Rating: 
Summary: When Good Ideas Go Bad
Review: Before I begin the review, let me start with a disclaimer. I am notoriously picky about what I read, watch, and listen to. My taste rarely gels with the mainstream. So while I absolutely didn't like this book (as much as I WANTED to like it), I'm sure most of you will love it. In other words, don't listen to me.Anyway, the idea of this book is what drew me to it. I don't usually read romances or time travel books, but from everything I read, it sounded like an interesting blend of romance and sci-fi. The idea is still good; the problem was in the execution. First off, as other reviewers (even those who like the book) have noted, there's not a lot of depth to pretty much everyone other than Henry and Clare. The idea that Clare's friend Gomez is madly in love with her comes out of left-field 3/4 of the way into the book and is never developed much further. Nell, the black cook, and Kimy the Korean landlord come off to me as little more than ethnic stereotypes. Then there's just a myriad of friends and acquaintances who pop into the narrative from time-to-time but are not given any flesh on their bones. The lack of depth infects the entire novel. While it is a sprawling 500+ pages, most scenes are tiny snapshots that reveal little. For example, there's a little two-page snippet on September 11, 2001 that doesn't provide anything about what the characters think or feel about the event, but more or less just states its existence (as if we didn't know). The same can be said for most scenes in the book. The farther I read, the more I kept thinking that if I had been the editor who saw this monstrosity come across my desk, I would have sent it back and told the author to focus the story on a handful of crucial events instead of applying a wild, scattershot approach. In the end, I didn't feel that a lot of the issues about Henry's time traveling and Henry and Clare's relationship were dealt with. For example, with all his money and resources, why did he even bother trying to live a "normal" life? Why not just kick back in his mansion with his wife and read books or discuss philosophy or whatever all day? I didn't see a suitable answer in the story, but that's just me (see disclaimer above). As for the two main characters, by the end I didn't really like either one of them. Clare always seemed to me to be a whiny, spoiled rich girl who never worked a day in her life, whose sole purpose was to pine after Henry and nurse him on occasion. As for Henry, I was largely ambivalent towards him--I understood that he had a lot of problems--until the scene where 41-year-old Henry has sex with 18-year-old Clare in The Meadow. OK, it was consensual, but she's naïve, vulnerable, and HALF HIS AGE! He's old enough at that point to be her father! Doesn't he have any self-control? If that's the author's idea of wonderful, timeless love, it did not sit well with me at all. After that scene, I was just counting the pages until Henry's inevitable demise. This leads me to another problem I had, which was unnecessarily lewd language and descriptions used throughout the book. In the aforementioned scene in The Meadow, the author refers to Henry putting his tongue in Clare's [rhymes with 'slit'] and talks about her love of oral sex. Later Clare talks about how her [rhymes with 'hunt'] hurts. It's not that I have a problem with some frank talk about sex, but such language spoiled the illusion of the purity of their love and made it, well, you know, dirty. I guess you can label me a prude for that if you want. OK, one last issue before I pack it in for this review. Do you think it was right for Henry to insert himself into Clare's past (albeit unconsciously) and unwittingly make her fall in love with him? Do you think that she would have fallen in love with him if they had never met in The Meadow when she was six? I can't really answer the latter question, but I doubt it. Their whole relationship seemed built on the bond she built with him in the past (or his future if you want to get technical), not the present. As for the former question, ethically I don't think it was right for him to involve himself with her in the past. In Star Trek they have the Temporal Prime Directive that basically says that should you happen to go back in time for whatever reason, stay low and butt out of people's lives. I think Henry should have followed that doctrine. You can make the case that he had no choice, but didn't he? He didn't have to reveal himself to her or tell her when he was coming back. The author's assertion that because it had already happened it was going to happen no matter what did not wash with me. Again, doesn't he have any self-control? In conclusion, there are two types of readers in my opinion. There's most of the public who just want an entertaining yarn and can get by with superficial stories and bland prose (I'll save you from a rant on the author's lackluster writing style). Then there's the minority of people like me who look for depth and quality in a book. So, most of you are safe; you can buy this book and come away satisfied. It's the people in the latter category who are going to be disappointed with this long-winded, shallow disaster.
