Hayley Kincain has that same authentic, acidic tone of voice as Melinda, the protagonist of "Speak", one of Anderson's most successful novels to date. At first, it seemed like Hayley was a bit too similar to Melinda, but I soon found my suspicion to be wrong. It's not that one is better than the other. Hayley has different challenges to deal with, and Anderson describes these challenges, as well as Hayley's approach to them, impeccably. For Hayley, it often seems that, just as life is starting to get a little better, something terrible happens, and things suddenly get a whole lot worse. The opposite happens as well, such as when Hayley escapes the unexpected "party" her father is having with military friends and goes to the football game she had promised her friend Finn she would write about, then finds herself having a very sweet time with Finn when he reveals his romantic interest in her. But then, there is the terrible moment when they are about to have their first kiss in front of Hayley's house, and Hayley's father Andy comes out holding an axe, drunk and angry. Things only get worse when Trish, Andy's ex-girlfriend and Hayley's former "stepmom", comes back. In the midst of all of these challenges, Hayley must deal with both her father's mental instability and her own, as both are scarred by the memories they have tried so desperately to escape.
Anderson portrays the struggles of Hayley and those who care about her with such clarity and poignance, I cried. I know it sounds really cheesy to say it like that, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't cry easily at books, even if they really are sad. I read plenty of novels and stories that were labeled "tear-jerkers", "heartbreaking" or just plain sad, but didn't make one tear come from my eye. This novel made me tear up twice, and for prolonged moments, which says a lot. The few other times a book has made me cry, it was always after the book had ended and I was processing everything. A couple of short stories I read made me cry, but I'd read them before and they hadn't made me cry the first time; I'd been a little more torn up when I started reading them for the second time. In conclusion, it is hard to get my tears from any book, period. This book did it, and more than once. And it did so with such beauty, I can only applaud Anderson for her ability to create situations and characters that you feel so attached to, even if you have no prior experience with PTSD of family members or of your own. The snippets that describe Andy's experiences in the military are nothing short of excellent. Hayley's descriptions of the "ripping" feeling as sad memories resurface is spot on. It is from these "knife" and "ripping" allusions and descriptions that the book seems to get its name.
But I have a few questions and concerns. WARNING: THERE ARE BIGGER SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON. If you do not want to hear about the ending, or other more intricate aspects of the book, please do NOT read on.
My first question is a minor one, but not insignificant. What is with all the typos? I don't know if it was just an error in my particular edition, but I caught multiple instances in which there was either a word missing, words in the wrong order or some other kind of small but significant grammatical error. I understand that, no matter how many times you edit it, any novel is going to end up with at least a couple of small grammatical errors. That's completely acceptable. The first time I caught a mistake of this kind while reading "The Impossible Knife of Memory", I brushed it off. But it kept on happening, again and again. I don't mean to be nitpicky, but certain errors can really lower that feeling of exhilaration you get when you're reading one of the more "dangerous" parts of the novel. I'm not blaming this error on anyone in particular. But I think it's something to be kept in mind for the future.
Second question (and this is a bigger one) goes as follows: What on Earth happens to Gracie and Topher?? I know that Hayley is the protagonist, and she and Finn are much more focused on than they are (and with good reason), but I was a little bit thrown off when Anderson didn't say a bit more about where these characters ended up. Before Hayley, Finn and Andy are thrown into a life-threatening situation (mostly because of Andy), Gracie was trying to get into college somewhere far away while trying to deal with her parents' rut in their marriage and the care of her kid brother. Where is she off to when Finn is off to Swevenbury and Hayley is off to state school somewhere? (And what school does Hayley even get into anyway? And where? It would be good to know at least what city or state she is going to, because the mention of somewhere south of where she went to high school that gave good financial aid and bla bla bla just doesn't cut it for me.)
But back to Gracie. What does she end up doing? Does she stay close to home, or does she get a ticket to get out and go somewhere far away? And what does Topher end up doing? Do they end up in different schools? Honestly, with the descriptions of Gracie given throughout the book, especially of her darker moments and her fleeting innocence at the beginning, I thought I'd be able to see where she finally ends up. Either there was some indication of Gracie and Topher's "final" outcome that I completely missed, or it just isn't really there.
And what happens with Finn's family? He wasn't exactly seeing rainbows and unicorns at home with his sister's addiction and his conflictive, perhaps overbearing (in just a few aspects) parents. I understand that end is a bit trickier to tie up, and could get messy in the process of trying to figure out a resolution to Hayley's story, which is the main focus. But it would have been nice to know just a little more about what happened with Finn's family. Frankly, I was very happy that Finn got a huge scholarship to Swevenbury (he deserved it) and was able to get away from home. Still, now that I am processing this situation further, this lack of a more fixed conclusion may match what happens at Hayley's house, although at least with Andy the author alludes to the idea that he might actually be getting better this time. If he really isn't, then at least Hayley can get away from that. The same goes for Finn and his family. But I do have those questions, and it makes me wonder if Anderson will write a sequel to "The Impossible Knife of Memory". It would be really interesting.
Although there are plenty of things about the ending that are highly satisfying, I still felt a little dissatisfying. I wanted to hear a bit more from Hayley. It broke my heart to see her and Finn going their separate ways, although it's understandable, given their circumstances of college searches. It was a beautiful ending, but I felt like something was missing.
If I had to rate this book, I'd give it a seven, at most an eight, out of ten. It was beautifully crafted, very poignant and highly realistic. If my rating were based solely on the quality of the writing, (minus the errors which are just shortfalls in the editing) the book would be a nine or ten. Adding up the questions I still have, mostly because of that sense of incompleteness and "What about this person?", plus the accumulation of errors in editing, I give it the seven. It pains me to do so, because this was a really beautiful book, but after the initial (very strong) book hangover, I had questions hanging. I wanted answers that I could not find. I still think a lot of people should read this book, because there are some beautiful character and plot evolutions, as well as some revelations that are very well-placed. Anderson has a way of making you feel glued to the page, barely satisfied one moment before becoming hungry for answers over the next fifty pages or so. This pattern repeats itself until the very end of the book. I admire that very much of Anderson's writing. She gave me that same feeling with "Speak". Although I liked the themes and characters of "The Impossible Knife of Memory" more, I have quite a few questions still. I hope to find answers to them somehow.
Have any questions or comments on my review? How well did I do in describing the book? Feel free to comment below.
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The Impossible Knife of Memory Book Review by Courtney Justus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
