Book Review: Continue Breathing—A Novel
Continue Breathing—A Novel, by Josh Greenfield, ISBN 9781954351295, Adelaide Books, 2020, 286 pages, $19.60 paperback.
Continue Breathing—A Novel is a unique story of a young man who comes of age in the 1980s while in college and building his life in New York City. What makes this unique? The main character Jordan discovers that he isn’t quite like everyone else. Does he have a rich benefactor, or a superpower? No, he has a mental illness. The story follows Jordan through his struggles as he develops symptoms, first seeks help, becomes stabilized, becomes hospitalized, and falters along the way.
The story is exceptional because it is told by an author, Josh Greensfield, who has experienced the symptoms firsthand. Jordan’s experience is told from the perspective of a privileged individual, which is different from what many patients with mental illness experience. He has a family who, throughout the book, provide a support system. He narrates the experiences in a genuine manner, which is both interesting and gives life to the true experience of recovery.
The book reveals how recovery looks for someone with a chronic illness, or who works to adjust to medications, side effects, and the reality of what it means to live with the illness. The most unique feature of this book is also the very thing that makes it an essential and useful text for new social workers, interns, and social work educators alike.
Greensfield was educated from early age, holds two master’s degrees, and like the character in the book, faced a severe and persistent mental illness with genetic roots, which he learned to adapt to as a young man. He worked with a skilled psychiatrist, as did his character Jordan, and was able to overcome the challenges of the illness to write this novel. This is what truly makes the passages that he writes so useful to those who are new to the profession.
As a social worker who has worked with patients with severe, chronic, and persistent mental illness for the better part of 16 years, I can attest that these passages have a genuineness about them that can only be expressed by someone who has cared for someone with or experienced firsthand this type of illness. This description gives the text credibility, and it could be paired with a traditional text for academic purposes. Field educators could assign this to interns to assist them in understanding certain concepts of recovery or symptomatology. Practitioners could use this text in a therapeutic manner with patients in private practice to help to work through writing their own recovery stories or to teach recovery within a group setting using parts of the text. Overall, this is an excellent text to add to your library.
Reviewed by Anita L. Pasquale, MSW, LICSW.
