The Humans: Matt Haig

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To like something is to insult it. Love it or hate it. Be passionate. As civilisation advances, so does indifference. It is a disease. Immunise yourself with art. And love. His fears were unfounded. Canongate rescued him. He realised the key was to write for himself and not worry about critical expectations or the division between literary and commercial fiction. The Humans gave him confidence and confirmed his new publisher’s faith in him; Reasons to Stay Alive, which was derived from a blog he wrote in 2014, established him firmly in the public mind as a teller of stories and an open, uninhibited, ego-free chaperone through the maelstrom of life. Firstly, I could not finish this. Although I did not hate the book there were too many aspects of the story that just annoyed me no end. Our narrator muses, “Of course, when viewed afresh, all worlds are strange, but this one must have been strangest of all.” Our narrator’s distinction between things that are simply new, but somewhat logical, and those that are utterly bewildering is one of the novel’s strongest themes. What are the pieces of our world that make the most sense to our narrator, and why?

Basically, the key rule is, if you want to appear sane on Earth you have to be in the right place, wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, and only stepping on the right kind of grass.” Haig's unexpectedly raw tale of love, belonging, and peanut butter . . . Funny, clever and quite, quite lovely" (Sam Baker Sunday Times) Haig is one of the most inspirational popular writers on mental health of our age and, in his latest novel, he has taken a clever, engaging concept and created a heart-warming story that offers wisdom in the same deceptively simple way as Mitch Albom's best tales" The Humans is one of those rare books that makes your heart swell and your eyes tear up as Haig reintroduces us to the human race, with its social quirks, hidden meanings and, of course, peanut butter sandwiches. StylistThese initial attempts to fit into human society may not have been completely successful, but they improve a little, thanks not only to his superior Vonnadorian intelligence but also to the fact that the late Professor Martin was evidently the kind of mathematical genius who could quite conceivably have had a breakdown that would leave him running around Corpus Christi college in the nude.

The alien’s inability to conform to society’s conventions leads to some hilariously chaotic scenes. SFX magazine I know that some of you reading this are convinced humans are a myth, but I am here to state that they do actually exist. For those that don’t know, a human is a real bipedal life form of midrange intelligence, living a largely deluded existence on a small waterlogged planet in a very lonely corner of the universe.” although it was written to Gulliver from Andrew, I loved the chapter titled "Advice for a human" (very poignant). A wonderfully funny, gripping and inventive novel. Like Kurt Vonnegut and Audrey Niffenegger, Haig uses the tropes of science fiction to explore and satirise concepts of free will, love, marriage, logic, immortality and mercy with elegance and poignancy" ( The Times)I wasn’t that interested in the mathematics aspect, but I did enjoy most of the various observations about humanity. I just had trouble buying into some of those observations coming the way they did from the character they did at the time they did. The long list of “Advice for a Human” did get tedious for me though. I liked it better mixed in with the story rather than in one concentrated dose. He is determined to stand up to “mental health snobbery … When you’re feeling a bit rough and ropey, and your mind is distracted, you can’t absorb the most highbrow text. You’re not there reading Freud and Jung and Lacan. A pop song can save your life. An episode of Friends can change your life. But when it’s in the world of books, it becomes this snobfest. I’m resistant to that. I also like confusing people, so I’ll do my big, corny, sentimental, puppy-dog line and then I’ll write a chapter about Aristotle.” I never say I’m a happy person ... It imposes certain expectations