The strangeness of this parallel universe throws our own into relief, so that we see time not as a tyranny, but as a social glue that binds us and allows us kinship. There is always the risk of self-indulgence in novels driven by their own audacious central conceit, but luckily Matt Haig has a real feeling for what it is to be an outsider, and makes you entirely believe in the weariness of the centuries-old “albas” (albatrosses) secretly living among the rest of us giddily short-lived “mays” (mayflies). Authors have to work doubly hard, it seems, even creating whole new genetic disorders to keep blameless lovers yearning. Yep, this is one for fans of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife.Ī more liberal society has meant that romances are harder to write than in previous centuries, as lovers fail to be kept apart by impediments other than their own shortcomings. But far from bringing him godlike pleasure, his condition places him at a mournful distance from the rest of humanity, doomed to see everyone he loves age and die. I was born well over four hundred years ago, on the third of March 1581 …” For every 13 or 14 human years, he ages one year. “I am old – old in the way that a tree, or a quahog clam, or a Renaissance painting is old. I would have expected an individual over this length of time to have grown and matured learning from the different experiences and people met over the years and yet he hasn’t - 400 years living in fear – what a waste of time! I have come to the possible conclusion that this book should be read rather than listened to and would probably appeal to those who enjoy reading Non Fiction or Mindfulness and Wellness books discovering the hidden meaning within! As you can no doubt ascertain from my comments, I didn’t empathise with Tom, I found the book to be self-indulgent and depressing and spent a lot of time shouting “Get on with it”.“Y ou see, I have a condition,” Tom Hazard, the narrator of this engaging novel, confesses on page one.
I found Tom to be a pathetic character who had never grown up, for a man that has lived for over 400 years he appears to have stopped thinking for himself and learnt nothing from his experiences – every small bit of happiness overshadowed by grief/despair and “woe is me”. A literary critic would, no doubt, rave about this book, but for me the overuse of similes and metaphors turned this book into a turgid navel gazing collection of time jumping vignettes, so much thinking and remembering, not a lot of doing i.e. I have just been reading the reviews for “How to Stop Time” and wonder why I feel so out of step with the majority of the comments. Would you try another book written by Matt Haig or narrated by Mark Meadows?Ī fast moving exciting adventure with humor and hopefully some uplifting pieces within the story
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