When I started The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger I wanted to read it mostly because I want to watch the movie. Once I started talking about it I realized that everyone is reading this book. I have never read a book at the same time as so many other people before. I didn't realize so many of my friends had read the book, or how much everyone liked it. I have always been skeptical about this book. I don't know why, I think something about it made me think it would be Nicholas Sparks-y. It is so not Nicholas Sparks-y. It did make me cry though, and about one hundred pages from the end I wasn't sure if I could even finish the book.
The truth is that I fell head over heels in love with Henry DeTamble. He time travels, he's a librarian, he is kind of an asshole but is willing to change, and he is so punk rock (Thanks Kate for spicing up my description). And I fell head over heels in love with Clare too. She is so strong, so willing to live her life in this upside down way. I basically just wanted to marry both of them. Niffenegger does an amazing job of making you fall in love with these people, and it is so important that you do fall in love with them because it makes the end of the book effect you that much more.
For those you that don't know what the book is about, I'll give you a quick run down. Henry is a CDP, chrono displaced person. This means he time travels as a result of a genetic disease. Clare, his wife, meets him when she is a little girl, but he is actually usually in his forties. Henry doesn't actually meet Clare until he is in his twenties. It's kind of confusing to explain, but the book is mostly linear when you take into account the times that the time traveling is taking place. I would love to tell you more, but I don't want to spoil anything for you. I really just think you should read this book.
One of my favorite aspects of the book was how Henry was completely unable to change the past or the present. I thought this was more realistic than him changing everything all the time. There is one scene in which Henry's father walks in on him and his time traveling self (who is naked, Henry is always naked when he time travels). The present Henry gets really pissed at the time traveling Henry for not warning him, or doing something to prevent his dad from seeing him with a naked boy. The time traveling Henry then tells the present Henry to shut up basically.
I do have one quibble with this book, although I do with most. I hated how sometimes Niffenegger would introduce a topic and then just stop at that. I'm fine with foreshadowing, but there wasn't always enough to make me feel satisfied. Some questions that she left I didn't feel like she ever answered, or maybe she didn't answer them soon enough. Basically there were times she brought things up, but they weren't brought up in a way that allowed me to remember my questions when they were answered.
Pub. Date: July 2004
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format: Paperback, 560 pp.
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