Rating: Summary: A Great and Believable Sci-Fi Love Story. Review: I am not an avid reader by any means, but the premise of this book really caught my attention. The love between the main characters Clare and Henry was very well laid out throughout this novel. The happiness in finding one another, the acceptance of a guy who travels thorugh time uncontrollably, and the never ending tension that arises when Henry disappears for hours or days at a time. The only thing that kept 5 stars from being put on my review, is the overwhelming sadness throughout the book, that at times was making you think "What could possibly go wrong NOW?" I am all for a good drama, but at times the multitude of doom and gloom was a bit too much to bear. Good thing some humor was sprinkled throughout the book though to balance these macrabre occurances out. All in all, though, a great read!
Rating: Summary: Great Vacation Read Review: At first I wanted to put this book down becuase it seemed too insipid and a waste of time for over 500 pages. After I got into it, I finished it in a matter of days. The author is able to let you get to know the characters while living a far fetched science fiction story that you actually believe. A great read for a summer beach vacation.
Rating: Summary: Henry isn't the only one who travels...the reader does, too. Review: I stumbled on this book while browsing at a brick and mortar store but plan to order in in Hardcover from Amazon to keep, I'll wear the paperback out, no doubt. I could not put this book down and finished it in two and a half days, my eyes were tired but I just had to see what was going to happen next and was willing, indeed driven to sacrifice some sleep to do so. I am a time-travel story junkie of sorts, even having dabbled writing some fiction along those lines myself, so with that in mind, it was even more fascinating to read how Niffenegger explained Henry's predicament (a truly unique approach to the hows and whys of the mechanics of transversing time.) Totally different than a deeply involved, difficult to understand "Star Trek" sort of time travel explanation, she chose to focus instead more on the relationships in the book, which are at times in turn amusing, passionate, and heartbreaking. I love the way she wrote Henry's dialog, he speaks with an authentic voice and I could picture myself having a spirited discussion of literature over a latte with him. You truly feel for Henry and Clare in their trials, their desperation and unwavering ability to cling to the person they love most through the brutal curse of his inescapable travels inspires those of us living every day in real time to cherish those we care for even more, and to hold them a little bit closer. Time is nothing, and everything at the same time. Treasure what you have, you never know if someone could be gone tomorrow. That is the message I personally took away from this book. Can't wait to read it again. Haunting.
Rating: Summary: A compelling story of love and loss Review: "The Time Traveler's Wife" is one of the most amazing books I've read in a long time. It chronicles the romance of Henry and Claire, who appear to be a normal, happy couple on the outside, but something about Henry makes their relationship very unique. Henry suffers from a condition called chrono-displacement disorder, which means that he occasionally disappears and involuntarily time-travels into his past and, every so often, into his future.
Audrey Niffenegger does an incredible job of sequencing the events of the book (which jump around as often as Henry time-travels) in a way that is clear and enthralling to the reader. The narration of the book also alternates between Henry and Claire's points of view, giving us deep insight into both of these remarkable characters.
As a science fiction novel and also one of the greatest modern love stories written to date, "The Time Traveler's Wife" blends intense character study with charm, cleverness, and raw emotion. The reader will laugh and cry as Henry and Claire experience the "normal" challenges that people face in relationships, as well as the constant uncertainty that time travel brings into their lives (and in some cases, absolute certainty about a future that cannot be altered).
I enjoyed reading this book very much, and it is definitely a book that I recommend to everyone.
Rating: Summary: Pleasant surprise Review: In The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger tells a touching love story with a new twist. Henry DeTamble is a librarian who suffers from a genetic disorder that causes him to shift backward and forward through time...no wait I'm not going to tell you more because I want every aspect of this book to be as much of a pleasant surprise to you as it was to me. Of course the premise is a stretch but sit back and enjoy a well written and convincing tale of love and human behavior. You won't be disappointed!
