Book Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife
Summary: Recommended, but doesn’t quite live up to the hype. An entertaining page-turner that’s more of a guilty pleasure than great literature.
Spoilers follow.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is basically a romance, and follows many romance novel conventions. Think Somewhere in Time with a punk rock soundtrack.
Unbelievably Interesting Couple? Check. Clare, a free-thinking
artist, is strikingly beautiful, has long auburn hair, is fabulously
wealthy, and wears great vintage clothing. Henry, our time-traveling
protagonist, has famous parents (his father dramatically unable to
recover from his gorgeous wife’s death), is fabulously wealthy, wears
great vintage clothing, and has an amazing job — as a really cool
librarian — which he miraculously keeps despite constantly
disappearing and reappearing naked and beat-up. Nothing about these
two is mundane. If they brush their teeth, it’s fascinating. And
attractive.
Love That Never Dies, No Matter What Dramatic Events May Occur?
Check. As a strikingly beautiful romance heroine, everyone of course
wants Clare. And as a loyal heroine, of course she never, ever loves
another man, even after Henry has been dead for decades. She simply
ages into a strikingly beautiful old woman who waits for an anticipated
end-of-life visit from her one true love. Ditto Henry’s father,
mentioned above.
Sizzling Passion? Check. The lovin’ never ends, no matter what
dramatic events may occur. Henry’s convenient excuse is that stress
causes more episodes of chrono-displacement, but sex helps prevent
them. Sure, Henry.
Child of Their Love Conceived Against Impossible Odds? Check. And
they give her a romance-novel name that I can’t quite recall now,
having already returned the book to the library. Allegra? No, worse.
It’ll come to me.
The book does have strengths that push it into a category way above
the average Harlequin, though. Niffenegger does a very good job of
making us feel we’re being bumped through time with Henry; we feel
disoriented and vulnerable along with him as he arrives in each new
time confused, cold and naked. The characters have some good
discussions of the nature of time, free will and what it all means.
(Think Wes Bentley and Julie Delpy
discussing Descartes and Sartre and you get the general idea.)
Considering that we already know a good deal of what will happen to
Henry and Clare by the time the book is half over, it does manage to
stay suspenseful through the end, and the quality of writing is
consistently good throughout. I look forward to seeing the movie that
will surely follow, and buying the soundtrack.
So Allison, where would you file this? Summer reading? Bathroom book? Sounds like a decent movie, at least, even if the book ranks among the ‘barely worth it’ range.
Comment by Steve Evans — May 1, 2005 @ 2:13 pm
I read the book while on vacation, and it was perfect for that purpose. Good escapist stuff, not too challenging, kind of fun. To be clear: I enjoyed the book. I wouldn’t say it was “barely worth it,” but for all the hype, I did expect it to be a bit more original, a little less fluffy.
Comment by Allison — May 1, 2005 @ 5:34 pm
I didn’t hear the hype before reading this book. I read mostly science fiction, not so much regular english literature.
As a Sci-fi fan, I loved this book, and recommend it to my friends.
I admit I lost track of the timeline near the end of the book, when strange things started happening to Henry, And I wish the daughter’s part of the story was a bit more fleshed out, but I was very satisfied with the book overall.
Also, there are many mysteries posed by this book, which are seen from Clair’s viewpoint, but only later from Henry’s, when we get the full explanation. While that was mostly fun to read, I felt a bit overtaxed at times trying to remember all the loose ends long enough to recognize the explanations later in the story.
If the author writes more sci-fi, I’ll be all over it.
Comment by Karl Bucher — May 1, 2005 @ 7:27 pm
Karl, I like sci-fi, too, but I thought the science in the book was treated more as a backdrop to the romance. Still a pretty good read, though.
Niffenegger is an artist and professor. I believe this is her first book. She has an illustrated novel coming soon called Three Incestuous Sisters.
Comment by Allison — May 1, 2005 @ 9:32 pm
Welcome aboard, Allison!
So, is the movie going to be a remake of Somewhere in Time? Or is the story meatier than that?
Comment by Bryce I — May 2, 2005 @ 12:51 am
Huh. I just searched IMDB and the movie is listed as “in production.” Apparently Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston bought the film rights together before they split. Gus Van Sant will be directing and there are rumors that Brad and Kate Winslet will star.
Comment by Allison — May 2, 2005 @ 8:50 am
Quote: “Karl, I like sci-fi, too, but I thought the science in the book was treated more as a backdrop to the romance.”
I believe science should be nothing more than a backdrop to any story. It is the human stories of love, triumph, and tragedy that make any book worth reading. I don’t think that the science should be a driving force in a book.
In other words, I’m more of an Orson Scott Card fan than a Stephen Baxter fan.
Comment by Karl Butcher — May 2, 2005 @ 12:14 pm