Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long

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Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (The World As Myth)

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 15,737 ratings · 378 reviews

The capstone and crowning achievement of Heinlein's famous Future History, Time Enough For Love follows Lazarus Long through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Heinlein's longest and most ambitious work, it is the story of a man so in love with Life that he refused to stop living it; and so in love with Time that he became his own ancestor.

Paperback, 605 pages

Published June 28th 1973 by Putnam Publishing Group (first published 1973)

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Jun 23, 2008 Aerin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, time-travel, well-that-was-terrible

I don't know why I keep going back to Heinlein. He reminds me of that creepy old uncle everybody seems to have, who gets wasted drunk at the family reunion when you're a kid, and then starts going on and on, half insane and half perverted, but in some twisted way almost brilliant, about politics and sex and the way the world ought to be. And even though your mom keeps trying to get either him to shut up or you and the other kids up into bed, you don't want to leave; you want to hear what he's go...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Till Noever rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everybody

(Read the other reviews for plot summaries. No point in rehashing.)

Heinlein has profoundly influenced my thinking and life since I was but in my early teens, so I guess this review isn't exactly impartial. Still, there are books of his that bored me, among them Stranger in Strange Land. In other words, I know the man's limitations.

With all this said, I still think that TEFL qualifies as a curmudgeonly masterpiece, and it banged my head against a wall again and again and said "Get a life, man! Ge...more (Read the other reviews for plot summaries. No point in rehashing.)

Heinlein has profoundly influenced my thinking and life since I was but in my early teens, so I guess this review isn't exactly impartial. Still, there are books of his that bored me, among them Stranger in Strange Land. In other words, I know the man's limitations.

With all this said, I still think that TEFL qualifies as a curmudgeonly masterpiece, and it banged my head against a wall again and again and said "Get a life, man! Get a sense of perspective about what matters and what doesn't."

For that's what it's all about. Quoting the man himself: “May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.” It was YB Yeats who wrote that “Sex and death are the only things that can interest a serious mind.” While that almost covers it, and while it's a very Heinleinian thing to say (even though it came from Yeats), I suspect that Heinlein would have replaced the word 'sex' by 'love', with a particular emphasis on the 'romantic' kind.

In TEFL, like in other novels, Heinlein cut through taboos (and especially those relating to sex and its many expressions) with gusto. He had the audacity (and it still scandalizes a lot of people today, as evidenced by the comments on this book) to assert that all taboos are social construct—which they self-evidently are!—with possibly a biological basis (e.g. incest); but when that basis disappears then screw the taboos. Move on and get a life.

The biggest one of these taboos is incest. I wonder how long it'll take until, for example, consenting, non-child-issue sex between consenting adult siblings will be decriminalized and destigmatized, and become so accepted that the 'ick'-factor disappears from people's knee-jerk reactions. Anybody reading TEFL has to confront this issue and their own reactions to it. The point is that Heinlein shows the breaking of these taboos not as something to be disgusted about, or as something that has terrible social consequences, which is the usual way of representing it in almost all fiction, but rather as no 'biggie' at all.

About that other subject of the Yeats quote above:

It's been said that TEFL is Heinlein's personal 'fantasy' about immortality, written at a time when he was pretty much staring his own death in the face. Sure, that's what TEFL is also all about. A very thoughtful treatise on human life beyond the boundaries currently imposed on it. And along the way, for those who think about the potential for significant human longevity becoming a reality fairly soon, it gives us a lot of food for thought. Because if human life expectancy is, indeed, extended on a large scale to possibly hundreds of years, all bets are off, and the rules of society and personal life as we know them now are going to go out the window.

But if we're still wanting to be 'human', despite our longevity, and if we continue to be driven by our basic human urges, how will we cope with that? Heinlein is the only author I know of who had probed this in sufficient depth, both intellectually and emotionally—and for that alone we should look to this novel as a guide into a possible future by a visionary and passionate humanist who was many decades ahead of his time.

But in the end, TEFL is really about the central story, the tale of the adopted daughter, which is still one of the most touching stories I've ever read. It's about love and death and being human and what it all means; what it all can mean, if it's to mean any damn thing at all. And can you really ask for more than that from a storyteller?(less)

