The Humans

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The alien narrator attempts to fit into society with this mission in mind, but as the story develops, the alien starts to change. They have created a world of divisions and categories and have continually failed to see the similarities between themselves. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this strange species than he had thought. These 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.

With all these inconsistencies and problems, I found it hard to read this clichéd and predictable story. 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. I think, like the main character, I tend to have a pessimistic view on everything, and it was so beautiful to watch his pessimism turn into admiration.Through New Andrew's alien eyes we see the contradictory, beautifully messy, infuriating, wondrous aspects of the human condition. it should more accurately have been titled The War and Money Show” The alien showed how ridiculous we can be and how we needlessly torture ourselves. Haig uses the alien’s innocence mixed with intelligence to make the reader think about our basic values, social mores, and cultural aspects.

The Vonnadorians feel that humans are emotionally and as a society ill-equipped to have this knowledge. His mission is to delete all evidence that this mathmateical theory was solved, and kill anyone who knows it was solved.The 97 point list that features in the book is perhaps the book's shining moment, Matt's skillful blending of the emotional with the humorous means he avoids this list becoming saccharine and it is genuinely moving, my favourite point being "It's not the length of life that matters. Stilted and strange though the alien's speech and behaviour continue to be, Martin's wife and teenage son spot hardly any difference from the original, save for some hilarious efforts to match the son's swearing and the suspicious way he bothers to put his used crockery in the dishwasher. To supplement this lack of plot, Haig tries to explore the meaning of life through our bumbling old alien narrator, whose voice becomes instantly less charming as soon as he’s humanized. This imperfect, non-human creature changed the lives of the people around him, especially Isobel’s and Gulliver’s. The beginning is delightful, since the alien in its human form walks around without clothes and is arrested.

You cannot meet an alien culture that you cannot love - if you don't, the fault must be more in you than in the culture. One day, if you get into a position of power, tell people this: just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should.I would have liked an entire book of this: just a doofy alien in human form walking around the modern world trying—and failing—to make sense of it. they have created a world of divisions and categories and continually failed to see the similarities among themselves. I picked this book up because I saw it recommended by a booktuber, and I wasn't expecting that much going into it. But they’re YOUR circus monkeys, so even if that outsider has a point or two about their weirdness he better keep his big trap shut? As the book progresses it becomes more poignant, Martin learns more about what it means to be human, thanks partly to a dog, peanut butter and Emily Dickinson.