Review of Breathing Lessons by Andy Sinclair

Breathing Lessons

Breathing Lessons is a narrative through the voice of Henry Moss, a man seeking lasting and meaningful companionship in a community characterized by brief, temporal relationships. Shifting between past and present vignettes, Henry’s struggle to find life balance as a homosexual man is vividly described, taking the reader along on his emotional roller-coaster.

The book tells the story of Henry’s search for love, depicting male to male sexual encounters in a visceral tone, forthright and erotic. Yet, the story could be anyone’s – wanting intimacy but seeking it in soulless environments and with the emptiest of people; wanting to be embraced or touched on a deep emotional level but settling for rough sex and insensitive lovers. Such counterintuitive behaviour is not the sole province of homosexuals – many straights/heteros act in similar lunatic fashion when seeking romantic partners. In this respect, the book has universal appeal. Anyone who has ever felt the pain of unrequited love, experienced loneliness in a crowd or longed for an expression of kindness from another human being can relate to Henry.

Breathing Lessons isn’t all about loss, sadness and disappointment – there is hope, too. Henry does have loving friends and family. He has encounters with strangers that offer him a glimpse of the goodness all around him – if only he will choose to see it. He senses the nascent promise in children – his nephew and the teenage girls he coaches. And he learns that even when it seems your entire life has come unstrung, redemption is possible.

By turns, Henry’s story is bewildering, funny, heart-breaking and heart-warming. Once into the first few pages, this one is hard to put down.

Reviewed by Angela Wiseman