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| Review
from the Romance Reader |
The
Time Traveler’s Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
(MacAdam/Cage, $25, PG) ISBN
1-931561-64-8 |
The
time travelers in Knight in Shining Armor and Outlander are rank
amateurs compared to Henry DeTamble, hero of this mind-blowing debut
novel. Thought-provoking, funny, disturbing and tragic, The Time
Traveler’s Wife is the most memorable book I’ve read in 2003. I highly
recommend it to readers who are looking for a unique (although
bittersweet) love story.
Describing
the plot of the novel is as difficult as describing an
Escher print. Henry has a genetic disorder that causes him to
time-travel at random moments, most notably when he’s stressed. He’s
never sure when he’ll vanish from the present or how long his journey
will last, but he always appears in the future or past stark naked.
Because of this problem, he has learned several important skills,
including running very fast (people of any era tend to take a dim view
of naked men showing up in public) and stealing wallets to pay for food
or shelter. The love of Henry’s life is Clare Abshire. Clare first
meets Henry in 1977 when she is 6 and he is 36; he appears in the
meadow of her rural Michigan home. But Henry first meets Clare in 1991
when she is 20 and he is 28; she is doing research in the Newberry
Library in Chicago where he works. Confused yet? You see, Henry pops up
in Clare’s childhood many times, but he is traveling backwards from his
30’s and 40’s. When Clare finds him in 1991, Henry hasn’t started
time-traveling into her life yet, so he knows nothing about her even
though she is already in love with him.
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To explain more would ruin the
surprises waiting inside this extraordinary novel, which chronicles
Henry and Clare’s life together in the past, present and future. Their
love and passion are unwavering, even though Clare never knows when
Henry will disappear for hours or days at a time and Henry never knows
what dangers he will encounter during his traveling. A few of their
closest friends and relatives know of Henry’s problem, including a
physician who tries to cure what is eventually labeled as
Chrono-Displacement Disorder, but for the most part Henry tries to live
as normal a life as possible with Clare when he is in the present. Two
things shadow their happiness; Clare’s desire for a child, and Henry’s
growing belief that during one of his adventures, something will happen
that will prevent him from growing old with his beloved wife.
The Time Traveler’s Wife clocks in at slightly more than 500 pages, but
time flies (hah!) while you’re reading it; be prepared to absorb most
of it in one sitting. Sometimes it feels like a Möbius strip as
you try to follow the mixed-up chronology of Henry’s journeys, which
become so convoluted that he occasionally meets himself in time.
Niffenegger wisely labels each chapter with the exact date, as well as
Henry and Clare’s ages, to give it context. The best part of the novel
is the first half, as the adult Clare and Henry’s attempts to build a
real relationship together are interspersed with flashbacks
(flashforwards?) to scenes when Henry visits Clare’s childhood. You’ll
be shaking your head in amazement as you puzzle over who fell in love
with whom and when it really happened – or was it all just one big time
continuum? But the tone becomes more grave in the second half as
tragedy looms, and it’s almost painful to turn the pages as the
inevitable conclusion approaches.
To be honest, neither Henry nor Clare are completely sympathetic
characters. I can accept that Henry has to resort to less than
honorable ways of surviving when he time-travels – he may pick an
occasional pocket, but he never hurts anyone intentionally – but I
wanted him to use his skills to do more good in the world, even if he
is forbidden from changing the course of history. Clare is fortunate
enough to have a trust fund that enables her to work full-time on her
unusual paper sculptures, and she too is somewhat self-centered,
especially towards the end of the book when another individual
obviously needs her love and care.
The novel just misses keeper status because of an almost imperceptible
lack of emotional intensity. I was so busy being intellectually
fascinated by the time-traveling puzzle that I wasn’t as engaged as I
could have been. Niffenegger chooses to keep the melodrama to a
minimum, which keeps the story from becoming overly sentimental, but a
few more impassioned speeches about how and why Henry and Clare love
each other would have given the ending more of an impact.
Once I finished the book, I immediately turned to page one and started
re-reading it. Some of the passages make a lot more sense once you know
the complete time-line of events, so they resonate with more emotion
the second time through. Perhaps that’s the key to the story – like
Henry’s time traveling, reading the book becomes almost a continuous
loop. Film rights for The Time Traveler’s Wife have already been
purchased by Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt; read the book soon before
Hollywood has a chance to spoil this one-of-a-kind novel.
--Susan Scribner
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