‘We All Want Impossible Things’ book review: A tremendously moving story of love and loss

There is something about yellow covers that instantly catch my attention. Sometimes I buy books that have yellow covers without even reading the blurb. Maybe my judgment is clouded by my bias but I generally find myself enjoying those books. I bought ‘We All Want Impossible Things’ by Catherine Newman because the cover is a bright yellow one. There is a broken blue plate fixed through Kintsugi—the Japanese art of mending broken objects, mainly glass and ceramic, with gold. The effect is striking.

It’s also a slim volume. I thought I’d be able to read it in a day or two. And I did. Not because it was a light read. It deals with loss and grief. But the story is powerful and gripping. The writing is gorgeous. I couldn’t put the book down. The story is about two childhood friends Edith and Ashley as they grapple with the former’s cancer prognosis. Edi and Ash have shared everything. They have seen each other through heartbreaks, family issues, marriages, divorce, childbirth among other gazillion issues of life. They complete each other.

When Edi is diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it upends both their lives. After three years of grueling treatment, the hospital worker tells them to ‘make the most of her remaining days’ while not-so-subtly clarifying that it needs to happen somewhere else and not at the hospital. A social worker recommends in-patient hospice care and Jude, Edi’s husband, and Ash come to the harrowing decision to opt for it. They don’t want Edi’s seven-year-old son to deal with the trauma of having to watch her die. Edi then moves into a hospice that is near Ash’s home.

Ash is recently separated (but too cheap and lazy to get a divorce) and lives with her two grown daughters. Her ex-husband, Honey, drops by every now and then to help them cook, clean, fix things, and take care of many other little things. Despite having a loving husband, Ash has chosen to leave him and have random relationships with different men. She doesn’t know where she’s headed. With Edi’s cancer, she seems to be losing her sense of self. As she puts it, “Edi’s memory is like the backup hard drive for mine.”

We All Want Impossible Things is a book about death, laced with humor. Newman attempts and achieves the impossible—of talking about death without making it seem like a dark, ominous presence. The setting is mostly the hospice and you get glimpses of the other residents there as well. Everybody is kind to one another, perhaps because they all share the same pain of losing someone they love. Despite a painful backdrop, things feel cozy and comforting.

I loved We All Want Impossible Things. It made me think of things I didn’t want to think about, mainly death and grief. But it did so in a way that didn’t make me sad. Rather, it reminded me to value what I have and not be affected by the many minor niggles of life, like my husband leaving his dirty clothes on the bed, or my father nagging me for one of the many minor things he has the tendency to fixate on. Newman’s debut adult novel will make you cry, laugh, and want to hug everybody close to you.

We All Want Impossible Things

Catherine Newman

Published: 2022

Publisher: Doubleday

Pages: 209, paperback