gilda_elise

When an extra-terrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a prominent mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor is eager to complete the gruesome task assigned him and hurry home to his own utopian planet, where everyone is omniscient and immortal.

He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, their capacity for murder and war, and is equally baffled by the concepts of love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this strange species than he had thought. Disguised as Martin, he drinks wine, reads poetry, develops an ear for rock music, and a taste for peanut butter. Slowly, unexpectedly, he forges bonds with Martin’s family. He begins to see hope and beauty in the humans’ imperfection, and begins to question the very mission that brought him there.

Praised by The New York Times as a “novelist of great seriousness and talent,” author Matt Haig delivers an unlikely story about human nature and the joy found in the messiness of life on Earth. The Humans is a funny, compulsively readable tale that playfully and movingly explores the ultimate subject—ourselves.

The book reminded me so much of Resident Alien, or should I say that the program reminded me so much of the book, since the book was published first. The wit, the humor, the charm, are things they share, even if the book lacks the laugh out loud comedy.

Perhaps that’s actually a plus. Because though I enjoy the program, I love the book. There is a tenderness that too broad of comedy disrupts. The joy is watching the “new” Andrew Martin learn what it means to be human, and what he’ll do in order to retain what he’s learned.

Thanks so much to my dear friend, Anne Jackson, for recommending it.