The Humans

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Haig strikes exactly the right tone of bemusement, discovery, and wonder in creating what is ultimately a sweet-spirited celebration of humanity and the trials and triumphs of being human. The result is a thought-provoking, compulsively readable delight. Booklist Everyone is a comedy. If people are laughing at you they just don’t quite understand the joke that is themselves.

To experience beauty on Earth, you needed to experience pain and to know mortality. That is why so much that is beautiful on this planet has to do with time passing and the Earth turning. Which might also explain why to look at such natural beauty was to also feel sadness and a craving for a life unlived.” I found the book to be very amusing for the first part. It seems like it was all just an excuse to make commentary on some ridiculous or outright wrong things we do as humans. So it was a bittersweet kind of humour for me. I have a whole bunch of quotations saved on my e-reader. When you watch the news and see members of your species in turmoil, do not think there is nothing you can do. But know it is not done by watching news. I might have found this book funnier if I had never seen stand-up comedy. Yes, human beings and the human condition are weird, screwed-up, nonsensical, etc. That's 90% of comedy - laughing at ourselves and at people we recognize in the routines.

Everything in the Brighton garden looks rosy, whatever the Haig-haters might say about The Comfort Book. A Boy Called Christmas has been made into a film that will be released this year – just before Christmas, naturally – while a film of his 2017 novel How to Stop Time is being developed by Benedict Cumberbatch’s production company. Maine, Samantha (8 August 2018). "Former Razorlight/We Are Scientists member Andy Burrows has created an album with best-selling author Matt Haig". NME . Retrieved 4 September 2018. Haig, Matt (14 July 2018). "Matt Haig on Newark-on-Trent: 'I didn't know where I wanted to escape to. Anywhere would do' ". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 12 June 2023.

If there’s one thing I would want to change in this story, it would be the ending. It was a meaningful closure, but it could have been better if I saw more of it, like what would happen when he arrived at that place. One more chapter would have been so amazing. As our hero struggles to make sense of human quirks and behavioural curiosities — food fads, fashion trends, teenage angst, slogans on T-shirts, why anybody supports Cambridge United, social media, etc. — he introduces us, in a way, to ourselves, and we have to smile. His mission is to kill those who may have been told about Martin’s discovery. One of his colleagues is seen off, and, if it transpires that Maggie and Gulliver also know, then he must deal with them as well. His super-terrestrial powers are more than equal to the task, but what if his increasing assimilation of human character and sympathies neutralises his hitherto dispassionate resolve? How will his far-off handlers respond to his going native? And how will those around him respond to his increasingly hybrid personality and patterns of behaviour? A few of Matt’s insights did register. The probability of a particular individual’s conception, simple guilty pleasures like peanut butter, and the absurdness of some human rituals made for a laugh. In the end, I felt the main dish was never served after a tasty appetizer. Kidd, James (29 November 2015). "Matt Haig interview: The writer hopes his new book will help him banish the ghosts of Christmas past". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022 . Retrieved 2 October 2016.No one will understand you. It is not, ultimately, that important. What is important is that you understand you. I can see why someone would be put in a mental health institution if someone behaved like the alien was, but I thought it was pretty much ignored (could have done more with it) - it rang false to me but it may be a cultural thing. Haig creates a delightful sense of displacement in ‘Andrew’ and draws the reader into the experiences that make us human, ugly, wonderful, and mundane by turns…. The wonder and humor with which the protagonist approaches life, and the many emotions and discoveries he experiences, are worth getting a bit weepy over.” (Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)) Haig identifies as an atheist. [16] He has said that books are his one true faith, and the library is his church. [18]

In a Matt Haig trademark 'this story is bigger than you think' style, he takes a look at humanity from the external viewpoint of an alien that has removed the professor from his body and taking it over to execute his mission to limit the progress of Human civilisation. You shouldn’t have been born. Your existence is as close to impossible as can be. To dismiss the impossible is to dismiss yourself.Don’t ever be afraid of telling someone you love them. There are things wrong with your world, but an excess of love is not one. Another film/book I was reminded of was About a Boy where a somewhat oblivious father figure is trying his best to help a young boy and his mother where there are mental health issues involved (and they are British). Not a direct correspondence, but got some of that vibe. Walt Whitman was right about at least one thing. You will contradict yourself. You are large. You contain multitudes. The movie rights have gone to Tanya Seghatchian (Harry Potter, My Summer of Love producer) at Apocalypto and I’m currently writing the screenplay. I am always torn with Haig's work, it reads and feels like a top quality Hallmark movie, but always gives me the sense of trying too hard to be such. If I was really being honest and removed Haig's name from the book I would have to say that this is an illuminating and thought provoking read that tries to at least look at the big questions of why we are here, what do we want and how we should live wrapped up in a truly innovative 'the aliens are here' story set around an academic family in a university city/town. Gots to be at least an 8 out o f12, Four Star read, Goddamn you Haig, no matter how hard I resist, I have to give you props.