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Jan 16, 2013 Ivis Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Robert Heinlein was a brilliant author and an observer of the strength and frailties of man. He develops all of his stories around the relationships of the characters, and allow them to reveal the story and all its diversities in a natural flow and rhythm. Were he a musician, he would be a maestro.
Lazarus Long is old and tired, and has come home to one of his favorite planets to die quietly among strangers. After 2400 years of life, and out lived many families, he has run out of reasons to li...more Robert Heinlein was a brilliant author and an observer of the strength and frailties of man. He develops all of his stories around the relationships of the characters, and allow them to reveal the story and all its diversities in a natural flow and rhythm. Were he a musician, he would be a maestro.
Lazarus Long is old and tired, and has come home to one of his favorite planets to die quietly among strangers. After 2400 years of life, and out lived many families, he has run out of reasons to live. He leaves his private interstellar yacht at the spaceport and goes about his final preparations as he feels the chill of death wrapping around his frail bones. He buys old rags for clothing, and retires to a flop house where he pays in advance and lays down to die among the sounds and odors of mankind.
When he awakens, not to the expected darkness of death, but to find himself in a hospital having undergone advanced geriatric regeneration, he is furious enough to kill. "Why?" he demands, "am I in this damn jail?" The answer to that question, by the head of the planetary government, outrages him even more. "Lazarus, we need your wisdom."
In the midst of a dozen people who utterly love him, Lazarus Long is slowly restored to love of life and living and finds a challenge and a reason to live. During this process, the 'wise' old man gives his memories of his long life, and proves the value of teaching the young, though he is loathe to do so.
Young people don't know what they don't know. Old people realize that the young often don't want the hard-won gems of wisdom they possess. When the two come together in affectionate relationships, the exchange of wisdom for enthusiasm brings a delightful life to all concerned.
If you read this story, you'll meet a crusty old codger, wise, worn and petulant. I promise you will discover the humor of the aged, rich with the experiences of life, with a little self deprecation thrown in. You'll also read a story of stories, written first person, and perhaps the most excellent and diverse novel I have ever read.

I highly recommend this novel to people of mature years, as they'll need the wisdom to sort out the gems from the rubbish, and to ignore a growing sexuality prone to depravity and incest.

Mr. Heinlein, like a great many authors, fell to the trap of the intellectual. He believed his own press. His insights, while diverse and hilarious, were tainted with his sexuality, which I feel deprived this and many of his later novels of the dignity they deserved. So I took away a star many people thinks he deserves.
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Jul 24, 2012 Cat Phillips rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

People seem to have a love it or hate it kind of relationship with Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love. And I’ve gotta say I’m strapped firmly to the former bandwagon. Granted, I can see why some of the negative Nancy’s are getting their panties in a knot (okay, maybe the incest theme goes a little far), but Heinlein’s weirdness just doesn’t bug me. And I think some critics have missed the mark entirely, by focusing on the wrong stuff. Which is fully within their rights, of course, and an opinion is...more People seem to have a love it or hate it kind of relationship with Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love. And I’ve gotta say I’m strapped firmly to the former bandwagon. Granted, I can see why some of the negative Nancy’s are getting their panties in a knot (okay, maybe the incest theme goes a little far), but Heinlein’s weirdness just doesn’t bug me. And I think some critics have missed the mark entirely, by focusing on the wrong stuff. Which is fully within their rights, of course, and an opinion is only an opinion. Blah blah blah. Here’s my two cents on why they’re wrong:

Time Enough for Love is set up as a series of tales told by the oldest living man in the universe, Lazarus Long. Lazarus is confined to a rejuvenation clinic, where he is being held against his will by a team of people dedicated to preserving his knowledge. You see, they’ve “rescued” Laz from attempted suicide, in order to record his life’s story and hopefully glean some of the wisdom he’s accumulated in over two-thousand years of life. And Lazarus has agreed not to try to take his own life again, until he’s told them about the most important lessons learned in his long life. Time Enough for Love is like Arabian Nights, but in reverse; Laz is telling his stories for his right to die.

So the structure necessitates a kind of “bracketing” set up, wherein Lazarus’ tales are divided by his present experiences in the rejuvenation clinic. And I’ve got to admit, Lazarus’ voice is where Heinlein’s storytelling excels. I sometimes had to restrain myself from skipping forward until the next story, although, in the end I’m glad that I did (restrain myself, that is). Heinlein brings everything together nicely once Lazarus regains an interest in life and goes on to set up his free-lovin’ hippie commune on the planet Boondock, and all of a sudden his present becomes the next tale.

The number one complaint that I’ve noticed in other reviews is with Heinlein’s apparent preoccupation with incest. But I think that, unusual as the theme is in modern writing, it has a place in the story and is essential to Lazarus’ character. First and foremost is the fact that Lazarus Long is completely obsessed with genetic purity. As one of the first “long-lifers” on Earth, he was contractually obligated to reproduce only with other long-lifers in order to preserve the longevity they had acquired. Then, there is the fact that old Laz, being nearly three-thousand years old, is the great-to-the-nth-degree grandfather of nearly everyone in the universe, so the older he gets the harder it is for him to find partners with whom he is genetically compatible (not being related to them is virtually impossible).

Lazarus comes to view the appropriateness of sexual pairings solely through the lens of healthy reproduction—and then, only if reproduction is the goal (in the most extreme example (view spoiler)). And although the taboo of incest, in the traditional sense, once served a primitive purpose to people who didn’t really understand genetics—the over simplified concept is not applicable in Lazarus’ world. In any case, I really didn’t find any of the questionable relationship in this novel to be creepy, even if I did raise an eyebrow at them initially.

