These Impossible Things

Lewis tells Jenna that he has fallen in love with a woman named Zee, whom he first met online. She is a Muslim woman from Liverpool, though Lewis considers her less religious than Jenna. Jenna tries to be supportive of his happiness but feels jealous that she is no longer the most important person in his life. When Lewis leaves for a phone date with Zee, Jenna texts two friends (both of whom she sometimes has sex with) to meet her; when they are unavailable, she texts Mo. She tells him to meet her, but she then changes her mind and takes a cab home without telling Mo she is leaving. She watches a movie with her parents, not noticing the many missed calls from Mo, who was waiting to pick her up as she had requested.

Jenna, despite her academic success and beauty, is profoundly lonely, something she likens to physical pain. She sees this loneliness as originating in the fight between Kees and Malak and intensifying with Lewis’s new relationship. She castigates herself for not appreciating Mo, who is no longer interested after she stood him up. She seeks a romantic partner but cannot find anyone to whom she feels connected. She has casual sexual encounters with various people she meets on dating apps, though she insists on non-penetrative sex acts. One night, she meets up with a man named Mark who rapes her by having penetrative sex without her consent.

Malak and Ali are deeply happy together. Malak feels particularly happy over their shared religion and cultural touchstones. When they discuss their sexual histories, Malak lies at first, claiming she only ever had sex with Jacob; however, she later reveals that she had sex with four men. She hates that the lie might make Ali see her differently, though he quickly reassures her that he loves her. She continues to feel uneasy over the conversation for years, though she cannot pinpoint why.

When Kees visits her family, she walks in on her mother crying. Kees is alarmed, but Saba laughs it off; their mother is only looking at Saba’s baby pictures and weeping over her daughter’s upcoming wedding. Abida, Kees’s mother, delights in having her daughter home; she didn’t want Kees to leave home for university but agreed with her husband out of a sense of marital harmony. Saba and Hakim, Kees’s father, confirm that Abida has been particularly moody leading up to Saba’s wedding.

The following day, Kees is drawn into numerous pre-wedding errands that prevent her from accomplishing work as planned. The day after, she doesn’t even try to do work, instead dedicating the time to her family and feeling sorry that she has been absent for so many of the wedding preparations. She chastises herself for feeling jealous of how her sister’s happiness comes in a form that their parents approve of. Later, her father gives her a ride to the train station, showing his love by waiting until she has successfully boarded the train before driving away.

Mo is coming to dinner at Jenna’s house, and Jenna’s mother has worked hard to get the house ready for his visit. Jenna pursued Mo after she stood him up, gradually earning back his trust. They dated for three months before she invited him to dinner with her parents; during that time, they saw each other nearly daily. Jenna finds the process of loving Mo “laborious,” but she decides to be in a committed relationship with him after he tells her that, though he has had sex in the past, he has decided to wait for marriage until he has sex again, citing a sense of morality. With Mo, she feels that the part of her life where she explored her sexuality and the part of her life that has her family’s approval are growing closer together, which pleases her.

After dinner, Jenna speaks on the phone with Lewis, who feels that Mo isn’t a good fit for Jenna. Lewis urges her to talk about the night of her sexual assault, which she brushes off saying she “was an idiot” (182). He insists it wasn’t her fault, but she quickly gets off the phone. She thinks of the assault as something that happened to someone else, which helps her process the events, particularly Mark’s incongruous politeness after raping her, when he acted like nothing amiss had happened and she went along with the tenor of the conversation. She feels “disgusted” with herself for not shouting at Mark and for turning up at Lewis’s house in tears. Lewis comforted her throughout the night, distracting them with stories from the past. Afterward, Jenna resolved to be more responsible, which led her to contact Mo.

Malak thinks that the stories her parents tell about Cairo, which made her see the city as “half fantasy, half hope” (186), were accurate. She is at a restaurant with Nylah, Rayan, and Ali, and she feels herself falling more deeply in love as she watches her boyfriend get along with her friends. When the group moves to a bar, however, Ali grows uncomfortable, as he doesn’t drink and feels that the men there are looking at Malak “disrespectfully.” Though Ali insists he is fine with her staying and brushes off her offers to leave with him, Malak feels something is wrong.

When she gets home, she calls Ali despite the late hour; he laments that he can’t “look after” her in places like the club they visited. He disparages women who dress in revealing clothing that encourages men looking at and “disrespecting” them. He claims that Malak is “[his] life,” and she promises that she won’t go to similar places again. Malak feels a panicked relief that she convinced him to let her remain in his life.

She contrasts the gradual way she fell in love with Jacob with the instant attraction she felt for Ali. She believes that Ali is the perfect Muslim man with whom she can have a culturally sanctioned relationship, so she is afraid that she might lose him—this leads her to lie about her past, including about her alcohol use, though she feels this effort is well worth it if she succeeds in holding onto him. When Malak explains to her roommates that she feels she is “outgrowing” clubbing, they accept her explanation without saying that Ali is clearly responsible for this change in her attitude.

Since agreeing to marry Harry, Kees wakes up each morning feeling “angry at God” and refusing to do her morning prayers (197). She becomes consumed with the idea of sin and which of these sins, per Islam, lead to “immediate banishment to hell” (198). She avoids sex with Harry and wonders how to tell her parents about their engagement. On the morning of Saba’s wedding, however, Kees struggles to fight back her own sadness, determined to be cheerful for her sister’s wedding day.

The rush of family in the house keeps Kees busy, though she tears up when she sees how beautiful her sister looks in her wedding finery. She wishes she could offer greater wisdom to her sister about marriage. Kees cries, ruining her makeup, which needs to be repaired. She feels agonized knowing that her own marriage will not have such a happy outpouring of familial support. When she sends a picture of her outfit to Harry, he comments on her beauty without noting what she might or might not wear to their own wedding.

Jenna attends the wedding; she and Kees have not seen one another for months. Kees confides that she and Harry are engaged and finds affirmation in Jenna’s happy reaction. Jenna demands a photo of the ring and Kees demands a photo of Mo. However, Kees is quickly distracted by responsibilities, and the two do not reconnect for the remainder of the event. When Kees’s mother comments that Kees will never marry as she is married to her job, Kees blurts that she is engaged. The family is initially thrilled, though their joy vanishes when Kees admits that Harry is white and Catholic and has no intention of converting to Islam.