The Things We Cannot Say

by Kelly Rimmer

REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE

“Life has a way of shattering our expectations, of leaving our hopes in pieces without explanation. But when there’s love in a family, the fragments left behind from our shattered dreams can always be pulled together again, even if the end result is a mosaic.”

Rimmer’s novel tells the story of Alina and Alice, mother and granddaughter, alike in spirit. Alina was raised in Poland on a small farm with her siblings. When the Nazi invasion took place, Alina was only a teenage girl, deep in loved with Tomasz Slaski. She sees the people she loves brutalized by the Nazi regime, her farm reduced to poverty, and her family battling the urge to retreat or fight the inevitable. She is forced to mature in the harshest of conditions. Tomasz is away at university studying to become a doctor, and Alina relies on their love to see her through the war. Rimmer’s scenes of Nazi occupation are brutally honest and at times, difficult to read simply because that life is unfathomable. The bravery to continue in a world of heartbreak is heart wrenching. Alina discovers her resourcefulness and uses her desperation as strength to fight for her love and her survival. 

Decades later in America, Alice is ten years into a distant marriage, complicated by the needs of an autistic son and a husband unwilling to engage with him. She is the sole caretaker of Eddie who needs constant supervision and can hardly communicate. The title of the novel refers to the little boy who is searching for a voice and an elderly grandmother who wants her secrets discovered. Eddie and Alina have a strong bond, and Alina encourages Alice to uncover Alina’s past that’s been hidden for 80 years. To accept her grandmother’s request means relying on her husband to care for Eddie, a prospect that makes Alice more than uncomfortable. 

Each chapter moves back and forth from Alina and Alice’s present life in America to Alina’s past in Poland. The reality of Nazi occupation is not a history we don’t already know, but told through the impact on a family gives an especially emotional punch. Rimmer weaves hope and heartbreak and historical accuracy well, relying on many of the stories from her own family’s experience in Poland. The opening scene of the novel suggests a certain ending that is complicated by the page-turning plot. Alice’s sections, while adequately detailing the hardship of raising a child with special needs, provides necessary reprieve from the weight of a war novel. The characters must find the strength within, even under the direst circumstances. It’s about taking what life has offered you, fair or not, and finding the beauty in choosing each day to live.