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A review by jefferz
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is my fourth Matt Haig novel that I’ve read (though I have another three that I already own but keep putting off) and The Life Impossible is both somewhat on-brand for what you would expect yet also quite out there in the back half of the book. If you are a fan of The Midnight Library but have yet to read his other works or are picking this up as your first Matt Haig novel, I would strongly recommend trying out his other books first and coming back to this one later. While The Life Impossible is filled to the brim with introspective reflections and lengthy internal monologues that are to be expected for Haig’s style, I found the fantasy/magical realism plot elements in this one to be quite bizarre, random, and less effectively incorporated into the character work of his previous books. That’s not to say that The Life Impossible isn’t well-written; it's very ambitious and complex. It’s that the presentation and the plot devices are nowhere near as mass appealing or accessible as the Midnight Library and even as a fan of Matt Haig’s books and slower reads, even I had trouble staying invested in this one (I can imagine most first-time fans of the Midnight Library actually outright hating this book). Unlike the Midnight Library, The Life Impossible does not have a whimsical escapist feel at all. Truth be told, I actually consider The Midnight Library to be an outlier in Haig’s library that coincidentally had just the right combo to make it a mass-seller. The speculative fiction/science fiction elements were also quite out there and synopsis feels like a pitch in the wrong direction based on the book’s actual content.
I was intrigued to read this book largely due to it featuring an older, withdrawn female character and the core mystery to her past colleague’s disappearance. Haig has weathered protagonists before, namely Tom Hazard in How to Stop Time, but despite being mentally old, the character was still in his 40’s physically. Here, Grace Winters is both mentally and physically in her 70’s full of aches, pains, and a life devoid of friends and close family. Older FMC’s are deceptively tricky to write for but I found Grace to be both well-written and quite charming. Despite feeling like her days are lifeless despite being alive, she’s no elderly pushover and still has Haig’s signature wit and smart comedic chops. Easily the best part of The Life Impossible for me was her self-reflection of her life, regrets, and collective guilts that she carries. Her regrets are mostly topics and concepts common to the genre and story tropes, but the introspective commentary is what I’ve always considered to be one of Haig’s strong points. Unlike the more commonly written sad or crushed forms of depression, Grace self-describes herself as experiencing Anhedonia which is both similar yet distinctive from depression. I thought the descriptions and internal thoughts on her lack of feeling were solid and her slow realization that there’s more things out there worth living for and experiencing was great. The book was at its best for me when it focused on Grace and her character growth.
The problem I had with The Life Impossible was everything else surrounding Grace and the main plot. The written synopsis makes a pitch about unexplainable “magic” and Grace’s adventure to find out what happened to her long-lost friend who mysteriously disappeared and the life she had in the years since she moved to Ibiza. Last seen decades ago, her past colleague gifts her a cottage in Ibiza in her will, leading Grace to take a leap of faith to follow her and discover her life in the Mediterranean. That premise sounds great but the problem is Grace’s friend Christina and her life in Ibiza slowly become less of a focus as the plot progresses, and ultimately end up as mere plot devices just to get Grace to the island. While the first third of the book was focused on rediscovering Christina and following her life (interesting, though a bit slow at times), beyond that is where the book did an unexpected pivot that I didn’t see coming and didn’t care for personally. Without giving away spoilers, what ultimately happened to Christina and her disappearance was frankly rather outlandish to me despite obviously being part of the magic element and felt like something one would come up with in a fever dream.
Largely skimmed over in the synopsis, most of the actual plot of the Life Impossible then becomes a mashup of supernatural powers in Grace involving psychometry, mind-reading, ESP, and kinesis with a dose of extraterrestrial involvement. Now to be fair, Matt Haig’s previous books often involved fantasy and science fiction elements that were underdevelopment and light on world-building concepts in favor of focusing on the character development (case and point, The Humans for aliens or The Radleys for vampires). The Life Impossible however proudly used its thin constructs as narrative choices and the “unexplainable”. Perhaps I’m used to more functional or extensive systems for these types of plot elements, but I felt like the superpower progression was random and all over the place with zero checks and balances normally used to give the powers urgency. The mystery around the uninhabited outcrop Es Vedra and the phenomenon described as La Presencia, to me, grew increasingly more bizarre as the book continued and I was ultimately disappointed that these unusual occurrence were used as the main catalyst to shift Grace’s mindset, rather than character moments like in Haig’s previous novels. La Presencia also has a big role in Grace coming to terms with her guilt and in the past, I’ve been largely impressed by Haig’s writing in this area. Here though, Grace moving on from her past felt rushed, a bit surface level, and forced to fit into La Presencia’s plot element. I’ve mentioned before about how Magical Realism is completely hit or miss for me, and this book encompassed many of the elements and shortcomings I often have with this genre.
