58 pages • 1-hour read
These Impossible Things
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Symbols & Motifs
The Quran
During various points of personal struggle, Kees and Malak alternately turn to or from their personal copies of the Quran. For Malak, this orientation of herself in connection to the religious text itself (as opposed to the broader ideology it represents) takes place primarily in the time after her breakup with Jacob but before she departs for Egypt. Malak clings to her copy of the Quran but is distressed to find that she does not derive the comfort that it once gave her. She learns, through this distance, that the book and the religion it signifies is only one part of who she is, and not her whole self. While this is a very important part of her, and she derives comfort from the Muslim-majority community in Cairo, her slow healing from her heartbreak allows her to experience this religious and cultural connection more broadly, rather than specifically focusing this connection on the physical text of her Quran.
Kees’s struggle with her Quran occurs after she has accepted Harry’s proposal but before she has told her family of her relationship and planned marriage with a white, Catholic man. Kees fears touching her Quran will lead to some physical manifestation of what she considers her “sin,” though this concern is more representative than literal. Significantly, however, Harry returns the Quran to her bedside table every time she returns it to the shelf; this gesture indicates Harry’s deep understanding of the significance of Islam in Kees’s life and his quiet support of her, both in terms of her religion and her emotional state.
4:15 a.m.
Kees and Malak both reflect in the quiet of the predawn hours in London and Cairo respectively, finding solace in this quiet. For Kees, seeing 4:15 am on the clock typically means a late night working, while for Malak it means an early morning, but these differences are minimized as the book continues. Chapter 26, for example, details each of the three friends’ lives at this time of day—each of them are struggling with similar early-morning concerns about their families and romantic connections. In the novel’s final chapter, Kees’s alarm goes off at 4:15 am for morning prayers; she is joined in her prayers by Jenna while Malak listens. This unification of the once-distant friends at this time is shown not only as something that the three of them share but as something that brings all Muslims together. The novel ends with the simultaneous echoing of the words “God is great!” across Cairo (409), and it notes how Muslims across the world rise to greet the sun at their own respective dawns.
Kees’s Flats
Over the course of These Impossible Things, Kees lives in two flats. The first is a small studio that she shares with Harry in a practical sense if not an official one; this difference is important to Kees, who does not want to live with a man before she is married. The second is a much larger home, which Harry’s rich parents purchase for them. Though this second apartment is considerably larger and more equipped to fit two people than Kees’s small flat had been, Kees struggles to feel at home in the new space.
This struggle manifests due to Kees’s anxieties over money and privilege as well as due to her grief over her family’s rejection after she announces her engagement to Harry. The first of these considerations is tied into the second. While Kees loves Harry, she struggles with the idea of loving someone like Harry; she cares for him intensely and is willing to suffer her family’s disapproval over him, even as she agrees that whiteness and wealth offer certain privileges that make people like Harry blind to the ways that people like Kees suffer due to their racial and religious marginalization. This anxiety is thus not necessarily about the individuals in the relationship themselves, but about a broader consideration of the way white Christians in England interact with non-white Muslims in England.
Kees also feels disconnected from the new flat because it is the only place she has ever lived that her mother has not visited. While this need for family approval over her living situation is not satisfied by the end of the novel, Kees finds an equivalent satisfaction when she can host Jenna and Malak there, illustrating how the women’s friendship is close enough that it counts as a familial relationship.
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