38 pages 1 hour read

Catherine Newman

We All Want Impossible Things

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Chapters 9-16

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary

At Shapely, Edi asks if Ash has written her eulogy yet. Horrified, Ash responds that she hasn’t, and Edi tells her not to make the eulogy as self-referential as her wedding toast. Ash climbs into Edi’s bed and tells her about her latest attempt to find the old cake recipe as she paints Edi’s nails. Violet, the aid, brings another resident, Ruth, into Edi’s room to spend some time with them. Ash paints Ruth’s fingernails as well.

The doctor comes to take Ruth away for some testing, Cedar plays his music, and Jonah arrives to see Edi. He has brought a bunch of food for everyone to share, and they all sit down to eat. After a little while Jonah reveals that he also brought a note from Edi’s son, Dash, but Edi is overcome with emotion and can’t bear to read it, so Jonah leaves it for her to read later.

Chapter 10 Summary

Ash and Belle take a walk at night in the cold, and they talk about Belle’s plans for applying to colleges next year. Belle expresses her anxiety over her mother’s increasing sexual partners and says that she doesn’t know how to feel about it: “I don’t know.

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By Catherine Newman