Creepy incestuous relationships aside, the next biggest complaint of this novel that I’ve encountered has to do with Heinlein’s characterization. Really, everyone in the novel except for Lazarus himself, seems to fall into a stereotypical kind of mould. Every male character is interchangeable with every other male character, and the same goes for the female characters, even if they have slightly different physical characteristics. However, I would argue that, perhaps this sameness has more to do with Lazarus’ memory than Heinlein’s skill as a writer. It seemed to me, that people kind of blend together for Lazarus; every character is a mixture of all of the people he has ever known, their personalities and their deeds are not necessarily attributed accurately (Lazarus is a textbook unreliable narrator, and is frequently caught in contradictions and fallacies throughout the book). The secondary characters in Lazarus’ tales are place-holders, used by Lazarus to get his point across to his audience, but not important in their individuality. They are anecdotal.

This sameness, I would also argue, serves to illustrate Heinlein’s vision of human kind. Ultimately, even thousands of years in the future, human beings can be reduced to their basic needs—the same needs that we have had since the beginning of time. First and foremost, is our need for love. Lazarus’ overarching lesson for humanity is that a person’s worth is measured not by the property and wealth that they accumulate, or by the fantastic deeds that they accomplish, but by the quantity and quality of the time that they spend with those they love—family, friends, and lovers.

And that’s a position that I can stand by.
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Robert The problem I see with your proposed reason for the sameness of the characters is that only a small part of the book is made up of stories Lazarus is...more
Dec 07, 2012 10:02pm

Cat Phillips Definitely, haha. Have you read and enjoyed other works by Heinlein? I always seem to get a kick out of him, and there are those who loathe every word...more
Dec 16, 2012 01:29pm

May 26, 2012 Caroline rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone studying misogyny in literature

Shelves: mike-s-favourites, sci-fi, mary-sue-marty-stu, boring-as-hell, relationships, sensitive-topics, ta-adult

This is one of those books that I wanted to stop reading, but I persevered in the hopes that something would redeem it by the end. There was no redemption; only sadness and a burning expletive on the end of my tongue. In a book with over 20 characters, the only one I enjoyed was a talking mule. In a book with nearly 600 pages, only 30 of them contained a story I cared about.

(view spoiler)...more This is one of those books that I wanted to stop reading, but I persevered in the hopes that something would redeem it by the end. There was no redemption; only sadness and a burning expletive on the end of my tongue. In a book with over 20 characters, the only one I enjoyed was a talking mule. In a book with nearly 600 pages, only 30 of them contained a story I cared about.

(view spoiler)[The author’s command of the English language was acceptable, but there were a few spelling errors that made me stumble, not to mention irritating characterization of everyone but the main character (affecting nearly all of the females). While Heinlein is fully capable of stringing together a coherent sentence, his inability to SHOW and not TELL leaves the story to drag on quite painfully for nearly 600 pages.

The first issue I have with this story is the disturbing lack of conflict, which is what usually drives the characters and plot forward. Unfortunately, the main character, Lazarus Long (LL), is written as a God-character, used as a vehicle for Heinein to self-insert and fantasize about impregnating women. These God-type-characters, also known as a Marty-stus (male) or Mary-sues (female), are most often found in fanfiction, but not exclusive to that medium. Their purpose is to be amazing, receive compliments and attention from other characters, and to breeze through conflicts while demonstrating how fantastic they are. Lazarus Long fits this description perfectly; he is ornery, has an answer to everything, lectures everyone about how they are wrong and he knows everything, everyone is drawn to him and fights to keep him alive and works together to make him happy. Anytime there is a *hint* of conflict, where I wondered “how will they get out of thi--?” it was quickly solved by LL’s all-knowingness.

Of course, LL isn’t 100% perfect, as he suffers from an unnamed condition that is evident by how many women beg him to impregnate them. This is typically triggered whenever he announces he is going anywhere, which usually involves women asking for his babies and then crying when he denies their request, which results in him impregnating them. He has been approached by every woman in the story. NOT. ONE. WOMAN. has been able to resist his allure, and this is a story that includes: a computer inserted into a cloned human body, twin female clones of LL himself, and his mother. (His mother didn’t beg for babies, though, but she made up for it with her bawdy comments and advances. She was conveniently able to sleep with LL without guilt because her husband knows that she is lustful and would not be able to control herself while he was in the army, and so trusted her good judgment to sleep with a man she liked and then tell him all about it after.) This book is rife with incest, or at the very least, emotional incest, where LL becomes romantically and/or sexually involved with a woman he’s raised from childhood. While I’m not a prude when it comes to this topic, I felt disturbingly numb to the concept by the end of the book when LL declared he was IN LOVE with his mother. (In her defense, she didn’t know he was her son, simply believing him to be a distant relative, or, at worst, her brother.) Five-hundred pages of emotional incest had dulled my senses to genetic incest.

In addition to incest, the women do not behave as real women do. They seem to enjoy being flirtatious and affectionate to a fault, existing only to warm men’s laps, make men feel better, have floppy breasts, get pregnant and then (on one occasion) flippantly discuss aborting their fetuses if the gender is not female. (Protip: even if a woman chooses to abort her baby, she is not flippant about it, nor does she joke about it with her friends.)

This book is not ergonomically safe and I do not recommend it to anyone who has issues with their eyes. I suffered repetitive strain injury from rolling my eyes – usually triggered when someone begged for LL’s babies.

