Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable
Review: This novel is now on my shelf as one of my favorites. I simply ate it up. Niffenegger has a wonderful sense of these characters and my heart truly longed for Henry and Clare to be together. The story's puzzle pieces were so perfecly put together, it was hard not to fall in love with them. Please give it a try. This is a unique and interesting book that is far more than a love story about two people, but also about life.
Rating: 
Summary: It Is What It Is!
Review: I just finished this book, and found it pretty enjoyable. I agree that the characters are a little unbelievable in their emotional response to the things that happen, (especially Claire, who I couldn't relate to at all!) but the book was a fun read. It didn't lead me to any huge revelations about the meaning of life or love, but I guess I wasn't looking for that in the first place. You will enjoy this book if you don't expect it to change your life! Actually, I think it would make a better movie than book, which is weird because I always like books better than movies! I hated the ending. . .can you say "Somewhere in Time"???
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable experience
Review: I read this for my book club and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a creative (but not too far-reaching) story that combines the tenderness of love and the brutality of living in a very realistic way. The characters came to life for me. I thought the author did an amazing job writing all the different time traveling events in a way that I could keep up with. I liked the clever way she gave snippets of the characters'lives - I got a very full picture of what life was like for Clare and Henry in concise snippets of times throughout their lives. Well done. I hope she publishes more fiction novels.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read
Review: I enjoyed this story very much. From the opening words I was captivated. I loved the non-linear nature of the book, the various threads that are hinted at in one part of the book and followed up in another. Some may think the book was gimmicky, but I found it refreshingly original. I love the first person narrative from both Henry and Clare's perspectives. I wonder if there will be a sequel telling Alba's story...
Rating:
Summary: story culiminates too late in the book
Review: I found this book absolutely intriguing. The concept of sudden repeated involuntary time travel is unqiue (for me). Throughout the book, one cannot actually distiguish whether this is all really happening, is a dream, or a delusion of the protagonist, Henry. I agree with many other reviewrs. I could not identify with Henry, though one has to wonder whether any of us would develop some of Henry's unsavory defense mechanisms, and it isn't so much us identifying with Henry as possibly the distaste of the need to become Henry under the same circumstances. I agree with many that the romantic aspect of this story is poorly devloped, so that if one can't identify with the characters we should still be able to identify with their love for each other. I also agree that the relationship between a child and a naked Henry often appearing before her is unsettling, though the author handles it discreetly. One thing that troubled me was the apparent lack of consequence of Henry's existence. Many people see him disappear or reappear throughout the range of history he travels and yet the author leaves us to believe that many around him consider this inconsequential. I had trouble suspending my disbelief of the reaction to Henry. I was at first perturbed by the author's mechanism of time travel, a DNA fault. Invoking this mechanism requires a number of breaches of scientific logic in different disciplines, and generally one should require only a single scientific leap of faith to make the reader feel it is believable. However, I understood by the end of the novel the need for the mechanism since other story elements required it. I think my biggest frustration of the book was that the most interesting part of the story involing Henry, Clare and their child culminates so late in the book and is dealt with in a perfuntory story closing manner. The ending is unexpected, but leaving out so much of henry's life with his family made it hollow. I would recommend this book for time travel fans, though don't expect to get swept into the story.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Commercial Romance
Review: Niffenegger writes with compassion about her characters. The first few chapters are wonderfully entertaining but the plot sags in the middle and the back half of the novel falls apart because it wasn't edited.
My guess is that some readers have been disappointed by the book because it was marketed as being something more than a commercial romance novel.
It's not.
Time-travel romances constitute a booming segment of the romance market and this one is pretty good as far as these things go.
Henry is the traditional romance novel 'rake'. A bad good hero. He's darkly handsome, he's edgy (a punker!), all that's missing is a horse, a sword and a castle in the Scottish highlands.
The heroine is a beautiful rich virgin who loves only Henry. See the formula emerging here?
Clare's longing is the most poignant aspect of the novel. She is the character we want to know more about. Perhaps Niffenegger will grace us with a sequel wherein Clare succeeds as an artist and finds happiness with a really steady fellow -- a CPA, a bank officer, a shopkeeper. . . .
