Challenges of a Long Life

How to Stop Time examines how living hundreds of years would have physical, mental, and emotional challenges. In this novel, Tom Hazard ages at a slower than normal rate, meaning his natural life spans centuries instead of decades, making it necessary to adapt to an ever-youthful body that lives through countless changes in society.

Tom Hazard was born in 1581. Apparently, he is now 439 years old as he narrates this story to chronicle his life as an "albatross." The term albatross refers to one who has the condition of living an exceedingly long life. One of the effects of living hundreds of years is that countless life experiences take an emotional and mental toll. Tom writes that “human beings didn't live beyond a hundred because they simply weren't up for it” (32). Tom discusses the emotional and mental toll of having had so many...