The Time Traveler's Wife

Rating:
Summary: Charlie Kauffman Must Be Drooling...
Review: Perhaps he would consider directing the film adaptation of this novel? Alas, I can't imagine that Hollywood doesn't already have its hooks in.

I've given very few five star reviews. The novels that I've adored in the past few years have tended toward contemporary literature that's not necessarily traditional in structure (The Hours, Life of Pi, Everything is Illumniated). So, while my tastes tend toward the literary (though I hope I'm not a pompous bore like the wanker who reviewed this book on May 8th and attempted to singlehandedly undo the rating system), I value originality. This novel is accessible and original. I hope it is widely read.

Rating:
Summary: Very Original Novel
Review: The Time Traveler Wife was a truly original novel. I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to keep up, but Audrey Niffenegger did an awesome job of keeping the rhythm of the story and also keeping it clear. I was by turns fascinated and saddened by the curious lives of the two main characters. I kept thinking that I was so glad that I didn't have and hadn't married someone with "Chrono Displacement" disorder. But, the best compliment I can give any book is that I got absorbed in the characters and story.

Rating:
Summary: Now that I have your attention...
Review: I am puzzled by the vitriol of those attacking this book for its "unreadability". Did we read the same book? This book is NOT badly written at all. Those who attack it have, I think, some political agenda going: Niffenegger mentions (gasp!) sex and casual drug use A COUPLE OF TIMES. The protagonists are young people growing up in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, so this is appropriate because that was part of the culture. And the sex and drug use is NOT gone into in great detail, merely mentioned briefly. If this riles the "abstinence-only" crowd, they're the ones missing out.

I am something of a highbrow (I enjoy writers like Sebald, Pelevin, Huelle, Gaddis, among others), and found this book very satisfying. The central theme--a man, with a propensity to find himself involuntarily deposited, completely naked, in the past or future for short periods of time, falls in love with a woman and marries her, and meets her at all ages of her life when he appears to her from her future--is very well handled with logical consistency and believability. More importantly, this theme is the hook on which the real subject matter of the book is hung: if a child could meet her future husband, what effects would repeated meetings throughout her life have on their relationship? (And no, there is no sex between the girl as a child and the older man.) Some of the other reviewers object to minor discrepancies in character development, or in the necessary suspension of disbelief. To those people, let me heartily recommend Remembrance of Things Past or The Critique of Pure Reason as books exemplifying writing that should satisfy your exacting standards.

Ultimately, this book is about relationships and emotions, laid on over a skeleton of novel plot devices and engaging, fairly realistic young urban characters who read books and make art and have opinions on politics and literature and cook interesting food and deal with their parents and with each other. The way the protagonists interact with their parents is a whole worthwhile subplot in itself. And all this activity takes place over some of the most interesting years of the 20th century. Then the author postulates what the imeediate future (next twenty years or so) will be like in the society these people inhabit.

This book is a fascinating idea developed well by a good thinker. It is similar to Zadie Smith's White Teeth in the level of reading difficulty and in the level of engagement it asks of the reader, as well as in the glimpse it affords into the lives of people who are slightly different from those around them. What it is not is a Grisham novel with the requisite twenty pages of gratuitous sex. All told there is about one paragraph's worth of mildly, tastefully described sex in this hundreds-of-pages-long novel, and none of that is gratuitous.

If you're like me, you usually go to the bad reviews first to see how a book is playing out amongst those who are capable of critical thought. Unfortunately, a high proportion of these reviews are simply reptilian-brain reaction (...) for or against a book. I hope that those of you who look for actual thoughtful contemplation of a book's merits will pause long enough to consider what I have written here.

I feel an urge to apologize for this review being other than what is promised; but then I am reminded of all those people who criticized this book for political reasons, and feel reassured that I am doing the right thing. So, no apology from me. If you like books by the authors I mentioned above, you'll enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: For all time travel fans...great read
Review: I did find the first couple of chapters of this book very confusing, but once I realized what was happening to Henry it became clear. I did go back and read the first few pages to better understand what had happened in the beginning.
I love the idea of time travel and this was an interesting one in that Henry seemed to go back to the same places. And how cool to be able to hang out with yourself!
I enjoyed the jumping around but did find that I was left hanging when a certain characters was not mentioned again.
I loved the book and could not put it down. I cried through the last chapters and wished it would not end.
Anyone who does not like this book obviously does not care for science fiction or time travel stories. It is after all fiction.
Question I was left with...what did they do with the lottery ticket?????

Rating:
Summary: Redefining and giving new life to romance
Review: A lot of buzz was out about this book before I decided to pick it up and read. The premise of the book seemed a little too far fetched for me; a man with a medical condition that pops out of his current time into the past and sometimes the future. A far-out idea, or so I thought. I became so engrossed in this book and could not put it down.

Henry has been living his entire life with a medical condition that he cannot control, without warning he jumps from his present time into his past or sometimes his future. It is during one of his time travels that he meets his future wife. Unfortunately, she is only 6 and he is in his 20s. When their times finally catch up in the present, she has known him her entire life since she was 6 years old, and he is meeting her for the first time at the age of 28. The book chronicles their lives and how they deal with everything together in their lives, not just the time travel but everything that goes along with a relationship as well.