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I do enjoy books that give you something to think about. If you only want to read books that are pleasant all the time, and nothing to ponder over, buy a comic book.
Rating:
Summary: One Star Reviewer Dead Wrong
Review: Because so many people have raved about this book, I really am deeply offended by the one star reviewer. Whoever they are, they are truly abusive in nature to give this finely written, highly regarded book a 1 star. As with another reviewer's comments "this book made me jealous of their love I could never obtain", I feel there must have been a similar nerve hit. In order to write respected reviews on Amazon, one must have a certain amount of fair objectivity. This reviewer does not, and deliberately sought to damage the reputation of this book and its author who has received notable awards and rave reviews on this book. The one star reviewer's comments should be removed due to their completely lack of regard for other people's opinions of this book that completely counter their own.
Rating: 
Summary: Time-Travel Drudgery
Review: In "The Time-Traveler's Wife", traveling through time is handled seriously by author Niffeneger as a disease where the victim, Henry, because of some aberrant chromosomes on his DNA strand flips, without control, in and out of a window of time that encompasses his own life span plus or minus some 50 odd years. The condition comes hand in hand with the usual drug side effect stipulations, no driving, no television and no deliberate revealing of the future.
As interesting as all this sounds, and believe me there are segments in the book that fully captivate the reader's attention, the story of Henry and Clare, his wife, fails to generate any real magic--and I don't mean the flights of fancy conjured up in the legions of romance novels. I didn't feel the intensity of their love at all. In fact, the only real emotion the book successfully conveys is a sense of utter desperation; the characters continually struggle to construct the semblance of a normal existence, but sadly, a little knowledge proves to be a dangerous thing, and the feeling of predetermination hovers over the ambiance of the story like the Sword of Damacles. I continually asked myself, why the young girl Clare was so fascinated by a 40 year old man appearing naked in the meadow by her home? I still haven't a clue. Henry is not constructed as a particularly model character, on the contrary he seems outright obnoxious at times.
Instead of the sophisticated love story that some of the other reviewers raved over, I read an overly-long, distractedly-written narrative told in both Clare's and Henry's voices that points out in the most depressing way that life is way too short. I don't read entertainment fiction, especially fiction recommended by the Today Show, to give me more to ponder over during a bout of insomnia. That's about as much fun as being beleagured by drug company messages regarding the threats of cholestorol, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, allergy attacks, stroke, etc while watching one hour of prime time televison.
Hence, "The Time-Traveler's Wife" is recommended to anyone who has about five days to waste reading about a wasted life. My advise? Save your money and your time. If you want to read tried and true and respect television book clubs, pick up one of Oprah's classic selections; they have all the depth of meaning and true conveyence of emotions that 'The Time Traveler's Wife' fails to deliver. Or if this time travel scenario still piques your interest, wait for the movie so enthusiastically awaited by some of the other reviewers. In the right hands and with the right script, two charismatic actors can add the poignancy ingredient the author left out. Better yet, barrage HBO with letters so that as one reviewer suggested, a first rate series is developed a la their new show, Carnivale.
Rating:
Summary: Read the book, AVOID THE AUDIO
Review: This is a truly astounding work in its scope and immagination. I won't re-hash the premise here, many other reviews below have done so. This is a very character-driven work, that doesn't settle for the simple machinations of "plot". Rather it tells a story about the lives of two people through episodes, creating a very entertaining and enjoyable journey, though one along a road that seems to be headed somewhere worrisome. What is the most wonderful in this book is living the fantasy of being able to encounter one's partner/spouse/love at ages before you knew them. But this is certainly no gimmick, because Niffenegger turns all the conventions of time-travel inside out and makes it a disease with horrendous consequences alongside its obvious delights. I would also strongly caution readers to READ the book before listening to an audio version. After being enthralled by the book I've heard a portion of the auido and it was horrid. The readers/actors had clearly not read the book or understood the material. (and the voices were campy and stupid. truly putrid). Do NOT let the audio be your first impression of this material. I am nervous about how the movie version might turn out, but think this would make a terrific HBO series in the vein of Six Feet Under, due to its episodic nature, length, and complexity.
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