The Time Traveler's Wife

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: This book covers practically the entire lives of its main characters, Henry and Clare. Henry suffers from "Chrono-Displacement Disorder", so from the age of five on, he jumps randomly back and forth in time. His jumps seem to center around a few locations or catastrophic emotional events. In a large number of jumps, he ends up in the meadow outside of Clare Abshire's house. So, Clare knows and loves an older Henry, whom she has known since she was six. But in Henry's timeline, he does not meet Clare until she is twenty. Confused? Sometimes it is, but also very compelling and hard to put down. If my husband had not forced me to go to bed, I would have read this in one sitting.

Rating:
Summary: Creative, compelling story that makes you think
Review: Time travel is overused as a plot device, so I was skeptical when I picked up this book. However, the characters are so clearly drawn, you can't help but be pulled in. Yes, there are moments when you must suspend disbelief (this is a genetic disorder...?), but the clarity of the scenes and the emotional realism make you more than willing to do so.
At its root, this story is about love, and the connection between soulmates. However, it also shows that everyone has personal demons (time travel being just a stranger demon than most), and true intimacy means knowing and accepting them. With that acceptance grounding him, Henry can soar like Clare's birds. The story also makes you question your awareness of the people around you. At one point a character says "You're not ready to see me yet". How many of us are looking at the people we know, and really seeing them?
Finishing this book, I was bereft. It ended perfectly, and I knew it was coming, but I still felt like I had lost a close friend. Bravo on a wonderful story - can't wait to see what Ms Niffenegger does next!

Rating:
Summary: Totally Unique
Review: Traveling against the grain, Audrey Niffenegger creates a romance more original and imaginative than I could imagine. It has that same uniqueness that seems beyond comparison that books like 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'My Fractured Life' have that seem to just captivate. It is hard to describe 'The Time Traveler's Wife'. It's not just a romance. It's not just science fiction. It's not just drama. It's in that league of uniqueness that you just have to read it to understand.

Rating:
Summary: Half perfection, half deeply flawed.
Review: For a first novel Audrey Niffenegger has done a wonderful job of creating a new and interesting perspective on time travel using a love story as the foreground.

The first half of the book was absolutely stupendous. Niffenegger sets up her premise and you get pulled into her world. It was at this point that I thought I would be recommending this book to everyone and buying extra copies for my friends for Christmas.

And then things began to fail to add up or were just disturbing. (Spoiler alert.)

Niffenegger creates certain rules (as required by most sci-fi/fantasy) for her world. Henry, the time traveler, can't really change things, he can only really observe. Then, when the plot requires it and Clare needs more space in their house, he wins the lottery. This brings out several problems. One, if he can do that, why can't he do other things? Two, if he can be rich, why can't he affect things outside of his life such as people who are destitute, charities or political causes? And why don't these issues even come up - does he even care? And three, the lottery is brought up and then . . . forgotten.

This pattern occurs again when Henry seeks medical attention. We're drawn in as he convinces his doctor (who smokes in his office - give me a break!) to treat him and study his DNA. And then we have to wait 100+ pages as Niffenegger follows Clare's obsession with having a baby over several years. What's Henry's doctor doing to treat Henry? We don't know because we're not shown.

Both Clare and Henry, in the latter half of the novel, are presented in a rather flawed manner.

Henry is confronted with his own mortality, more so than most humans. But does he discuss it, think about it, reveal the details to his loved ones as he should do? Not really.

Clare on the other hand becomes downright selfish and obsessed in the second half. She betrays one of her best friends not just once, but twice. There's an annoying scene where she tries to "protect" Alba, her daughter, from medical assistance against Henry's wishes when he so obviously knows what's best far better than she does. And then there's the ending in which we are given nothing about Clare's life after Henry's departure. It's as if her life was nothing without him. She did nothing, accomplished nothing.

The book reminded me at the end of "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte. A compliment of sorts. But like "Heights," "The Time Traveler's Wife" is about an unhealthy expression of love and obsession.

One of the things that felt so odd about the book was it's lack of involvement with the outside world. It seems unlikely that Henry's actions would be so ignored by the government. Wouldn't someone catch on, start investigating, and then want in on the action? Wouldn't Henry's friends be more persistant about getting help, especially about money? Wouldn't both Henry and Clare be interested in helping others with Henry's knowledge? It's as if Clare and Henry are living in their own cocoon because none of these issues are really brought up.

Overall, Niffenegger makes the mistake of having "idiot plot" devices control her story. Why is something there? It's there because the plot demands it, not because it fits with the characters or the real story.