Rating: Summary: unique and beautiful Review: i could not stop reading this book. i read it sitting down, standing up, walking around the house--i dreamed the characters during the three nights between the time i picked it up and the time i reluctantly reached the end. sure, it's a love story, but the characters are beautifully and realistically rendered--it is as much a story of Henry and Clara as individuals, growing up and getting older, as it is about Henry and Clara together. don't expect it to make sense all at once--that's part of what makes it so yummy.
Rating: Summary: It is not linear, but it is beautiful Review: Very rarely do I find myself amazed by the narrative mechanics of a novel. By prose, yes, often, but not usually by the author's ability to manage and maintain diverse plot strands. This book amazed me. Naturally enough for a book about time travel, its sense of chronological order is hopelessly skewed- and yet, that's not a problem. Niffenegger organizes the book in such a way that everything makes sense, every twist, every turn, every jaunt to 1979 or 1999 or 2011.
It is by turns funny and sad. Niffenegger has a wonderful feel for comic dialogue that is both entertaining and realistic. Her prose is crisp; sparse, yet not lifeless. The characters are well-defined and real; good people, but not perfect, and torn by the terrible tragedies of their lives. More than any other writer I have encountered she engages with the emotional issues inherent in time travel. What does it mean to know what the future is? Can love transcend time? Would an out-of-order romance be better or worse, happier or sadder, than love in linear time?
The disjointed chronology also allows a potent sense of dramatic irony. The audience knows things that the time traveler doesn't know, he knows things they don't know, his wife has secrets from them both . . . it should be a mishmash, and yet it's an elegant tapestry, heartbreakingly real for all its science fiction conceit. I have said little about the plot. This is as it should be. Do not drown yourself in details before you pick the book up. Let it all be a mystery to you, as so much is to the characters, as they travel through time on roads straight and curved.
Rating: Summary: Gorgeous Suspension Review: I was instantly struck by the description on the back of this novel - an 'untraditional love story' that featured one partner who time-traveled while one stayed in sequential time. It's a lot for a writer to ask the readers to suspend disbelief as Clare and Henry's relationship takes place year after year, or year before year, depending on the situation. Yet Niffenegger is a gifted writer with an overwhelmingly truthful voice that resonates within her two central characters and their most unusual relationship in "The Time-Traveler's Wife".
Clare Abshire is still a young girl when she firsts meets Henry DeTamble, a chronically disabled man who involuntarily time travels into the past and future. At first she fails to believe Henry's radical story, but when she witnesses him disappear, she knows he is telling the truth. For over twelve years they have these meetings in the field behind Clare's girlhood house, and Clare learns of the future they'll share together as husband and wife. Yet Henry has never met Clare in the present; so when they actually run into each other, she is the one with all the memories of their past, while he holds the key to their future together.
Niffenegger weaves her story between the narrations of both Clare and Henry as the years progress. While unbelievable in the extreme, the reader buys into Henry's story and the dangers he stumbles upon when he travles through time. We yearn and sympathize with Clare as she desperately loves a man who leaves her alone far too often, after she's waited for him her entire childhood. "The Time-Traveler's Wife" is beautifully written, with descriptive passages leaning more towards poetry than to prose. Niffenegger has spun a fantastic story, filled with laughter and heartbreack and established herself as a voice to be reckoned with.
Rating: Summary: What a non-event Review: The Time Traveler's Wife is such a confusing mishmash of events, that I lost interest very quickly. I read it for a book club, and that's the only reason I stayed with it. I'm all for suspending disbelief, and not nitpicking about details, but the story bounces all over the place, just as Henry bounces between different universes. It's supposed to be a love story, but I never found the attraction compelling. Clare was an impressionable child when she met Henry, and felt destined to be his wife. Frankly, I got tired of trying to sort out when events took place, and if the book were interesting I'd never have cared about the chronology at all. By the time I was halfway through the book I was completely tired of these folks. And I never was engaged enough to suspend my disbelief about time travel.
Rating: Summary: What?! Review: When you first start reading this book that is exactly what you'll think: What?! So many question will run through your head and sometimes you will feel completely lost, like you missed the most important part of the story. No matter how confused you get keep reading. Everything comes together in the end for a truly amazing story of love.
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