Audrey Niffenegger's first novel is superb. Her style and narraitive are both first rate, and she keeps you wanting more. Even though the premise does sounds absurb, she makes it realistic and you actually believe that there really is a chrono-displacement disorder. Not an easy feat to do. The pages seem to turn themselves never disappointing the reader and always keeps you guessing and surprised at the outcomes of each tribulation.

I definitely recommend anyone to read The Time Traveler's Wife. You won't be disappointed, and you'll be waiting eagerly for Ms. Niffeneger's next contribution.

Rating:
Summary: Is life just a play that has already been written ?
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. However, I disagree with the authors premise that fate cannot be changed. Henry is unable to alter his future when he returns to the past. The reason given is that "it has already happened and has to happen again the same way". In most other time travel stories, the traveler can change the course of events. I would rather believe that we have free will to determine our own destinies, not that they are predetermined and unchangeable thru any choices we make, or actions we take.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious, Takes Itself Too Seriously
Review: It seems like most people either love this book or hate it. I belong very firmly on the side that hates it, thinks it's gimmicky, ponderous and pretentious. I think it's a dismal debut and certainly not worthy of the praise heaped on it by the media.

First, there's the premise. Time travel has been done before, it's been done far better than Niffenegger does it and it's been done with far more originality. Yes, I know Niffenegger wanted to use Henry's disease as a metaphor and not write science fiction, but then why did she concentrate so much on the issue of time travel? Why explain the mechanics of Henry's "voyages" on almost every other page? It got ponderous and it got boring. And, using Henry's disease as a way of letting us know that "true love" knows no boundaries is more than a little heavy handed. It's like slapping the reader in the face with the book.

Although THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE was supposed to be the love story between Henry and Clare DeTamble, I really didn't get any sense of "love" here. To me, the characters were cold, heartless people who cared a lot more for lust than for love. I really didn't care if Henry went off on one of his voyages and never returned. In fact, I would have preferred that he do just that quite rapidly.

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no trouble suspending my disbelief when it come to novels and films. I admit, I don't like science fiction, but THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE definitely doesn't belong in that genre. I could easily buy into the fact that Henry DeTamble could have "Chrono-Displacement Disorder;" what I couldn't buy was the fact that he and Clare were in love. Niffenegger just wasn't able to create characters that are emotionally engaging and, for this book to "work," the characters had to be engaging and likable. Actually, I hated the characters in this book; they were just so cold, so heartless, so devoid of humanity. I've read books with dog narrators that contained more humanity than this so called "love story."

And, my goodness, if Niffenegger really wanted us to believe in Henry and Clare's "love," then why the cheap scene with Gomez on the kitchen table near the book's end? Even if I liked the book and the characters, that scene alone would have turned me off. There was also way, way, way too much profanity in this book. Sure, "normal" people use profanity...from time to time. They don't engage in obscene and profane words in every other sentence the way Henry and, especially, Clare did, though. That was another huge turn off for me and I'm far from being a prude.

The book was too long simply because there wasn't enough of a story to cover five hundred plus pages. There were no subplots. Henry traveled and then he came back. So what? Niffenegger explained the mechanics of Henry's travel in such detail that it finally got to be just "filler" and bad "filler" at that. The book also takes itself far too seriously. Every sentence, every word, every gesture, doesn't have deep significance, at least not all of the time. It does in Niffenegger's world, however, and I actually got physically tired, not to mention bored, just reading all this portentous and badly written dialogue. Readers aren't stupid beings, either. We don't need everything explained to us. We can "read between the lines." We do "get it." I think this is something that really marks Niffenegger as a novice writer. I don't mean a first time writer; plenty of first time writers turn out wonderful books. I mean a novice writer in the sense that there is so much more she has to learn about the art and craft of writing, e.g., the reader can fill in some of the blanks. The reader likes to fill in some of the blanks. Dialogue needs subtext. This book is so puffed up with its own sense of false importance, but it lacks confidence and that's so obvious in every sentence Niffenegger writes. It's so tentative that Niffenegger explained everything, even the most obvious, to us.

If this is love, or even a semblance of the real thing, believe me, I would rather skip it. Thank goodness, what's portrayed in this book doesn't even come close to "the real thing."

Rating:
Summary: Mind-Expanding
Review: The author creates a feasible scenario for the concept of how humans could time travel and presents it in a love story with characters that you wish you could spend time with. One gets lost in the alternate reality created in this book. If only the ending weren't so sad but no matter, this one of the best I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Gratuitous sex & foul language - A disappointer
Review: The book has an interesting premise, but it includes much foul language, especially referencing Clare and Henry's sexual relationship. The scene with Henry's 15 year old self and his older 15 year old self is completely unnecessary and puzzling. Further, there is a scene towards the end where Clare is together with Gomez that is very strange and gratuitous. The author attempts to "spice" things up with sexual descriptions that simply detract from the book. It makes it seem as if Clare and Henry's relationship is only based on sex. Disappointing...

Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Beautiful
Review: You are drawn into a world that grows with destiny, pain and love. You will be left with possibility and the mysterious feeling of contentment.