts of the story where I never was sure if this was a day dream, a nightmare, or it did take place.

Additionally, and this is a big one for me, there are a lot of inaccuracies in the medical language that transpires in this book and that absolutely irks me because it is very preventable.

I am not sure who the intended audience is of this sad sad story. Possibly in a classroom setting, examining grieving? I saw another reviewer mention on #goodreads that this was written not long after the death of JCO’s second husband; I do not know if that is fact however if it is I hope putting these feelings down was helpful to the author, but I imagine someone in a similar situation would have unpleasant reactions to reading this. As with many books by Oats there are some other trigger warnings to share: rape & cancer.

It saddens me to give this unfavorable review of such an accomplished author; but there are so many 5 star JCO books out there to choose from!

Thank you ECCO publishers, Net Galley, and Joyce Carol Oates for this ARC of Breathe.