This week, unusually for me, featuring a novel I just read, an exquisite story by the wonderful Matt Haig.
From the Guardian’s review, starting with the opening of the book :
“You see, I have a condition,” Tom Hazard, the narrator of this engaging novel, confesses on page one. He is quasi-immortal. “I am old – old in the way that a tree, or a quahog clam, or a Renaissance painting is old. 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. 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.
From this premise, our protagonist takes us back and forth through time, through the journey of his life.
As one can imagine, there is much self-examination of what it means to live such a long time.
I actually listened to this as an audiobook, as I somehow found it as the BBC featured it as their “book at bedtime” and I could download it from their radio iPlayer. I do love the BBC!
Love is the key to life, and loving life too. Fantastic plot device for the author to work with. I won’t spoil the plot, simply to say that the last few pages have so many exquisite lines in there, tying everything together.
The book is also a reminder of this quote :
“Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne
As the adage goes, when you are flying and the safety announcements are going on, they say “in the event of a sudden drop in air pressure… put the oxygen mask on yourself first before helping others”.
Loved Matt’s book, and the remainder of the lesson from Montaigne.