by Matt Haig

One of the reasons people don’t know about us is that most people aren’t prepared to believe it. Human beings, as a rule, simply don’t accept things that don’t fit their worldview.

This is the chief comfort of being four hundred and thirty-nine years old. You understand quite completely that the main lesson of history is: humans don’t learn from history. The twenty-first century could still turn out to be a bad cover version of the twentieth, but what could we do?

This was a very good book that I enjoyed. Matt Haig is a very good writer, as I could scarcely put it down. It’s full of insightful observations about time, history, love, grief, etc. I will certainly be putting Humans on my want-to-read list. It was, however, despite its subject matter, a very light book. It did not move me to tears or laughter. One of the main threads was Tom’s search for his daughter, who we learn and he learns has the same condition: That is, he only ages 1 year for every 15 he lives. what a fascinating premise! Unfortunately, I felt the climax and resolution were too quick and pat. I was hoping for more of a mystery and big reveal concerning his search of hundreds of years for his exceptional daughter and how the problematic Hendrich Pieterson and his mafia-like protection agency were dealt with. More ground could have been laid as far as his daughter’s background, for example. I would have liked her and his 21st-century love, Camille, to be connected somehow to his past in a shocking, but great and good way. As enjoyable and interesting as this book was, it just didn’t live up to the opportunities its premise seemed to promise.

March 17, 2018