Name: We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel
Author: Catherine Newman
ISBN: 9780063230910

About the book

“Catherine Newman sees the heartbreak and comedy of life with wisdom and unflinching compassion. The way she finds the extraordinary in the everyday is nothing short of poetry. She’s a writer’s writer—and a human’s human.”—New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center “A riotously funny and fiercely loyal love letter to female friendship. The story of Edi and Ash proves that a best friend is a gift from the gods. Newman turns her prodigious talents toward finding joy even in the friendship’s final days. I laughed while crying, and was left revived. Newman is a comic masterhand and a dazzling philosopher of the day-to-day.”—Amity Gaige, author of Sea Wife “The funniest, most joyful book about dying—and living—that I have ever read.”—KJ Dell'Antonia, author of the New York Times bestselling The Chicken Sisters For lovers of Meg Wolitzer, Maria Semple, and Jenny Offill comes this raucous, poignant celebration of life, love, and friendship at its imperfect and radiant best. Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They’ve shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan’s Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.” But now the unthinkable has happened. Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days at a hospice near Ash, who stumbles into heartbreak surrounded by her daughters, ex(ish) husband, dear friends, a poorly chosen lover (or two), and a rotating cast of beautifully, fleetingly human hospice characters. As The Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack blasts all day long from the room next door, Edi and Ash reminisce, hold on, and try to let go. Meanwhile, Ash struggles with being an imperfect friend, wife, and parent—with life, in other words, distilled to its heartbreaking, joyful, and comedic essence. For anyone who’s ever lost a friend or had one. Get ready to laugh through your tears.

ISBN9780063230910

PublisherHarper

Publication Date12/31/22

Pages336

luisn

2 Followers

4.5

The prose is out of this world, I loved the slow pace and how the author left space for the ugly side of grief. This book isn't about a person dying from cancer, it's about someone who loses their best friend.

This was my first Catherine Newman book, and I fell in love with her instantly. The prose is so beautiful, heartbreaking, and real. I really liked the raw feeling of her writing, and I almost cried in every single chapter. "All of it's in his bones. It's the actual stuff of his body and brain. The placenta you made from scratch. Your milk from nursing him. All those pancakes and school-lunch sandwiches, all of that food and care." [...] "Everything you've ever fed him," I say. "His whole self is made completely out of your love." - page 27 I would consider this book literary fiction. So if you are here for a good plot, you better leave immediately. If you love a good cry, prose, a slow pace, and complicated characters ... this book is for you! Surprisingly, this book isn't really about Edi, the woman who was diagnosed with cancer. It's about Ash, her best friend. I know that a lot of readers call Ash self-absorbed and a character that is so unloveable that they couldn't read the book. But for some reason, I loved Ash, and I love the fact that she is far from perfect. If I have to read one more book about cancer, where everybody is an angle and death is like a bright light wrapped in white silk and garnished with people who are respectfully grieving while staying perfect and thinking positive ... I might barf. That's why I love "We all want impossible things" so much. It is ugly. And grieving can be ugly. Ash is such an interesting character to read about! She has so many flaws. Loads of them. But I felt so deeply for her. I could feel her pain while reading, and I loved hearing her impulsive thoughts about the death of her friend and her own life. She's not a character you can easily love, but she is a protagonist you can easily understand if you have lost someone. This feeling of helplessness that makes you want to burn the whole world down or just disappear from this world... that's what this book is about for me. But "We all want impossible things" has also a lot of happy moments in the pain of grieving. Stories about when to hold on and when to let go. Chapters that show you the ugly side of grief but also the things you can get when you work through this massive pile of emotions.

May 16, 2024

4.5

The prose is out of this world, I loved the slow pace and how the author left space for the ugly side of grief. This book isn't about a person dying from cancer, it's about someone who loses their best friend.

May 16, 2024

We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel

About the book

Editions (6)

Reviews & Ratings

Wanted to love it, really really don‘t

Wanted to love it, really really don‘t

Das war echt sehr traurig aber irgendwie komischerweise auf ne Art auch schön. Hat es NOCH trauriger gemacht dass es so an ner wahren Geschichte inspiriert ist. War sehr “einfach” zu lesen, so von der Sprache her, nicht vom Stoff. All in all einfach sehr schönes Buch 🥹

Das war echt sehr traurig aber irgendwie komischerweise auf ne Art auch schön. Hat es NOCH trauriger gemacht dass es so an ner wahren Geschichte inspiriert ist. War sehr “einfach” zu lesen, so von der Sprache her, nicht vom Stoff. All in all einfach sehr schönes Buch 🥹

The prose is out of this world, I loved the slow pace and how the author left space for the ugly side of grief. This book isn't about a person dying from cancer, it's about someone who loses their best friend.

The prose is out of this world, I loved the slow pace and how the author left space for the ugly side of grief. This book isn't about a person dying from cancer, it's about someone who loses their best friend.

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