Rating: 
Summary: different
Review: what a uniquely different book about a romantic relationship. I really enjoyed this fresh aproach though the book is sad at times. Took me a little tocatch on to this time travel. But once I did I was captured. A couple of other books that are good reads: Nightmares Echo and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Rating: 
Summary: An ambitious book
Review: This book is ambitious in many fronts-- as a sublime love story, as a medical challenge and as an ethical dilemma. It suceeds, overall. It is terribly entertaining although it can be confusing at times. It is hard to keep precise track of what happened in Henry's life at different ages and that is very important to fully understand the book. I had to keep going back to earlier chapters to understand clearly. My main objection to the plot (and therefore I give it 4 stars) is how poorly developed and irrelevant some of the secondary characters became. First, Gomez. What really happened between he and Clare? What were her feelings for him? Then Kimy. She seems like such a strong female presence but is relegated to a very cookie-cutter role. What about Clare's brother Mark and his wife Sharon? They are mentioned throughout the years (along with their children) but we never really now much about what happened after they got married. I could go on and on. Of all of them, the most intriguing was Ingrid. I think the story could have benefited from a more detailed look at her and the misery that led her to suicide. I think a more detailed approach to some of these characters would have enriched the story without taking away the impact and relevance of the relationship between Henry and Clare. All in all, it was a good read. But it had the potential to be an unforgettable experience. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it falls short of that.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fantastic
Review: This novel is extremely sophisticated, particularly for a first-time author--it's inventive, creative, and engaging. I absolutely loved it, and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to sink down with a good book. I look forward to whatever Audrey Niffenegger decides to come out with next.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Premise....A Timeless Love Story
Review: I'm not a fan of science fiction (or time travel) books but this is definetly an exception. Wrapped within the interesting premise of time travel is a wonderful love story. I am the mother of three small children and an avid reader....but those two things don't go hand in hand. It's hard to get through an average size book let alone a book that is 518 pages long. I read this book in less than a week....so if that fact alone doesn't speak volumes as to how great this book is I don't know what would. My only criticism of this book is that the author sometimes goes a little bit too in depth about certain things. (Maybe that's why it's as long as it is). That is the only negative aspect of this book that I can think of. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!
Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: A great read! I truly enjoyed reading this It's a rarity these days to find an author capable of such good storytelling. The story is well written and very engaging, and despite the fact that it lost some momentum in the middle, I found myself eagerly turning pages to find out what would happen next. All in all, though this is not quite a perfect novel, it comes close.
Rating:
Summary: Like "Somewhere in Time"
Review: This book is very cleaver and reminded me of the way the movie "Somewhere in Time" mixed romance with time travel. I read it with "My Fractured Life" and "The Secret Life of Bees" and was very pleased.
Rating:
Summary: Best book this year
Review: I read about 150-200 new books each year in galley form, and of all the books I got at Book Expo this year, "Time Traveler's Wife" was my absolute hands-down favorite. It's exactly what you want in a book--poignant, touching, funny, and heartwarming. (If you're looking for a close second, the soon-to-be-released "True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters" is my second choice for this year.) Fern Reiss, author, "The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days"
Rating:
Summary: Unique Love Story
Review: Once I got to the middle of this book I couldn't put it down. The story weaves through time will keep you guessing about how and when things will happen. The characters are very memorable and you almost can feel the pain and joy they go through. I just loved the way the author brings you in out out of important moments in Henrys and Clairs life. It is a great love story, (but not in the cheesey sense) very well written, I laughed and cried and couldn't bear to finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointing Read
Review: I must have been reading a different novel than did the other reviewers on this site who gave the book rave reviews. While I don't think it was horrible by any means, I did find it an extreme disappointment and a fairly non-exciting read.
My complaint stems from the fact that the book is, at its heart, only a conventional love story. We are thus given 500+ pages about Henry and Clare's families, their school friends, how and where they grew up, etc. I didn't find any of this too interesting. Henry's "quirk" of time traveling seems to be tacked on as an afterthought, and was dealt with as imaginatively as if he had two different colored eyes.
Because Henry feels it is immoral to change the future, and that the past is predetermined by fate (and thus cannot be changed), what are we left with relative to his time travels? Not much. He doesn't (or cannot) use these travels to change his actions, to affect other's lives, to learn, etc. He wakes up naked and in strange places--I got that after the first two pages. These travels become just so many isolated incidents, with no real interweaving into Clare and Henry's current lives. The title leads one to believe that we will learn how his affliction affects Clare. The only examples I saw of that were of this kind: on their wedding day, Clare is worried that Henry will disappear--he does, but comes back in time; on the day she is to give birth, she is worried that Henry will disappear--he doesn't. Not very exciting stuff. I don't see any affect on their lives except for a major inconvenience and lots of yakking about it.
I think the author missed a good opportunity here. She did not give us a chance to understand this affliction, to feel how it affected the characters' lives, to have it be cause and effect on their relationship. For as interestingly as the time travel aspect was dealt with, the book might just as well have been called "The Allergy Sufferer's Wife".
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