How to Stop Time

In Matt Haig‘s wildly original new novel, How to Stop Time, there is a secret society that does not want you to know they exist. They call themselves the Albatross Society because back in the day, albatrosses were thought to have an unusually long lifespan. The members of this secret society age at a fraction of the rate normal humans do, which means they tend to live for hundreds and hundreds of years, but you will never know them. They don’t fall in love; they don’t form close relationships with anyone, and they disappear every eight years to avoid detection.

With rules like that, it is no wonder that Tom Hazard is tired. After four hundred years of living a fairly isolated life with no close friends or family, he questions his show more very existence and hopes that returning to the scenes of his early 20s will help him recall what it is like to live like everyone else. Except, once there, the proximity to his past brings it even closer than he ever thought, blurring the line between past and present, making him question his sanity, and forcing him to reevaluate everything he thought was important to him.

We enter Tom’s life at the time he is having a true crisis of faith. He is tired of life and tired of the restraints and obligations set upon him by the Society. He hopes his move to London and his position as a history teacher will bring some much-need focus to his life. We see his exhaustion and learn about his growing apathy towards everything and everyone. Most of all, we see him scoff at us regular humans for our misplaced obsession with technology and things.

With a description about a man who has lived for centuries, I was expecting a novel with a bit more adventure and action. Instead, it is almost a character study of humanity at large. It is definitely a character-driven novel in which Tom takes us through his past to the point where he joins the Society and through his present as he struggles with what to do about the endless years still facing him. Through this, we not only learn from his observances about humans over the last four centuries, we also get an intimate look at what life was like during the Elizabethan era.

Mr. Haig minces no words during the historic scenes. Nor does he beautify history. He shows what was in all its filthy, unregulated glory. Mud is the least of the issues. People setting up markets on main streets next to animal waste. Drinking beer because it was the one thing guaranteed not to kill you since no one knew if the water was safe. Abject poverty. Crime. Brutality. Bigotry. Sure, this was at the same time Shakespeare was writing and performing his plays, but there was nothing glorious about the era. Because of his unusual genetics, Tom faces the worst of humanity as people always fear what they do not understand, and during that age fear and not understanding went hand-in-hand with cries of witchcraft. Mr. Haig does not present a pretty picture because there was none to be had.

What he does do with these scenes, though, is shows us how to find the good within the bad. How to hold close love and comfort and warmth when it is available to you. Tom learns this at an early age because he understands how fleeting it is for him given his condition. Yet it is something we humans tend to repeatedly forget until it is way too late.

In How to Stop Time, Mr. Haig capitalizes on society’s fascination with living forever to show us what it might be like to truly do so. This is not a vampire story or a werewolf story or any other mythical creature who lives forever story. Tom is as human as you and me; he just happens to age very, very, very slowly. While it would be easy for Mr. Haig to focus on the negative aspects about today’s lust for the latest and greatest technology, our short attention spans, and our addictions to social media/our phones/the Internet, he does not do so. Instead, just as in his previous novel, Mr. Haig uses the outsider to observe and remember the human connections that bind us together and make us truly immortal. He reminds us to stop and rest and to enjoy life. He shows us that wishing for what we cannot have is just as bad as not paying attention to what we do have.

Tom struggles most with regret, and that is a lesson of which we all need reminding. He regrets giving up on his wife and daughter. He regrets certain decisions which put him on his current path. He regrets not being stronger when he needed to be so. Through his regrets, we are reminded that life is too short to have regrets. No one wants to look back on your life and wish you had done things differently. Even a man who has been alive for four hundred years needs a reminder that life is more than our phones and our Instagram account and that an unhappy life is one that is squandering the blesses this life provides. We just have to know where to look and not be afraid to grab it when happiness appears. show less

4.5 stars

How to Stop Time is a thought-provoking read. Matt Haig envisions a world where a small group of individuals age at a much slower pace than the average human. While the main character, Tom Hazard, looks 41, he is actually centuries old. To avoid being institutionalized or treated as a medical research subject, Tom has moved around his entire life staying nowhere more than 8-10 years. When the book opens, Tom has decided to return to London and teach history at a local low-income high school. He is tired of constantly being on the move and wants to have an ordinary life. As his quest for a normal life unfolds, we are taken back and forth in time to learn about the many places and people Tom has experienced over his long and show more storied life.

I loved the history aspects of the story. In his lengthy life, Tom met Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Captain Cook and many others, and their encounters were so much fun to read about. Haig focuses on relationships and their importance in people’s lives. He also observes that humans are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past, a sentiment that addresses what the United States is experiencing right now. I don’t generally quote books in my reviews, but I felt that the following statement completely encapsulates what we are going through right now: “The lesson is that ignorance and superstition are things that can rise up, inside almost anyone, at any moment. And what starts as a doubt in a mind can swiftly become an act in the world.” His recognition that humans are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past is a sobering and timely statement.

I enjoyed How to Stop Time. Occasionally, I was ready for it to move along a little faster but overall it was a very entertaining read. show less

“Who wants to live forever?” asked Queen, after reading this book certainly not me. Our protagonist Tom is not in fact an immortal, he merely ages slower than everyone else, much slower. Born in the closing decades of the sixteenth century Tom suffers from Anageria, he will live for between 800 to 1000 years, we meet him at midlife looking in his 40’s but in fact over 400 years old.

The book is set predominately in the present day but there are frequent flash backs to earlier important events from his life., particularly when events trigger memories. Our hero has to undergo the pain of loss, isolation from close relationships, paranoia, and fear. He learns not to trust people with the knowledge of his condition, accusations of show more witchcraft in his younger days moving on to charges of hysteria and insanity and eventually the risk of becoming a scientific experiment in the lab of a biotech company.