Sadly(?), this is an unfinished story. In the middle of one of the two action scenes (in the whole book) LL is shot and then supposedly “killed”. The next few pages show an almost epilogue-style scene where LL is magically back on a spaceship, saved by his Tetrius family (aka. the-hippie-love-family) and brought back to life… FIN. What happens next? I don’t know. I wanted nothing more than for this book to END, but when it finally did, I grudgingly noted that it required 50 more pages to actually tie up its loose ends. Even at the end, when I should have been happy that I wouldn’t have to read any more, Heinlein has robbed me of any satisfaction in knowing things are wrapped up. I’m now plagued by wandering thoughts about “what happened next”. It is a cheap trick to make readers think of a Marty-stu character when they should have been able to put his existence out of their minds.

I hope the same trick is not used in Heinlein’s other books. Against my better judgment, I’m allowing my significant other to convince me to read them. Perhaps they will improve my opinion of Heinlein. (hide spoiler)](less)

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Jun 03, 2008 Angel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science_fiction

I have a love-hate relationship with Heinlein. Some of his stuff is great. Some of it, like Farnham's Freehold, which I reviewed here, I simply hate. However, I like enough of his work that I seek more. This was a book that took me a long time to get through, but when I got done, it was well worth it. I read it back in 2002. From my journal back then:

>>I found it to be a book that makes you think. I thought the opening was a bit slow, but once the narrative was set up, it got interesting....more

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Mar 06, 2013 Smokey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Presented primarily as the musings, ramblings, and experiences of one Woodrow Wilson Smith, aka. Lazarus Long, et. al., this book has enough proverbs, pithy sayings, thou-shalt-nots, and who-begat-whom's to qualify as a potential "Hedonists' Bible." Unlike some of Heinlein's other works, the gratuitous sex is kept to something of a minimum (not ignored!), and he instead focuses on the attitudes and platitudes that have allegedly kept his main charater alive for 2500+ years in an exciting and dan...more

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Nat I read this several years ago, so it's been a while, but I have a few thoughts about it. I found the book to be very depressing. I'm really not sure w...more
Apr 16, 2008 06:13am

Smokey He's definitely cavalier with the universe's natural wealth, but again, he proceeds from the assumption that there's no reason not to use it if it's t...more He's definitely cavalier with the universe's natural wealth, but again, he proceeds from the assumption that there's no reason not to use it if it's there to be used. Some quesions he raises as a result:

- What's more important, a green world(s) or a well-fed population? He makes the argument that humans are just as much a part of nature as, e.g., beavers; how come their dams are 'natural' but ours aren't? (NOT agreeing, just offering his point for consideration. Then again, there are MANY things he says in this book that I disagree with. But you knew that. ^_^)

- Are there really enough worlds in the universe to contain/provide for an exponential expansion of the human race? (If there are, then there should also be plenty to set aside as 'pristine', should H. Sapiens feel the need to ... is this a good compromise?)

- Most critically, is it really true that human beings exist only to pass their genes on? As presented, the universe of Lazarua Long shows a distinct absence of Deity and His/Her/Its commandments (other than as a dodge to make money and/or to control large groups of people). That being the stated case, what else would the overriding motivator of the universe be?

I don't know Heinlein well enough to offer an opinion as to whether this is how he thinks the universe SHOULD be, or simply how it might be, given the chance. (The bit where I have too many descendants to remember, let alone know, is distressing to me, too. ;_;) Either way, the view is thought-provoking, and that's what I took to be the whole point of the novel. If it helps, he does indicate that whether one lives the traditional three score and ten, or three millenia and more, it all feels the same to those living it: one always lives now.

For a Heinlein book with a slightly more positive outlook, try Starship Troopers - the book, please, not the stupid movie by the same name. :D Also, for more gratuitous, um, 'happy exercise', try The Number of the Beast. That one has a lot more in the way of hard science fiction, too, if memory serves. I'm going to re-read those before I review them, but those might be a bit more palatable.(less)
Apr 16, 2008 04:12pm

Aug 12, 2007 Luis Salas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

All right, another rating biased by the age at which I read this book. I read Time Enough for Love in what was then the Soviet Union over the course of a white night. I'm not kidding.

At any rate, Time Enough for Love is a decent enough story and entertaining. Par for the course with Heinlein, though, is negotiating his complicated relationship to gender and his often overblown moralising. This is not to say that these issues are wholly negative; Heinlein's relationship to gender and morality is...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Nova rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A number of fellow poly-folk and friends whom I respect highly had mentioned this book when discussing their awakening to their polyamourous natures, and so I decided to pick it up a while back. I'm normally a fairly fast reader, but this took me months to slog thru (with lots of breaks for other books). Heinlein's writing is difficult for me to read because I feel it's a bit convoluted and sometimes poorly executed, but he is a great storyteller, and while I can't say that I agree with all the...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Wayne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book back in late 80's as a kid fresh out of boot. For the most part I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I identify with Lazarus Long about a number of stuff and disagree with him on the rest.

Lazarus is a man with a very strange mutation in his genes. He never ages, as long as he remains healthy his body will not degrade. Lazarus was born on earth back in the time frame in which Heinlein wrote the book, and through the centuries Heinlein has married, explored, and colonized worlds. But a...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Aries rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantascienza

Difficile scrivere una recensione per un libro come questo, veramente difficile.Per diverso tempo mi hanno parlato di Lazarus Long come del più bel romanzo di Heinlein, come uno di quei libri che "vanno" letti assolutamente: certo, ci credevo e mi ero incuriosito, ma non penso di essere stato veramente preparato a ciò che avrei letto.Anzitutto partiamo con alcuni punti da chiarire: pur essendo catalogato ufficialmente nel genere, Lazarus Long è difficilmente considerabile come un classico romanz...more Difficile scrivere una recensione per un libro come questo, veramente difficile.Per diverso tempo mi hanno parlato di Lazarus Long come del più bel romanzo di Heinlein, come uno di quei libri che "vanno" letti assolutamente: certo, ci credevo e mi ero incuriosito, ma non penso di essere stato veramente preparato a ciò che avrei letto.Anzitutto partiamo con alcuni punti da chiarire: pur essendo catalogato ufficialmente nel genere, Lazarus Long è difficilmente considerabile come un classico romanzo di fantascienza; certo, molti elementi della fantascienza classica ci sono, ma rappresentano esclusivamente un contorno ad una vicenda, anzi, a più vicende che vanno lette di per sé e non per il fatto di essere ambientate su un altro pianeta piuttosto che nel futuro remoto.Lazarus Long è, ovviamente, il protagonista di questo romanzo (oltre ad essere, come in altri casi, un vero e proprio alter-ego dell'autore): il Capostipite dei Matusalemme, ovvero di quel nuovo ramo del genere umano caratterizzato non soltanto da un'estrema longevità, ma che ha portato anche alla scoperta di una complessa tecnica per il ringiovanimento degli individui; una tecnica messa a disposizione di tutti, perché considerata un diritto di ogni essere umano al pari della morte, anzi, più della morte, dato che chiunque ha diritto di scegliere quando morire tranne proprio Lazarus: questi, in quanto capostipite, è considerato una risorsa troppo importante per la memoria storica, una risorsa che non può andare perduta.Ed è così che all'inizio del libro alcuni suoi discendenti (ma d'altronde praticamente tutti sono suoi discendenti) cercano di fargli tornare il desiderio di vivere, desiderio che ormai l'aveva abbandonato dopo oltre 2300 anni di vita, e giungono ad un accordo: lui racconterà nuove vicende del suo passato e loro, nel frattempo, cercheranno di trovargli nuovi stimoli.E' in questo modo che ci si trova catapultati in vari momenti del passato del Capostipite, quando faceva il mercante e quando faceva il colone, quando liberò degli schiavi e quando si innamorò perdutamente di un'"Effimera" (ovvero una non Matusalemme), scoprendo come l'amore possa comunque lasciare il segno per sempre.E lo stimolo? Lo stimolo sarà la scoperta del viaggio nel tempo, quello che potrà portarlo ad incontrare la famiglia della sua infanzia, quella ormai perduta nei meandri di duemila anni di memoria.In Lazarus Long Heinlein descrive una società ed un pensiero assolutamente innovativi sia per i suoi tempi che per i nostri: in un universo dove tutti gli esseri umani possono vivere centinaia di anni i rapporti interpersonali cambiano forma e significato, non esistono più un matrimonio ed un amore eterni, ma storie che durano anche 70/80 anni ma poi, prima o poi, arrivano per forza a conclusione; l'esclusività dei rapporti perde significato e, cosa che immagino abbia fatto storcere il naso a molti, lo stesso vale per il concetto di rapporti tra "parenti": se tutti discendono dallo stesso capostipite, se ognuno è in qualche modo imparentato con altri, allora l'unico vero problema che ci si pone è che un rapporto (che sia tra parenti o meno) possa o meno generare figli con problemi genetici. Se così non è (ed in quell'universo le mappature genetiche permettono di saperlo), non si pone alcun problema.E se questo non bastasse, Lazarus Long è diventato famoso anche per il suo "taccuino": due punti del libro in cui sono raccolti i pensieri più o meno profondi di un uomo che in duemila e rotti anni ha potuto vivere tutto ed il contrario di tutto; molti di questi aforismi sono piccole perle che vale la pena di ricordare ed io stesso, in passato, ne ho citato qualcuno.E' un libro da leggere con profonda attenzione, perché superficialmente potrebbe sembrare quasi inconcludente e "provocatorio", ma non fatevi ingannare, perché perdereste molto; certo, probabilmente su diversi messaggi si può concordare o meno, ma indubbiamente è splendido poterci ragionare sopra.(less)

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Mar 28, 2012 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If this were ever a movie, it would star an ageless Clint Eastwood--who almost fucked his mom, knowingly. Heinlein ultimately wrote a western, set in space, with a character who never grew old, or aged at a very slow rate. There are about 3 major interwoven threads here, which span about 2400 years time, some time travel, forbidden love, real love, high-seas piracy, an AI ship with nearly unlimited computing power, and of course, Heinlein's disavowal of common cultural habits which have the effe...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on my blog here in June 1998.

Throughout his career, Heinlein kept on returning to the character of Lazarus Long, the man who lived for thousands of years. Time Enough for Love is the most extended work with Long as a central character.

The book is structured in two main parts. The first contains a series of (self-contained) anecdotes as told by Long during a rejuvenation session. These are of varying interest, and are designed to demonstrate Long's (and hence Heinlein's) phil...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Ranga Kamaladasa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The premise of the book is ideal to make it into a philosophical masterpiece but the author falls short in following through. The story is about a man who's lived for thousands of years and have fallen into the contemplation that life is no longer worth living: he has done all there is to be done. His ancestors (not as fortunate in terms as longevity as he is) tries desperately to make him fall in love with living again. With this, the book had the potential to dwell into how we give meaning to...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Damon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ever since stumbling upon Stranger in a Strange Land and having numerous discussions with polyamourous friends, I've grown accustomed to Heinlein's philosophy, especially on the nature of love. This book more or less continues that tradition with Lazarus Long (a character that appears in other works as well) a centuries old name seeking something new to maintain the will to live. The story essentially recaps some of Lazarus' earlier relationships as a means of archiving his life experiences in t...more

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Nov 09, 2011 ***Dave Hill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: text

TEfL is one of those Heinlein books I have a love/hate relationship with. There are tales within the tale that move me, interest me, and that I get a lot of enjoyment from. On the other hand, all of the "contemporary" framing action tends to bore the snot out of me.

Or, to put it another way, when Heinlein is telling a story here, it's good stuff. "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter," "The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail," etc. -- the more Lazarus is relating the stories of his past, the better. Even...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book when it first came out in 1973 and again some years later. I picked it up again on a whim. It reminded me, in a way of some of the many Star Trek Series' episodes. I was most interested in them when one or several characters has an adventure/episode on an entirely new world - totally unrelated to any other story in the series. I was not at all interested in the scientific episodes, the alien conflict episodes or the politics.

With Time Enough for Love, there are several kind of u...more

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Mar 04, 2011 Tracey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who aren't easily offended by immoral sex scenes

Shelves: favorites, must-reread, sci-fi

I love Lazarus Long. That is all.

I think RAH transcends mere sexuality (or he's a horny old goat, one) and winds a tale in his 'future history' series that is unlike anything else I've ever read. IOW, I don't think he could have quite told the tale without sorta 'getting rid' of standard morals about sex and love.

This IS one of my favorites of the series, but I've got to re-read it to remember why I was left with such strong sentiment about this particular book. It, along with Number of the Beas...more

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Nov 19, 2010 Felix Dance rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd been looking out for this one ever since I saw it new in the KL super-bookshop several months back. A few days ago I got it in exchange for AK from the American girl in my Kathmandu hotel. Unfortunately, as I read the first few pages I realised I’d made a terrible mistake. Lazarus Long, the main character from Methuselah's Children, is, inexplicably, 2000 years old and living on a distant planet. The leader of this planet has foolishly asked the rambling old man to tell him random and stupid...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Raja99 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is (probably) a great book, but it does have one significant barrier for the reader. I don't consider bringing it up to be a spoiler, since it's an idea and not a plot point, but if you hate even minor spoilage, you should stop reading NOW.

Time Enough for Love consists of a framing story, set in (our) far future, about the oldest man in the universe, and his reminiscences. The final section merges the two. It's less a solid, streamlined novel than a fixup. Which is fine with me; fixups are...more This is (probably) a great book, but it does have one significant barrier for the reader. I don't consider bringing it up to be a spoiler, since it's an idea and not a plot point, but if you hate even minor spoilage, you should stop reading NOW.

Time Enough for Love consists of a framing story, set in (our) far future, about the oldest man in the universe, and his reminiscences. The final section merges the two. It's less a solid, streamlined novel than a fixup. Which is fine with me; fixups are my favorite strategy for long-form fiction. The reminiscences (and the last section) are extremely readable, and I (mostly) found them hard to put down. The parts of the book that aren't centered on the main character are often tedious, cringeworthy, or both. (For instance, the leadup to the last section took me many days to get through; by contrast, the last section, which was perhaps 3x as long, was hard for me to put down.) The most famous of the reminiscences is the centerpiece, titled "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter"; it's often referred to among Heinlein fans as "The Dora Story", and Virginia Heinlein wrote that when Robert died, she turned to it for consolation.

The main character would be horrifically unlikeable in real life but, due to Heinlein's considerable skills, comes off as a charming, eccentric old coot rather than one of the hectoring lecturers who inhabit far too many of Heinlein's novels. (Of course, your mileage may vary.) One of the things I like is that he is clearly an unreliable narrator; he claims that some of the stories aren't about him, but about one of his friends, and the stories are larded with inconsistencies with each other and with the real world. (Or "our timeline", anyway.)

Why do I say this is "probably" a great book, and what is the significant barrier? This is a book about incest. Heinlein leads up to it gradually, and in a gingerly fashion, but it becomes more and more central to the story. (If there is a form of heterosexual incest that isn't featured here, I missed it.) I borrowed a copy of this book from a friend who's a bigger Heinlein fan than I am, and he warned me that it was a book he hadn't been able to finish (and he didn't want me complaining later that I hadn't warned him ;-). If it hadn't been for that warning, I might not have been able to finish the book (motivated slightly, perhaps, by my desire to finish a Heinlein book that he hadn't ;-). I therefore extend the same warning to anyone reading this.

(Finished 2010-09-15 0:08:59.6 +/- 0.01s, approximately.)
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May 22, 2009 Manny rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, parody-homage, story-review, older-men-younger-women

- Mr. Lazarus Long, since you happen to be passing through the early twenty-first century, could you give us a few priceless gems of homespun wisdom for the Goodreads membership to marvel at?

- Gosh darn it, when I see all the cute females on this site, how can I say no? Could you just pass me the... cuneiform tablets? Papyrus rolls? Parchment? Oh yes, laptop. Sorry, hard to keep things straight. So...

1. If you're a tired SF hack who's completely run out of ideas, don't worry. Just recycle the ol...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wanted to love this book--I really did. I've read Lazarus Long quotes for a while, always found them amusing, and I really, really loved Stranger in a Strange Land and Job: A Comedy of Justice.

What was edgy, novel, and intriguing in my first two experiences with Heinlein became trite, repetitive, and a cliche of himself in the third.

My main problem with this book, something I didn't encounter with the other two, is that I never heard the "narrator" speaking, except in the very beginning. It...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Moses rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 12, 2012 Nicholas Armstrong rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, I tried and failed. I liked Stranger in a Strange Land enough, or at least I respected the ideas enough, that I thought I'd give Heinlein a round 2 because I was somewhat judgmental. Unfortunately, this was worse than the last. The funny thing is it had some pretty phenomenal ideas.
Scheherazade in a sci-fi setting with the teller wanting to die? Genius! Amazing! BUT -- and there so often is one that ruins everything -- that is so little of the story. That was only the concept, and one tha...more Well, I tried and failed. I liked Stranger in a Strange Land enough, or at least I respected the ideas enough, that I thought I'd give Heinlein a round 2 because I was somewhat judgmental. Unfortunately, this was worse than the last. The funny thing is it had some pretty phenomenal ideas.
Scheherazade in a sci-fi setting with the teller wanting to die? Genius! Amazing! BUT -- and there so often is one that ruins everything -- that is so little of the story. That was only the concept, and one that Heinlein tired of and abandoned.

Heinlein tries other interesting takes with this novel. One is the perspective. Sometimes Lazarus is telling the story, sometimes no one is, sometimes its a new 1st person narrator. The thing about this, which is my issue with all authors doing this, is that it is confusing and not enjoyable, which is what it comes down to for me. Enjoyment. If I don't enjoy it, I don't read it, and this became increasingly not.

I could look past the shifts in perspective; I couldn't look past the complete lack of character development and the caricature characters. Lazarus is a great man, respecting women and imbuing them with all the rights they deserve, but he also calls them 'woman', 'whore', 'girl', and any number of other titles. All of the women, even the remarkably intelligent super computer, become children to Lazarus that he, as the alpha male, must lead and guide. I've never considered myself a feminist, but I was nearly offended, and I was at the very least irritated. I imagined him with a cigar, telling women what was right for them and catching them when they fainted. He probably had to slap them as they became hysterical as well.

So Lazarus should be a joke and the rest of the characters are dancing cardboard cutouts. There's that, but there is also the issue of Heinlein's personal views. These came up in Stranger in a Strange Land as well, and many people told me I was crazy; it was just in my head. Aha, I say. Aha. Heinlein has been criticized, I discovered, for often writing novels that do little more than expound his political ideologies or personal beliefs. These became increasingly more obvious near the end of his career and with his support of McCarthyism and his lack of faith in democracy. In fact, those ideas are present in Stranger, though they seem more veiled. The same is true of this about his political beliefs. He makes numerous offhand remarks about the inability of people to know what is right for them and the need for a dictatorship, but that STILL wasn't my issue. My issue is Heinlein's insistence on free love.

See, Heinlein had an open marriage, or at least one of them was open. I think his second, and he was a nudist as well. He was very much entranced by the idea of free love and shedding the burdensome shackles of society. To that, I say, to each their own, but he made the mistake in taking opinion and presenting it as fact. I will admit that he does so in a very clever way, but he's a writer; I wouldn't expect less. As Ayn Rand proposes that Utopia is only within reach to the selfish capitalist, Heinlein shows that it is only in reach to the freeloving, nudist despot. Just as with Stranger, all of the characters are gorgeous, or, I should say, all of the women are gorgeous, though different and described in vivid detail, and every single one of them is a sex maniac, eager to pounce and bone every male, no matter age or appearance. Interestingly, there isn't a single description of any of the men in the novel except vague descriptions of shortness and a few deprecating remarks by Lazarus. But the perfect life lies in orgies, it seems.

