Book review: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig was always going to be a gamble for me. I loved The Midnight Library but generally dislike fantasy and avoid books featuring paranormal and mystical stuff. I adore Haig’s writing but unfollowed him on Twitter years ago because I couldn’t stand the preachy positivity*. Although I suspect that’s an indication that I’m Haig’s ideal target audience. I marked line after line. Paragraph after paragraph here. There was so much I could relate to. I hate the ‘woo woo’ stuff* but much of this is fucking profound. Haig is so frickin’ insightful in his writing I wonder if he’s found himself a ‘La Presencia’. Or perhaps just psychedelic-induced enlightenment that allows him to be so connected with his surroundings and himself?

When retired Maths teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the Balearics Grace searches for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

It won’t surprise anyone that my least favourite part of this book was the fact that some alien presence was responsible for La Presencia (the ocean floor), which is actually a portal to their world. Here, for those rare people on earth (like Grace) who experience La Presencia, it means they’re gifted with extra-sensory powers. I should mention that Haig, through former marine biologist and scientist Alberto, does provide some scientific backup via references to quantum mechanics, precognition and retro causation.

The pragmatic, logic loving me was able to dismiss the idea of alien life forms and just view Grace’s sudden insights as a realisation or ‘a-ha’ moment. When we meet Grace she describes herself as having ‘anhedonia’… the inability to feel pleasure. Experiencing La Presencia is a light bulb moment that has her more connected with the world after being so numb for so long. She can finally ‘feel’ again and it’s a lot to deal with. 

The real talent it has given you is an appreciation of life. It is hard to explain, at least in English, what this truely means. But there is a word in Spanish, ‘duende’. One connotation of the word comes from the Spanish poet Lorca. It describes that feeling when someone truly connects with the sublime essence of life, its tragedy and beauty, whether in art or flamenco or in nature…

I know you have felt emptiness. But you will feel fullness. Maybe for the first time since you were a young child. Now you get to live. You will taste every experience entirely. You will be present here…. It is the most alive it is possible to be. p 188

Haig’s writing is beautiful and paragraph after paragraph just filled with profound thoughts. I know I sound like I’ve drunk the kool-aid at some cult-like commune* or retreat, but fear not, I’m not about to suddenly be bursting with positivity and put ‘Live Love Life’* posters on my walls. But I can still appreciate ideas and philosophies that challenge my thinking and perception. 

Haig touches on religion, but moves past it in many ways as he did in The Midnight Library, referencing sermons instead from oceans and forests. 

I was probably slightly disappointed with the overarching plot here which felt a little like it boiled down to fighting future development of the island/s when I expected something more profound. But of course the real story arc is the one experienced by Grace and her ability to move on with her life. And I very much liked that it was implied the 72 year old had her best years yet to come. Although there’s Under the Tuscan Sun / Shirley Valentine / Eat Pray Love vibes here, I was reminded of an underlying theme of some of those movies or similarly ‘feel-good’ novels. And I’ve certainly experienced this before – assuming a change of scene is all that’s needed to change your life. But unfortunately you then realise it’s ‘you’ that’s the problem. It’s ‘you’ that needs to change. 

I wondered if I was taking too much with me. This is the challenge of life, isn’t it? Moving forward without annihilating what has gone before. Knowing what to clasp onto and what to release without destroying yourself. Trying not to be the meteor and the dinosaur at once. p 23

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin. 

I received a copy of this book from the publishers for review purposes. 

* Not that there’s anything wrong with that.