He does learn that there are other people with the same condition, his daughter for one, and later on a society dedicated to finding and protecting those with protracted lifespans. The dislocation between the work of the society and the necessity of never staying in one place, for fear of discovery, is acute and builds the sense of overwhelming loneliness to the point where you wonder how he can keep living; the answer of course is his search for his daughter, to find and protect her.

There are a few moments in the book which make you cringe, mainly when false historical tropes are repeated, people in the past never washed as an example, which do detract from the story slightly. It is however beautifully written and you cannot help yourself willing Tom on and waiting to see what happens next.

This is the third book by Matt Haig I have read and I have found in each a lesson to be learnt. The lesson here is never to give up hope, work on minimising the impact negative events in your past have on your present, and be on your guard for those who would use your vulnerabilities for their own ends. The book concludes with Tom having the courage to acknowledge his past but also to embrace his future, pain and all.

9/10 Highly Recommended. show less

Born 1581, protagonist Tom Hazard has lived through centuries, since he ages at an extremely slow rate. He witnesses important historical events and encounters iconic figures, such as James Cook, William Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Charlie Chaplin. In present day, he hides his condition and works as a history teacher, trying to maintain a low profile (trying, in effect, to “stop time.”) Tom is recruited into a secret society with others who share the same rare condition. This society enforces strict rules to protect their members from exposure. One of the primary rules is to “never fall in love.” Tom has already broken this rule, and the primary storyline follows his search for a daughter he lost centuries ago.

Themes show more include time, the cyclical nature of mistakes throughout history, and the desire for connection. It portrays how bleak life can become without the continuity of ongoing personal relationships. The tone is reflective. Haig examines time as both an abstract concept and a key factor in shaping human destinies. I tend to appreciate Haig’s style. I think he tries to help people through his writings, though it never comes across as forced or didactic. I found this one a well-crafted blend of history, fantasy, and contemporary fiction. show less

Okay - so the pleasure I take in time travel is my guilty little secret.

And it's the reason I checked this book out. It's not STRICTLY time-travel, but about a guy who doesn't age as fast as others - in fact, about 1 year for every 7. He's born into Elizabethan England and sees his mother drowned for witchcraft because he remains so young as a young teen. After moving to London and falling in with Will Shakespear's group (well, why not?), he falls in love. But the course of true love never did run smooth (sorry - just had to).

Even though it sounds lovely, not growing old presents all kinds of problems. Haig reasons this out in a way that will appeal to both older teens and adults. Thoroughly enjoyed this guilty little pleasure.

Loved this. Properly loved it.

Tom Hazard, now over 400 years old, ages slowly. Very slowly. Currently working as a history teacher and looking like he's in his early 40s, Tom has a lot of past, a troubled relationship with the present, and quite a few uncertainties over the future.

The concept is intriguing: what is life like when you live much longer than other people? How do you look at the present and the future, when you've seen generation after generation making the same mistakes? How does history - yours and the world's - shape your present? How do you live when everyone you know will get old and die before you do - when you know that you will inevitable grieve? All of which, of course, are questions for everyone - just on a show more smaller scale. show less

One of the most magnificent works of fiction I have yet read, Matt Haig's latest novel is a glorious inward reflection on the brevity of life by a protagonist who lives for centuries beyond the rest of us. That central irony is very clearly a fear-facing experiment by Haig himself, having struggled for many years with a deep anxiety and depression that almost ended his life. This is not a book about time travel; it is a celebration of the sanctity of the Now – something we very much need amidst the assault of terrifying political threats, lack of meaningful interpersonal connection, and landslide glut of media with which we are constantly barraged.

Challenging his own proclamation that "time heals" from 2015's Reasons to Stay Alive, show more How to Stop Time asserts that, given far more of it for us to experience, time really only makes things worse unless the ghosts which haunt us are actively put down. Haig's prose is accessible, life-affirming philosophy for the everyperson, but it certainly helps to know a bit about the author's own experiences, which only enriched the read-through for me. As an historian who has likewise struggled with anxiety and depression, as well as temporal dread from both directions, the story and its lessons especially reverberated with me, and I recognize the tale as a kind of exercise of exorcism for the author as much as instructive fiction written for an outside audience.

Haig's delicacy with his characters and subjects is never too precious or saccharine, and they are rarely obvious or one-noted. The first-person story is punctuated with staccato blurbs of wisdom and reflections on the current state of society and how modern life might be seen by someone who has been alive since the sixteenth century. This is a character with ennui, having experienced some personal horrors early in life and now consigned to live out decades and centuries suffering from the pain of those losses. But he learns, however glacially, that both the past and the future are traps when the Now is disregarded. This is Humanity 101, and I believe it should be required reading for the unquiet id.

I must reiterate that there is no time-travel in this book. The jumps forward and backward to and from place and time serve as the protagonist's memories and experiences, and for the most part the segues are masterfully calibrated to flow cleanly within the narrative. On a couple of occasions, however, it appears that Haig has fallen victim to his own time-hopping, confusing the months and years of the continuity:

• pp. 255-6 - The memory explicitly begins in March 1768 but a later paragraph describes the "June sunlight", though seemingly no time had passed in the scene.

• p. 268 - The memory occurs in 1767, but the events in the chapter happen after the memories noted above.

That these were missed by the editors is not surprising, as they are subtle cracks in an otherwise seamless tableau. (I admit that my obsessive scrutiny, fostered by my experience as a historical scholar, might be considered abnormal.)

In closing, to offer a sense of the value with which I regarded this story, one can look to the dozens of post-its carefully placed throughout my copy of the book, marking passages and musings that I hope will have lasting effect on my thoughts and, ergo, my life. This is how I usually treat the historical non-fiction that I spend so much of my time referencing. For fiction to compel the same measures, it has to be something special. And it is. show less