How to Stop Time: A Novel

This was a great read. Lots of great quotes and good writing overall. The writing makes you tap into your imagination while still keeping it very real. I did feel the plot was predictable. The entire book being one main character POV was sometimes perfect but sometimes lacking. However, the story is satisfying! And again, there are plenty of good quotes and a-lot of philosophically inclined thought provoking paragraphs.

This was a fairly easy read for me, and one that I absolutely devoured in a day. And it's kind-of funny, I told my son while I was reading it that I saw this in my head as a movie. Rarely do I picture things being acted out when I'm reading them. I don't normally see characters or places as I'm going along. But with this book, I could SEE everything so clearly. I could perfectly visualize Tom walking down a street in London, and seeing the present day chip shops etc but also seeing what it was like in the past bleeding through and causing him to lose his breath. Being taken aback by realizing he's standing in front of the spot that was once his home, and is now a pet shop. In the beginning of the book, Tom talks about how he's not like a vampire stuck perpetually in his youth. He is aging. He will die. He CAN die. He's not immortal. But the story is reminiscent, at least to me, of some of the better vampire fiction I've read in the past. Even more so, it reminded me of the television show New Amsterdam starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of Game of Thrones fame), which only aired for 8 episodes but I LOVED. The whole idea of living for an extremely long amount of time, watching people come and go, places evolve, loves lost and the whole gamut of issues that would arise if you had lived for over 400 years...and knew you were going to live for about 900...are fascinating and this book merely touches on them, and with a flourish that is at times almost poetic. I think my favorite sections of the book involved the people in the past that Tom interacted with, and then how he tried to weave some of his knowledge into the school lessons he was teaching. I'm a giant Shakespeare nerd, so the section in which he works for Shakespeare was wonderful. Was it historically accurate? I haven't the foggiest, and don't even care a whole lot...it was just entertaining to me! And having drinks with Fitzgerald?!? So lovely, and in my head Fitz was totally Hiddles. (If you haven't watched Midnight in Paris, you need to!!) Yes, there is a bit of a love story...but it wasn't sappy or overwhelmingly emotional. I feel like the real love story here involved Tom and Life in general. The book really was all about Tom figuring out how he wanted to live all of these years that he's been given. Did he want to just go through the paces and saunter along in a fog? Or did he want to open himself up to new and exciting possibilities, and put himself out there again? A quick and enjoyable book. Science-Fiction with some historical aspects. I enjoyed the author's writing style, which has an almost poetic flourish. I definitely recommend it!

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 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.

At first, I was put off by the plot and the writing, which seemed to me to move, sometimes lurch, from turgid to brilliant. But the novel grew on me. The Washington Post noted that the book has ‘observational philosophy.’ Having finished, I’m not sure whether the term is meant as praise or insult. There are many observations, some interesting, some deep, some neither. My reading was crippled by the notion of the Albatross Society, which seemed like a weak pretext for control of Tom’s life. If he had been an ordinary guy, stumbling through the centuries, I could have believed he would fall for Hendrick’s very thin rationale, but he’s a thinker. I would have liked hints of skepticism … logic, more than the angst we did see … earlier in the book, some sense that a con game was being played. Tom’s credulity reduces tension, weakens the plot, and makes the reveal (Marion and Tom’s supposed letter) seem to be a device, rather than a natural extension of the story. Tom happens through the centuries meeting and conversing with an unusually large number of famous people through happenstance rather than planning. Shakespeare dispairs in his ale, Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda bicker over cocktails, Captain Cook, and so on. The book has elements of a fable, in which such encounters would work fine, but its overall modernity makes them seem calculated. We could have lost Fitzgerald and Zelda without affecting the story line, for instance. Reading the novel reminded me that a novelist’s decision about what to write defines both challenges and opportunities. If you need to pass through several centuries, first person-narration is almost mandatory if you’re not going to adopt omniscient narrator, which is out of fashion. Haig picks first person and occasionally struggles with its limitations. He frequently ascribes motivation to others where he could guess it, perhaps, but not know it. (“She nods, knowing it is a lie,” when in Tom’s point of view.) This and other technique issues took me out of the story from time to time. Also, there’s the issue of narration vs. dialog: If you live for 400 years, what voice do you speak in? For Tom as narrator, Haig sensibly chose modern English, but he needed dialog, which he wrote in what he guessed was language of the time. As Rose is dying, we get “"Her breath was a weak draught. (narration in 16th-C English) ‘You will.’ ‘Oh, Rose.’ I needed to keep saying her name and for her to keep hearing it. I needed her to keep being a living reality. (narration Mod E) We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone (maybe 16th C) . . . She asked me to sing to her. ‘Anything in your heart.’ ‘My heart is sad.’ ‘Sing sadly, then’ (credibly 16th C). I was going to grab my lute (‘grab’ = ModE) … " I read this passage as I travelled on Amtrak over a badly-maintained road bed. The jerkiness of the train seemed like the language here. Haig had little choice … dialog adds depth, and the dialog needed to be in 400 years ago English. Haig simplified it, but the 21st C narration grated. That said, the concluding line of the section was beautiful: "And she died and I lived and a hole opened up, dark and bottomless, and I fell down and kept falling for centuries."

The first book I read of Matt Haig’s was The Midnight Library. I loved it and wanted to read more. How to Stop Time was my next venture and it was good a good read. Initially, I had trouble finding the rhythm of the story, but within 50 pages I found my groove and loved the story and its movement from past to present. There are no half star options, but this would be 4 1/2 stars for me. I will likely read this book again down the road because why not revisit the stories you enjoyed again?

Ever since reading Matt Haig's novel "The Midnight Library " I have become a big fan of his writing. I also really enjoyed his nonfiction. He is a fantastic writer. Matt Haig's "How to Stop Time" is such an amazing read. Loved it. I am queuing up his next book in my library. Cannot get enough of his writing.

I loved this book. It was a beautiful story about life and love and the concept of time. It also felt like a fun history lesson :)

This is currently my favorite book I have ever read. This book is historical fiction with a gentle touch of sci-fi, and just enough romance woven throughout it's pages, enough to make you feel something but not enough to make it feel like a true romance novel (which is a huge plus for me - I do not like strictly romance novels but I enjoy some romance along the way if it helps build the story). My favorite thing about this book is the witty, relatable, poetic writing style, with a fresh story from a quirky perspective. This book is witty, poetic, relatable and truly captivating. I could not put this book down. The character development was done very well, the story was very captivating, and the insights from the main character make you really stop and think about your own life and things you probably have never thought about. SPOILER FREE - The only reason I did not rate this book 5 stars is in regard to the end. The end was satisfying and I wouldn't say it was bad, but it certainly felt very rushed, forced, and a bit of a stretch even within the realm of the reality within the universe of the book. The ending was wrapped up within about 30 pages, so to me the book felt like it went from a really good pace to 500 miles an hour in the last 30 pages, and while it did wrap up pretty much everything you want it to wrap up, it does so in such a quick way that is feels like whiplash. This book still remains my favorite story I've ever read, despite there being other books I have rated 5 stars, but with the very rushed ending I just couldn't give it the perfect score as much as I so badly wanted to. Overall this book is AMAZING and my favorite read so far. I highly recommend it!!