All of this is such a shame given the book's first half which just glowed with promise. Despite all these criticisms, it's still a good read. It's just not going to be a classic.

Rating:
Summary: **Alas, There Can Be No Sequel To This Great Story!**
Review: This exceptional book is a timeless love story. Pun intended, it is also one of the best, modern American love stories written in many years. That is quite a statement, considering the author is a first-time novelist known for her visual artistry. Writer Audrey Niffeneggar uses all her artistic knowledge, experiences around Chicago-land, and understanding of people in love, to bring a truly unique work to life.

At first I thought I was just reading science fiction. Though this book might reside in that section of the library, it really demonstrates so much more. The story is told entirely through the two main characters, Henry the Time Traveler, and Claire the Time Traveler's Wife. The growth and development of the two characters is done with tremendous maturity, far beyond the scope of most writers, let alone publishing virgins. I cared so much for these two lovers that I could hardly hold back the tears the closer I got to the end of the book.

Claire's story is mostly told in chronological order, like most of us normal people are used to. Henry's story is told in a jumble of chronological sequences, much as you might expect from someone not constrained to the normal human space-time continuum. The manner in which Author Niffenneggar weaves the two together is well thought-out and brilliantly presented. She doesn't try to dazzle us with Star Trek level science facts, and presents the critical, but minor, science fiction premise of this work as almost matter-a-fact. This makes the book highly enjoyable for readers of all flavors.

As with all life, the story must end with death. Therefore, this work is accurately described as a stunningly beautiful tragedy. But the picture that is painted of the lives of these characters, so drastically in love, is breathtaking and heartwarming, well worth the tears that come as that final, fatal moment reaches us. I rate this book most accurately at 4.80 out of 5.00 stars. I heard recently that Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt have purchased the movie rights to this novel. I cannot think of anything that could improve this story except the thought of those two actors bringing to life these wonderful characters on the big screen. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Examining a lifetime of a relationship together
Review: The writing of Audrey Niffenegger is reminiscent of Vladimir Nabokov's. As I was reading "The Time Traveler's Wife", I was strongly reminded of "Ada." In "Ada", Nabokov takes an Eden-like idyll of adolescent sex and love and projects it through the lifetime of the couple, who grow, mature and travel in and out of the relationship with each other, but never regaining the lost sense of a childhood ideal. In "The Time Traveller's Wife" we see a relationship from all sides, but out of sequence. This is brilliant. Events occur and THEN are foreshadowed, with the foreshadowing throwing insight rather than prescience onto the picture.

The plot is laid out rather simply: right in the beginning, we learn that Henry DeTamble is suffering a genetic disorder that makes him shift through time. Amusingly, when Henry shifts in time, only his body moves; clothes, even dental fillings stay behind. His existence is colored by the fact that, any moment, he knows he will disappear and reappear sometime and somewhere else, buck naked and possibly in danger. For this reason, he keeps in top running form. He never knows when he'll have to make a dash for it. Throughout his time shifting, he is entwined with Clare, first as a child, then as an adult. Their relationship goes from a backwards-Lolita type infatuation (Henry is waiting for Clare to grow up, because he knows they will fall deeply in love, he is not lusting for an underage nymphette as in Nabokov's novel.)

The novel shifts in time and in viewpoint rather neatly, first from Clare's point of view as the stable, time-fixed partner, then to Henry. The thread of the entire novel is about love, the kind of love that never changes, never dies, just grows infinitely despite the ravages of time and events that change us. This is an interesting treatment of the question "Why do we change and why does love change?"

This is a very ambitious first novel and one that is crafted with amazing creativity and care. The character of Henry is so well-developed, I at first thought the author must also be a man. I had to check the back cover (after I had compulsively read the book in one go, cover to cover) and see that the author was really a woman and her picture was amazingly as she had described Clare to look like. Yet Henry is as believable as a man as Clare is as a woman.

This is really not a science fiction novel; rather it's literature about love and relationships and time. It's a fine novel and I look forward to more from this marvelous artist.

Rating:
Summary: I agree with the person who said "boring"
Review: I really wanted to like "The Time Traveler's Wife", but just couldn't get into it. I give the book 2 stars(as opposed to one)because the plot idea is different.
It took me a while to get used to the time skipping and Henry being different ages. Also two Henrys in the same scene(especially the 15 year old Henrys......that made no sense what was implied they were doing together!) bothered me.
I would have stuck with it, tried to go with the flow of the book, but it was not holding my interest. The conversations Henry was having with Clare were dull. zzzzzzzz The story did not seem to be going anywhere, so, sorry to say, it was put aside and I started reading something else.

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.