It takes the average reader 1 hour and 30 minutes to read Sweet Torture of Breathing by Lorna Thorpe
Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more
'Don't still, my beating heart' Lorna Thorpe writes in her second collection, 'Sweet Torture of Breathing'. It's a sentiment that reverberates throughout a book that deals with her close brush with death following a cardiac arrest, and the psychic death that preceded it. Here are poems that take a wry, feisty look at therapy, meditation, drug smuggling, acupuncture, angels, sex in hotel rooms and the platitudes of self-help books. The central section is a series of poems about people who died before their time, among them Janis Joplin, Maria Callas, Virginia Woolf and Ethel Rosenberg. But Thorpe is still here to tell her tale and she concludes with a section that shows her feeling her way back to life in poems that celebrate the sensual pleasures and chaos of love and living. As before, cultural references - from 'Cabaret' and 'The Corpse Bride' to 'Six Feet Under' and 'Atonement' -- layer her work and extend its autobiographical reach. Plain-speaking and engaging, Thorpe's distinctive voice is carved out of the defiance and vulnerability of a survivor who isn't afraid to laugh at herself.
Sweet Torture of Breathing by Lorna Thorpe is 90 pages long, and a total of 22,500 words.
This makes it 30% the length of the average book. It also has 27% more words than the average book.
The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 2 hours and 2 minutes to read Sweet Torture of Breathing aloud.
Sweet Torture of Breathing is suitable for students ages 10 and up.
Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.
When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.
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