Contrary to the book’s pitch, Christina’s life wasn’t the focus of the book at all and even her character felt more of a side character in the background. It is the enigmatic, scraggly-looking diving hippie Alberto Ribas who is the other main character besides Grace. Alberto is a discredited marine scientist who was shunned by the scientific community after he published “La Vida Impossible”, a book that translates to The Impossible Life. Unfortunately Alberto is where the book lost me and could never get me back. One of the core underlying themes is there’s more to life out there than what meets the eye and everyone and everything is intrinsically connected, a motto that Alberto and Christina embody and convey constantly to Grace. That’s a fine takeaway message in and of itself, but my problem with this is that the last two thirds of the book is all about environmental hippie, counter-culture lifestyle where I was expecting a life-reliving and disappearance mystery instead. While I’m not opposed to the theme, it was a development that was nowhere mentioned in any of the book’s marketing. Had I known this was the direction the book was ultimately heading, I probably would not have picked this to read (so I guess on that note, good job marketing team on getting a reader that would’ve passed this over). I am also not very familiar with Ibiza’s culture or setting so maybe this is a fitting tribute and homage to the island. However, I can’t say it particularly appealed to me despite what is clearly Haig’s love letter to a place he loved and lived in previously according to his author notes. The core conflict of people protesting development on Es Vedra and the villain also felt quite weak compared to how good Grace’s character work was, and was considerably less compelling than Christina’s life.
As a whole, I did not really care for The Life Impossible and it’s probably my least favorite of Haig’s novels that I’ve read. However, that’s not to say that this is a bad book, not by a long-shot. The Life Impossible is perhaps one of his best works in terms of self-reflection and introspection, and this is clearly one of his most personal works to date. There’s also a confidence and subtle sophistication in this book that I found lacking in some of his earlier works. Haig was also able to make heavy mathematician references work within the narrative he was writing (Grace was a retired math teacher) and I loved some of the other geekier niche references included. I never thought I would read a book that included a reference to the lonely 52-hertz whale, a topic most people have never heard about:
<blockquote>Fifty-two hertz. It is the world’s loneliest whale because no other whale understands calls at that frequency. It is a blue whale, and blue whales are much lower. Blue whales are the Barry White of marine mammals. Deep, deep, deep. So the poor high-pitched creature has to swim through the ocean all alone, finding it impossible to make friends and with no one to hear his call.’ He was smiling, but his eyes were glazed with sadness. ‘I was that whale. I was writing about incredible things, and no one was on my wavelength. No one understood me. They thought I was a joke. Like a high-pitched whale.</blockquote>
It’s just a shame that the plot lost me and wasn’t able to win me back. I’ve had similar experiences with some of Matt Haig’s other books where the middle sections lag or feel like they’ve lost their direction, only for the endings to pull it back together and end on a high note. The Life Impossible is his first novel where I felt like the ending wasn’t able to salvage my opinion of its shortcomings and left me quite cold and put off by its concluding environmental and philosophical notes that can come off as preachy. When I think about it, The Life Impossible shares almost all of the same plot weaknesses as How to Stop Time exacerbated, paired with a less satisfying conclusion. Sometimes authors or artistic creators have a piece of work that was made for themselves, and one that others can appreciate for its aspirations, rather than actually enjoying it. This was unfortunately The Life Impossible for me.
I was intrigued to read this book largely due to it featuring an older, withdrawn female character and the core mystery to her past colleague’s disappearance. Haig has weathered protagonists before, namely Tom Hazard in How to Stop Time, but despite being mentally old, the character was still in his 40’s physically. Here, Grace Winters is both mentally and physically in her 70’s full of aches, pains, and a life devoid of friends and close family. Older FMC’s are deceptively tricky to write for but I found Grace to be both well-written and quite charming. Despite feeling like her days are lifeless despite being alive, she’s no elderly pushover and still has Haig’s signature wit and smart comedic chops. Easily the best part of The Life Impossible for me was her self-reflection of her life, regrets, and collective guilts that she carries. Her regrets are mostly topics and concepts common to the genre and story tropes, but the introspective commentary is what I’ve always considered to be one of Haig’s strong points. Unlike the more commonly written sad or crushed forms of depression, Grace self-describes herself as experiencing Anhedonia which is both similar yet distinctive from depression. I thought the descriptions and internal thoughts on her lack of feeling were solid and her slow realization that there’s more things out there worth living for and experiencing was great. The book was at its best for me when it focused on Grace and her character growth.
The problem I had with The Life Impossible was everything else surrounding Grace and the main plot. The written synopsis makes a pitch about unexplainable “magic” and Grace’s adventure to find out what happened to her long-lost friend who mysteriously disappeared and the life she had in the years since she moved to Ibiza. Last seen decades ago, her past colleague gifts her a cottage in Ibiza in her will, leading Grace to take a leap of faith to follow her and discover her life in the Mediterranean. That premise sounds great but the problem is Grace’s friend Christina and her life in Ibiza slowly become less of a focus as the plot progresses, and ultimately end up as mere plot devices just to get Grace to the island. While the first third of the book was focused on rediscovering Christina and following her life (interesting, though a bit slow at times), beyond that is where the book did an unexpected pivot that I didn’t see coming and didn’t care for personally. Without giving away spoilers, what ultimately happened to Christina and her disappearance was frankly rather outlandish to me despite obviously being part of the magic element and felt like something one would come up with in a fever dream.
