Catherine Newman is an award-winning writer and columnist. We All Want Impossible Things is her debut novel for adults. It’s a heart-wrenching yet laugh-out-loud celebration of friendship at its imperfect and radiant best. She chatted to The Penguin Post about the personal experience that inspired this novel, getting a review from Marian Keyes, and what’s next on her writing agenda.
Did you find that penning the novel helped you work through the loss of your best friend?
Oh, yes and no. It was very special, getting to wallow around in my grief for the months it took to write. It had been around five years since she died, and I loved getting to remember her not just her death, but also our friendship – in a deep way, in the name of “work.” But also, it was just very sad, and nothing changed: I wrote the book, and she is still gone from me.
Who do you think specifically should read your book? Who are the people that might get the most from it?
Hmm. I think it might be too much to read this book if you’re in the middle of a loss, or suffering a recent one. Though people seem to feel both ways about it in that respect, judging from what folks are saying. Also, judging from Goodreads reviews, if you expect tidy characters who behave appropriately at all times, this is not the book for you, ha ha ha! Everyone else should read it.
You’ve mentioned that there’s a fictionalized version of your husband in the novel, but that you don’t often write about him elsewhere. Was doing so a kind of tribute to him, and what does he think of it?
My real-life husband, like the character Honey, is the most beautiful, supportive, indulgent person in the world, and he has been nothing but thrilled about this book because that’s just what he’s like.
“Marian Keyes is just the most generous person in the world.”
You received a review from Marian Keyes, who said that We All Want Impossible Things is “one of my favourite books ever”. How does that make you feel?
Absolutely over the moon. Besides being an absolute force of nature as a writer, she is just the most generous person in the world. What a gift!
You have a PhD in Literature and Women’s Studies. How does this influence the stories you tell?
I think there’s always a feminist angle in my work about the experiences of women, in the context of the overall exploitation of them. Ash, for example, shares a lot of casual mentions of sexual assault (usually she’s laughing about it), but this has obviously shaped her as a person. But boy do I love writing stuff people will actually read, which makes this different from working on the PhD, ha ha ha!
What's next on your writing agenda?
I’m writing a novel that takes place over a one-week family vacation at a beach house – a house the family has always stayed at in Cape Cod – and it’s a lot about family secrets but also about menopause and, kind of, the reproductive and sexual mayhem of women’s lives. Also, though, it’s funny! I hope it is at least. And it’s about parenting, too, and being a grown child.
We All Want Impossible Things is out now.
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Extract: We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman