How to Stop Time

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 1, Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Life Among the Mayflies”

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary: “London, Now”

Back in present-day London, Tom’s head hurts. Tom walks to Hackney’s Well Lane, now Well Street, where he and Rose first lived together. His old house is now Hackney Pet Rescue Services. He goes inside and is drawn to an 11-year-old quiet Akita dog. They call him Abraham after the Lincoln Tower, where he was found. Tom unexpectedly adopts him. The blotchy skin on the attendant’s arm reminds him of Dr. Hutchinson’s waiting room, where he once waited for his own diagnosis.

Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “London, 1860”

During a blizzard, Toms walks to Dr. Hutchinson’s office at the London Cutaneous Institution for Treatment and Cure of Non-infectious Diseases of the Skin. Dr. Hutchinson recently discovered “progeria,” an affliction that causes “premature old age” (31). Tom has spent the last 200 years looking for Marion and is hopeless. Only his promises to Rose and his mother keep him from ending his life. He needs love to survive; Marion is his last hope. At the hospital, Tom first notices the doctor’s beard, thin and wispy and fading into nothing, “a metaphor for mortal existence” (35). Tom explains his condition with the request that the doctor not use his name in any published studies. After hearing Tom’s real age, Dr. Hutchinson recommends he seek help at Bedlam Hospital for treatment of his delusions. Tom shows him the Elizabethan penny Marion gave him. The doctor believes the coin is just an antique that any collector could find. Tom asks if anyone else with the same condition, possibly Marion, has been to see him. Dr. Hutchinson asks him to leave as he gets more agitated and threatens to call the police.

Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary: “London and St Albans, 1860–1891”

After the disaster with Dr. Hutchinson, Tom falls into a state of nothingness beyond his “usual grief and restlessness and anxiety and despair” (40). He tries to start life over in St Albans shoeing horses as a blacksmith farrier. One day, in a desperate attempt to feel something, Tom burns his left forearm with “a searing piece of iron, curved into a horse-shoe from the flames” (41). Now it is a scar that he must hide. After a while, he has a thought: He himself is proof of his slow-aging condition. He returns to Dr. Hutchinson with this proof.

Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary: “London, 1891”

Tom returns to the hospital, renamed the London Skin Clinic, to see Dr. Hutchinson. The doctor’s beard is now sparse and grey. He looks old. Tom recaps their previous visit 31 years ago. The doctor thinks it’s an illusion. Tom repeats his birth year. The doctor states, “This changes everything. Everything” (44). He asks Tom if there are others like him. He tells the doctor about his friend from Captain Cook’s second voyage, Omai, and his daughter, Marion. They are both joyous over this discovery. Tom relishes the joy until Dr. Hutchinson’s body is found in the Thames two weeks later.

Part 1, Chapters 5-8 Analysis

After reliving the sad memories of his wife’s death, Tom yearns for happier times. He visits the house they once shared together, but now it is an animal shelter. He adopts the oldest dog with a tragic backstory. Tom sees himself in Abraham. They both need rescuing. They both need love. Abraham acts as an anchor grounding Tom in the present and prevents him from simply hiding at home.

By 1860, Tom is lonely and without hope. The blizzard reinforces this mood. Just as Tom fights the storm for a chance to find answers, he fights his fears and depression to find hope and happiness. Dr. Hutchinson plays a big part in Tom’s moral development. His death haunts Tom for the remainder of the story. From his first appearance, Dr. Hutchinson is slated to die. The “metaphor for mortal existence” extends beyond the man’s beard to the man himself (27). Dr. Hutchinson symbolizes hope, however fleeting it may be. The doctor dashes Tom’s hopes when he recommends the mental hospital for treatment—and not just any mental hospital, but Bedlam, the most notorious asylum for illtreating its patients. His reaction proves to Tom that mankind is not ready for the truth of his condition. During this time of despair, Tom purposely brands himself with a hot iron. He is desperate enough to self-harm. He now has an identifying mark that will come into play later in the novel.

When Tom seeks out Dr. Hutchinson again 30 years later and manages to convince him of his condition, his hope is restored, only to die again with the discovery of the doctor’s body. Dr. Hutchinson becomes yet another victim of Tom’s orbit, further cementing the idea that Tom is a danger to those around him and better off alone.