Largely skimmed over in the synopsis, most of the actual plot of the Life Impossible then becomes a mashup of supernatural powers in Grace involving psychometry, mind-reading, ESP, and kinesis with a dose of extraterrestrial involvement. Now to be fair, Matt Haig’s previous books often involved fantasy and science fiction elements that were underdevelopment and light on world-building concepts in favor of focusing on the character development (case and point, The Humans for aliens or The Radleys for vampires). The Life Impossible however proudly used its thin constructs as narrative choices and the “unexplainable”. Perhaps I’m used to more functional or extensive systems for these types of plot elements, but I felt like the superpower progression was random and all over the place with zero checks and balances normally used to give the powers urgency. The mystery around the uninhabited outcrop Es Vedra and the phenomenon described as La Presencia, to me, grew increasingly more bizarre as the book continued and I was ultimately disappointed that these unusual occurrence were used as the main catalyst to shift Grace’s mindset, rather than character moments like in Haig’s previous novels. La Presencia also has a big role in Grace coming to terms with her guilt and in the past, I’ve been largely impressed by Haig’s writing in this area. Here though, Grace moving on from her past felt rushed, a bit surface level, and forced to fit into La Presencia’s plot element. I’ve mentioned before about how Magical Realism is completely hit or miss for me, and this book encompassed many of the elements and shortcomings I often have with this genre.
Contrary to the book’s pitch, Christina’s life wasn’t the focus of the book at all and even her character felt more of a side character in the background. It is the enigmatic, scraggly-looking diving hippie Alberto Ribas who is the other main character besides Grace. Alberto is a discredited marine scientist who was shunned by the scientific community after he published “La Vida Impossible”, a book that translates to The Impossible Life. Unfortunately Alberto is where the book lost me and could never get me back. One of the core underlying themes is there’s more to life out there than what meets the eye and everyone and everything is intrinsically connected, a motto that Alberto and Christina embody and convey constantly to Grace. That’s a fine takeaway message in and of itself, but my problem with this is that the last two thirds of the book is all about environmental hippie, counter-culture lifestyle where I was expecting a life-reliving and disappearance mystery instead. While I’m not opposed to the theme, it was a development that was nowhere mentioned in any of the book’s marketing. Had I known this was the direction the book was ultimately heading, I probably would not have picked this to read (so I guess on that note, good job marketing team on getting a reader that would’ve passed this over). I am also not very familiar with Ibiza’s culture or setting so maybe this is a fitting tribute and homage to the island. However, I can’t say it particularly appealed to me despite what is clearly Haig’s love letter to a place he loved and lived in previously according to his author notes. The core conflict of people protesting development on Es Vedra and the villain also felt quite weak compared to how good Grace’s character work was, and was considerably less compelling than Christina’s life.
As a whole, I did not really care for The Life Impossible and it’s probably my least favorite of Haig’s novels that I’ve read. However, that’s not to say that this is a bad book, not by a long-shot. The Life Impossible is perhaps one of his best works in terms of self-reflection and introspection, and this is clearly one of his most personal works to date. There’s also a confidence and subtle sophistication in this book that I found lacking in some of his earlier works. Haig was also able to make heavy mathematician references work within the narrative he was writing (Grace was a retired math teacher) and I loved some of the other geekier niche references included. I never thought I would read a book that included a reference to the lonely 52-hertz whale, a topic most people have never heard about:
<blockquote>Fifty-two hertz. It is the world’s loneliest whale because no other whale understands calls at that frequency. It is a blue whale, and blue whales are much lower. Blue whales are the Barry White of marine mammals. Deep, deep, deep. So the poor high-pitched creature has to swim through the ocean all alone, finding it impossible to make friends and with no one to hear his call.’ He was smiling, but his eyes were glazed with sadness. ‘I was that whale. I was writing about incredible things, and no one was on my wavelength. No one understood me. They thought I was a joke. Like a high-pitched whale.</blockquote>
It’s just a shame that the plot lost me and wasn’t able to win me back. I’ve had similar experiences with some of Matt Haig’s other books where the middle sections lag or feel like they’ve lost their direction, only for the endings to pull it back together and end on a high note. The Life Impossible is his first novel where I felt like the ending wasn’t able to salvage my opinion of its shortcomings and left me quite cold and put off by its concluding environmental and philosophical notes that can come off as preachy. When I think about it, The Life Impossible shares almost all of the same plot weaknesses as How to Stop Time exacerbated, paired with a less satisfying conclusion. Sometimes authors or artistic creators have a piece of work that was made for themselves, and one that others can appreciate for its aspirations, rather than actually enjoying it. This was unfortunately The Life Impossible for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Grief
Minor: Drug use