Ironically, a section of the book is dedicated to explaining the difference between eros and agape, lust and love respectively. The irony is that Heinlein, in explaining love, portrays only lust. Lazarus marries and impregnates a girl he raised from childhood (not okay. Ever. Period) and then married her because he wouldn't impregnate a girl he didn't marry. The portrayals of why he loves her consist largely of the fact that she is horny all the time and will dance around naked with rubies on while they are dehydrated and venturing through a desert (don't ask). I think you missed your own point Heinlein.

In the end, Heinlein is a very, very smart man -- one of the technical sci-fi, or 'hard sci-fi' writers. That I appreciate. I just don't appreciate being told how to think. I also don't appreciate contrived characters.(less)

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Jun 15, 2012 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's my experience that modern readers of Heinlein tend to be of two types: thrones who think he's a master of science fiction and a man ahead of is time, and the ones who think he was a pervy old man with an Oedipus complex. I tend to fall into the first category. I remember Heinlein being one of the authors that got me interested in the science fiction genre in the first place. But that's not to say there aren't problems with his work.

The major takeaway I get from Time Enough for Love is that...more
It's my experience that modern readers of Heinlein tend to be of two types: thrones who think he's a master of science fiction and a man ahead of is time, and the ones who think he was a pervy old man with an Oedipus complex. I tend to fall into the first category. I remember Heinlein being one of the authors that got me interested in the science fiction genre in the first place. But that's not to say there aren't problems with his work.

The major takeaway I get from Time Enough for Love is that his main character, Lazarus Long, is smarter than you will ever be and he gets lots more chicks. He's also a rascal, and a charming rogue, and I think that's why I tolerated his foibles. Readers who don't find Lazarus charming will probably be put off by how he is awesome at everything and knows the answers to every question ever.

There's not a whole lot to this book. Lazarus is the longest-lived man in the universe, having been around for the past several thousand years, and he's bored. But he makes new friends and is persuaded to tell his memoirs, and also persuaded to go on one last grand adventure. But mostly he spends the book talking, often at great length, about the things that fascinate him. This can make for some long, all too ramble bits. I don't always agree with Heinlein's staunchly libertarian views, but he certainly gives me food for thought.

This book also has a lot of later Heinlein's tendency to have his characters have a lot of sex. Some of the subjects he explores are taboo, so I'm only grateful he doesn't go into excruciating detail about the encounters. This was somewhat off-putting, since all his women are pretty, intelligent sluts, and they apparently think it's hot as hell to be patronized by Lazarus Long. (Told you he gets more chicks than you ever will.)

I just wish I could believe in Heinlein's version of a truly free love sort of society. Sadly, I don't.

And I have to say, toward the end, the random sex did get too squicky even for me. Lazarus falls in love with one woman he really should have kept his hands off of, and I really, really wish Heinlein hadn't gone there. Though not enough to keep from reading To Sail Beyond the Sunset, which is a companion book to this one apparently.

Despite my complaints, though, I did enjoy myself. I like most of Heinlein's characters, and even though I don't necessarily believe in his world views, I like making the journeys with him.
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Jul 22, 2012 Jo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I notice a lot of folks talking about the sexism prevalent in Heinlein's work. Personally, I don't see it, but I'm willing to go back through my collection with an open mind.

That being said, I'm not sure that's a valid critique. If a writer writes about a misogynistic character then the book is about a character with a personality trait you don't like. It doesn't, in and of itself, make the book bad. It becomes a reflection of the character in the novel. Perhaps you then gather that the author h...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Mark Woodland rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my favorite Heinlein novel overall, and certainly my favorite Lazarus Long book. This is a fairly long (no pun intended) book, but isn't tedious reading. It follows a great deal of the development of the character of Long and his extended "family", more than you'll find anywhere else. You'll also find plenty of Heinlein's usual themes of libertarianism, formation of families by choice, paternalism and attitudes towards sex. None of them get in the way of the story, though, and it is good...more

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Sep 05, 2008 Mel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 08, 2013 Molly Mccarty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the epic finale to Heinlein's future history books. It is a masterful depiction of the life of the oldest living man alive. Lazarus Long is over two thousand years old. When he speaks for himself in this book, he is the alter ego of the author: Salty, succient, and full of life. His narrative of the status we find him in, just rescued from a nearly successful suicide, includes an ongoing story of his reengagement with life, interspersed with chapters of his most poignant past life experi...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Frank Roberts rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I'm of two minds in regards to this novel.

Pros: it is full of great sci-fi, including time travel, computers taking on human form, extremely long-life. Heinlein is a great story-teller, and the protagonist is very engaging. Certain episodes, especially the Dora story and the time-travel story at the end, were fantastic. The book is full of great aphorisms and comments on politics, religion, and society. I do think that Heinlein's intent was to examine all the sorts of love, love for self, love...more

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About Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein was an American novelist and science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he is one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard science fiction".

He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first SF writer to break into mainstre...more

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Quotes from Time Enough for Love

“Never try to outstubborn a cat.” — 317 people liked it

“Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please—this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time—and squawk for more!
So learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)” — 180 people liked it

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Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (The World As Myth)

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