"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

Read: 2/11/09

5/5 stars

Who hasn't heard of Time Traveler's Wife? Especially now that it's going to be made into a movie. First heard about it when I asked a good friend, Karen, to contribute to the little newsletter about books I used to make for the faculty in our school. This is her short review, posted here without her permission (though I am hoping that she won't mind, soon as I let her know or soon as she finds out herself):

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger tells the unusual love story of Henry and Clare. What makes their story different is that Henry has a genetic condition that causes him to time-travel to his past or future without his control.

When Clare is 20, she meets 28-year-old Henry in his present. Though Clare has known him practically almost all her life since he has appeared to her intermittently since she was six, for the present Henry, however, it would be a few more years before he would meet the six-year-old Clare. Confusing? At times it could be, with Henry appearing, disappearing, and reappearing in Clare’s life. But, as the story unfolds, this quirk ceases to become strange and instead contributes to making the story even more poignant.

“I hate to be where she is not, when she is not. And yet, I am always going, and she cannot follow.” – Henry

Like Karen says, it's a very poignant love story. A librarian who is frequently ripped out of his own space-and-time would not be half so bad if love weren't involved. But he is in love, and Clare is in love with him. Thankfully, the writing does veer away from mawkishness and coyness. I found it a good mix of lyricism and crudeness, each rendering the other surprising.

And for a "time-travel" story, the story does not talk about a plurality of possibilities. In fact, Henry keeps reiterating that "things only happen once." In an alternate world where there is such a thing as unpredictable as Henry's condition, the story surprisingly takes a position of certainty. Henry says that free will only works in the present, whenever his present may be; the rest of the time, he can change nothing that he knows has already happened. I found that a refreshing take on the usual questions posed by time-travel tales.

But one thing that I wasn't completely satisfied about this book was that, though one Amazon reviewer says that it was a good character study, I would tend to disagree. For instance, Henry is a librarian. However, apart from the fact that he fell in love with Audobon's Birds of America as a child and that he works in a library, nothing much is shown about his passion for books. And just because other characters say that he likes quoting from literature, and that he periodically quotes French writers, does not fully satisfy in my book. In fact, what I saw that he had a continuing passion for (aside from Clare) is music.

As for Clare, perhaps the most lyrical parts in the book for me are when she creates her art. But it seemed to me that art is something that Clare does when she is not preoccupied with Henry, which she is most of the time. And perhaps this points to another discomfort I have with Time Traveler's Wife--Clare does not seem to have much of a life outside of Henry, and vice-versa. I'm sure this contributes to the romance--the fact that they are each other's life--but I thought Clare could have been a richer character. After all, the book is named for her.

Nevertheless, I do tend to separate what I think from what I feel, which is why I still love the book. It made me feel. I don't really cry over books, but I would classify this one as a throat-lumper. The love, the faith, the waiting and the courage in face of what is already determined--I thought it all profoundly touching.

I just hope the movie does it justice.