History Literature / TimeEnoughForLove

** Somewhat {{justified}} by how the Howard Families were set up: when the Howard Trust was installed, you were considered for membership if you could prove your parents and grandparents (and, maybe, great-grandparents) had a "long" lifespan (usually, over 100 years). While Lazarus was born/alive around the time the Trust was set up, the fact that he didn't need rejuvenation until he was approaching 250 and ''already'' was the oldest living human known...

** This is an idea we have previously seen him express in StrangerInAStrangeLand when Jubal bribes the Secretary General.

** Ishtar and Galahad agree to have sex...not having exchanged names and having seen each other only in isolation suits. They're basically attracted to each other mentally, and when Ishtar asks Galahad his sex, he asks, "Does it matter?" It doesn't. She actually admits later that she guessed him to be female.

* BindleStick: Lazarus has one packed for him in 1916 by a kindly doctor's wife, though he re-packs it soon afterward, as it's a liability on the road to look like a "bindle stiff".

* BecomeARealBoy: See PinocchioSyndrome. Lazarus is careful to caution Minerva that the actual experience of waking up in a human body is likely to be highly traumatic at first.

* HumanityIsInfectious: For intelligent computers, apparently, leading to PinocchioSyndrome.

* PinocchioSyndrome: The long-term goal of many AI characters is to download themselves into a WetwareBody, most often to experience [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove love]]. It is accomplished for the first time ever during the TimeSkip that sets up the novel's second half.

* GoodBadGirl: Lazarus' mother, Maureen. Forced to adopt the illusion of propriety by the times in which she lives, she is about as horny a woman as one could imagine. Lazarus (and by extension, Heinlein) seems to hold the opinion that the cultural ideal of a "good" girl is terribly destructive and should be maintained only to satisfy the MoralGuardians of your time.

** Somewhat {{justified}} by how the Howard Families were set up: when the Howard Trust was installed, you were considered for membership if you could prove your parents and grandparents (and, maybe, great grandparents) had a "long" lifespan (usually, over 100 years). While Lazarus was born/alive around the time the Trust was set up, the fact that he didn't need rejuvenation until he was approaching 250...

** Lazarus mentions that he's quite certain he raised children over his centuries of life who were not his biological offspring. He says that he was especially careful to be a loving father to such children.

* NoodleIncident: Multiple vague references are made to the "2012 meeting of the Howard families," a gag that started in the previous novel Literature/MethuselahsChildren. By now, it's an ''in-universe'' Noodle Incident; Lazarus is the only one alive who attended the meeting. Ira Weatheral attempts to find out what happened, but Lazarus refuses to discuss it on the grounds that it would just be his version without giving the others a chance to dispute it. Lazarus is even urged to use time travel to go back and record the meeting so everyone will finally know what happened, but he explains that it's not possible because no one would be allowed into the meeting unless their identity was firmly established.

* DeterminedHomesteader: On "New Beginnings", Lazarus ends up [[MayflyDecemberRomance marrying an ephemeral]], [[DeterminedHomesteadersWife Dora]], and rather than take her into space with him and see her wither away among immortals, he instead decides to settle a homestead with her, with the full commitment that entails. He initially embarks on the project on an whim, seeing her short lifespan as but a blip in his own, but she teaches him to love like no other woman before or after.

** Thanks to the cover story that Ira Johnson unknowingly bestows upon Lazarus, Maureen initially believes that she is bedding her half-brother. It is strongly implied that she [[EternalSexualFreedom wouldn't have cared either way]]; and she is unfazed to find out [[ParentalIncest the truth]] in ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast''.

* ContemptibleCover: Most paperback editions show Lazarus surrounded by nubile, naked women. While there is no shortage of them in the novel, it's not a porno by any means.

->''"Work is not an end in itself; there must always be [[TitleDrop time enough for love]]."''

** Lazarus's grandfather, having no way to perform a DNA check, comes to the erroneous conclusion that Lazarus is his dead brother's illegitimate child.

* NoodleIncident: Multiple vague references are made to the "2012 meeting of the Howard families," a gag that started in the previous novel Literature/MethuselahsChildren. By now, it's an ''in-universe'' Noodle Incident; Lazarus is the only one alive who attended the meeting. Ira Weatheral attempts to find out what happened, but Lazarus refuses to discuss it on the grounds that it would just be his version without giving the others a chance to answer. Lazarus is even urged to use time travel to go back and record the meeting so everyone will finally know what happened, but he explains it's not possible. (In short- he can't attend as his older self because his memories don't include that. And besides, he'd have to find a way to get invited, and since it was such a close-knit group in that time, no one would be willing to vouch for him, anyway.)

* ComfortingTheWidow: From ''The Notebooks Of Lazarus Long''

* NoodleIncident: Multiple vague references are made to the "2012 meeting of the Howard families," a gag that started in the previous novel Literature/MethuselahsChildren. By now, it's an ''in-universe'' Noodle Incident; Lazarus is the only one alive who attended the meeting. Ira Weatheral attempts to find out what happened, but Lazarus refuses to discuss it on the grounds that it would just be his version without giving the others a chance to answer. Lazarus is even urged to use time travel to go back and record the meeting so everyone will finally know what happened, but he explains it's not possible.

* BiTheWay: In Lazarus' future, among Howards at least, people are open to sex in just about any configuration, although most people still have a preference one way or the other. Lazarus himself claims to be prejudiced towards heterosexuality thanks to his "Bible Belt upbringing", but acknowledges that such emotions are irrational. Later novels in the series {{retcon}} his preferences to the extent that he claims to have had sex with Andrew Libby while embarked on the "New Frontiers", and "misses" Libby as a male to that extent.

* BadassGrandpa: While Lazarus himself is unquestionably a grandfather many times over as well as the deadliest man alive, the focus of his narrative is on his own grandfather, Ira Johnson. At seventy, we're told, he can hold an anvil at arm's length by the horn, and Lazarus witnesses his attempt to reenlist in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne. We find out in ''Literature/ToSailBeyondTheSunset'' that he does successfully reenlist in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo by lying about his age.

** Thanks to the cover story that Ira Johnson unknowingly bestows upon Lazarus, Maureen initially believes that she is bedding her cousin. It is strongly implied that she [[EternalSexualFreedom wouldn't have cared either way]]; and she is unfazed to find out [[ParentalIncest the truth]] in ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast''.