The Life Impossible. In the vein of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Matt Haig's latest tale is magical realist amble into the intersection of mathematics, environmentalism, science, philosophy, extraterrestrial life, loss, and grief--and the fact that it all takes place in Ibiza makes this story shine. While Haig's third novel doesn't rise to the level of his Midnight Library, it still stood out as a guilty pleasure of a read--one that doesn't demand too much of the reader (most chapters are only a page or two) while delivering beautiful writing at the same time. Unfortunately, much like in his previous novel "How to Stop Time," it fizzles at the end as the environmentalist meanderings come off as overwrought in its emotionalism.
My 2025 reading list is here.
Looking for book ideas? Check out our 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 reading lists!
Kruse's Keys
19 "I was watching myself in the third person." on the term 'beside myself'
33 "Maybe it was the islands. Maybe they sent people insane." Love the idea of being sent insane instead of driven insane.
91 "To see everyone on Earth as someone's grief waiting to happen." Beautiful way to capture the psyche in how Grace Winters sees the world.
133 Authors comments that love is not the rare thing in life, rather it's being understood by someone and understanding them.
172 "I suppose that is one of the purposes of all reading. It helps you live lives beyond the one you are inside. It turns out single-room mental shack into a mansion."
188 "duende" in Spanish describes the feeling of truly connecting with the essence of life in some way--popularized by the Poet Lorca.
247 "chiaroscuro" the method in Italian art of having so much darkness in a painting so that the light around someone like John the Baptist takes on a holy appearance
259 Great example of author's prowess in describing people and setting
270 "Maybe that was what madness was: the loneliness of understanding what others can't." Interesting notion.
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