Rating: 
Summary: bizarre story but worth reading - 4.5 stars
Review: I don't normally fall for time travel plots but this one looked appealing. I had heard about it from the Today show and honestly didn't know it was that long until I saw it in the bookstore. It is long and in some places, could have been edited here and there. Henry has a VERY rare genetic disorder where he disappears and travels back and forth in time. He is married to Clare and at times you wonder if they aren't married just because he told her they were in the past so therefore she knows that's the future and just does it. Make sense? Ok - I told you this is a bizarre tale. I think the ending was the best part of the book for me as it wrapped up things very nicely. I don't see myself reading another time travel book anytime soon but glad I tried this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary Writing & A Poignant Romance That Soars!
Review: Henry DeTamble has an unusual disability. He suffers from Chrono-Displacement Disorder. Henry barrels through time, unburdened by clothing or possessions, landing, totally unprepared, for wherever and whatever time's whimsy has prepared for him. Imagine landing totally naked in the middle of a brutal Michigan winter, amongst strangers, ten years in the future? Or twenty years in the past? Henry has been experiencing situations like these since he was five years old when he visited the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History at midnight, while his parents slept unaware that their tiny traveler had slipped through time's warp. He has even gone forward in time to accompany an older self, and gone backwards to comfort the small boy who he once was. Forever at the mercy of his unpredictable genetic clock, he longs to lead a normal life. "Sometimes it feels as though your attention has wandered for just an instant. Then, with a start, you realize... you've mislocated yourself again." It is during one of Henry's amazing time travels that he meets the precocious and engaging Clare, who is six years old. He is thirty-six at the time. Of course, having foresight and hindsight, Henry knows that he and Clare will marry one day, when she is twenty and he is twenty-eight. And so begins the extraordinary and enchanting relationship between Henry and Clare. Clare will learn to cope with a lifetime of Henry's bewildering disappearances and reappearances, with a world that can change in a heartbeat, in exchange for being with her soulmate, for a time. Henry's disability will sorely test their relationship, and each of them as individuals. Don't let all this writing about time and changing ages confuse you, however. This is a beautifully written novel about the timeless and enduring quality of love, companionship and friendship. And after all, that is what matters most. Audrey Niffenegger has written prose filled with lyric beauty and gentle humor. The characters of Henry and Clare are painstakingly, gracefully drawn, in both strength and vulnerability. All the novel's characters are well developed, very human and so original. Ms. Niffenegger explores how life and love change over time in this wonderful debut novel.
JANA
Rating:
Summary: Complex, Brilliant, and All So True...
Review: This is absolutely the best novel I have read this year, a strange, wonderful, contradictory love story, at once both simple and complex, both fantastical and true---completely logical but with a fascinating magical-realism edge to it. Niffenegger alters one teensy little detail (a genetic fluke that causes a man to be transported, unexpectedly and uncontrollably, naked and vulnerable, anywhere throughout his lifetime) and then tells the story that results. And what a story it is: Clare, an artist, and Henry, a time-travelling librarian, and their true, true love, painful and glorious in its give and take, in its aggression and surrender, in its family ties and dark personal singularities... One of the things that I admire most about it is the absolute clarity of the two voices in which the narrative takes place. I enjoy novels written in the first-person, if the characters are interesting people, and in this novel I'm doubly-lucky: at a glance, one can tell who is speaking, whether it's Henry as an adult or Clare as a child, as well as their states of mind. An additional pleasure is the setting, a strongly-evoked Chicagoland, with all its gritty streets, quirky restaurants, secret neighborhoods, and atmospheric weather. I can't recommend this book highly-enough. How many ways can I say the words "unique," "entrancing," and "fabulous"? It's not like anything I've ever read before, and until Ms. Niffenegger writes her next, it's unlikely that I'll read anything like it again.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Romance
Review: I'm a sucker for time-travel novels, but I was stunned at how rich the romance is here. The characters are so real, so moving, that you are drawn into the plot from the first few pages. I haven't had a book make me cry in a long, long time, but from the time that Henry learns how the book must end, I was absolutely riveted and by the last chapter I wasn't bothering to wipe the tears away as I read. What a wonderful first novel. Bravo!
Rating: 
Summary: Too long and sappy
Review: I didn't like this book. It was like acid in my eyes to read about this heart-felt love that I will never have. I had so much hatred for the tenderness of the characters. And I found two typos.
Rating:
Summary: Ah, the rarity of good writing!
Review: This book is worth traveling to a desert island to read. Although the language occasionally became a bit too salty for my taste, I never wanted to stop reading. Frankly, I hope that the movie deal mentioned by another reviewer falls apart: only the eyes of the reader's mind should ever be slaked in the wealth of images created on these pages. Audrey Niffernegger should tear up the movie contract, pulp it, make new paper, and use it to write her second novel.
Thank you, Ms. Niffenegger: a lot of time has passed since I so enjoyed a read!
Rating:
Summary: Bravo!! Ms. Niffenegger
Review: This is one of the most beautiful books I've read in ages. I think I cried the last 40 pages or so. The love of Henry and Clare is so tender, and sweet, and there longing is also heart breaking. You get drawn into the intense love and also loss of these very memorable characters. I didn't want this book to end. Bravo Ms Niffenegger!! I so very look forward to reading more fiction from this 1st time novelist.
Rating:
Summary: Original and heartfelt pageturner
Review: I really loved this original book and have told all my friends to read it--with some trepidation because it is "different." But highly readable. Suffice it to say that it's a wonderful, sexy love story with an ending that had me in tears. And the various times it was set in and the "cool" cultural references fit with my age and upbringing (born in the Midwest in 1960). I've heard it's already been optioned by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston for a film--they don't fit my vision of the characters at all, but of course I'll be first in line to re-experience this unique love story. (It makes me want to re-read Jack Finney....)
Rating:
Summary: Draws you in, makes you immediately comfortable
Review: You would think it would be confusing, but it all makes sense in
the authors skilled hands. I'm looking forward to future books
from her as well. This is one of those books that you are
pleased is so long. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Life is what happens while your busy making other plans
Review: Don't be put off by the science fiction hook....You know how Gene Roddenberry got doubters to watch his amazing TV show STAR TREK?(Kirk/Spock/McCoy) He told them that it was about the CHARACTERS, and that the science fiction part was simply a way of telling their story. Thats what Audrey Niffenegger does here. (My opinion, of course)
And there's so much more to the book then meets the eye too. Aside from the surface ramance/sci-fi format. It's also a metaphor for all of us. About not WASTING time. Living life to the fullest no matter what. Kind of like that line in the John Lennon song...'Life is what happens while your busy making other plans' If you enjoy the old films, HEAVEN CAN WAIT, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, and TIME AFTER TIME, then you will LOVE this book. And hopefully Brad Pitt's production company will marry a good screenwriter and director to the project and it'll become not only a classic book, but a classic film someday as well. Buy it, share it, and then read it again. Highly reccomended to all.
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