The Time Traveler's Wife

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Summary: Like a good song
Review: Like a good song on the radio that you wish would never end, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE is a great book that you'll wish would go on and on. Be prepared to have some kleenex ready for the final few chapters as they are tear-jerkers. The writing is excellent, along the lines of some of Min's novels or McCrae's Bark of the dogwood, and the plot is intelligent and interesting. Overall, highly recommended.

Also recommended: Bark of the Dogwood

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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?????

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Summary: Proves that Time is the Greatest Distance.
Review: This is the story of love and time. A girl meets a man with a chrono-displacement syndrome. She meets him when she is six for the first time and falls in love with him. She meets him in her real time at the age of twenty, deeply in love, but he does not know her because he never met her. He doesn't start seeing her until he's in heis thirties through time travel. Sound confusing? It's not really.

This is a fast paced, wonderfully written book filled with love, comedy, and sadness. I'm serious it will make you laugh and will make you cry. The ending is so sad, I had tears comming out of my eyes reading the last pages. Definitly pick this one up, its a gem in the paper mill. The only thing disapointing is that this is her first book and I have to wait for more!

Rating:
Summary: Truely original
Review: This book was wonderful, i've wanted to read it for quite sometime and finished it within days after getting it. The story of Henry and Claire is one in a million.