Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife
After much encouragement by my wife ("you'll love it!"), who loved it, and her mom, who loved it, and her best friend, who loved it, I finally picked up The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger.
I resisted because it sounded kind of sci-fi, and I haven't really been in the mood for that lately.
Well, I should have known they were right. It's not really science fiction at all. There's a sci-fi element to it--time travel, duh--but other than that it's as much a straight work of literary fiction, set in the real world of here and now, as anything.
I won't get into the plot too much, because I don't want to spoil it and also because there's really no way you can do justice to the plot without simply reading it. Suffice it to say that the plot is highly original, while at the same time being rooted in the basic realities of human relationships. The fawning quote on the front cover of the book, from the Chicago Tribune, calls it "A soaring celebration of the victory of love over time." Which is probably as apt a description of the plot as anything you could fit into 10 words.
What I do want to talk about is the writing, which is absolutely stellar.
Niffenegger isn't a writer like Barbara Kingsolver, one who is given to arresting you now and then with utterly astonishing and poetic turns of phrase. Niffenegger's writing is plainer than that. But it is utterly well crafted. Flawless prose. It's like the kind of classic antique Shaker furniture that people pay way too much for at fancy auctions these days: plain and simple, but elegant beyond measure and displaying a degree of craftsmanship that you just don't see these days. I really admire Niffenegger's ability to simply say what she has to say without pretense or affectation. Without getting in the way of herself, or of the story. It's beautiful.
On another level, she has done something quite remarkable in this book. It's a first person narrative, yet it is told from two different people's points of view. Each scene in the book is either from the POV of Henry or Claire, the two main characters. It's hard enough writing good first person material for one character, let alone two. Yet, she does, while still managing to keep each person's voice and personality totally distinct, readily identifiable, and utterly believable. Oh, and she does this while still managing to show these characters growing and developing over literally decades of their respective lives.
And because of the time travel element of the story, the reader encounters the scenes and moments from these people's lives in only a semi-chronological order. The reader gets frequent peeks into the future and back to the past. You would think it would be confusing, but it's not. It's a great device for allowing the author to control how and when the reader learns various things about these people's lives, giving clues here and there, holding back surprises for maximum impact. But she handles it so well, with such smooth facility, that I never felt like I was being manipulated. I never had the sense of "hey, you held that back on purpose!"
I'll stop there, though, because to say anything else I'd have to start giving away plot details, which I really don't want to do. Suffice it to say it's a great book that deserves to be read and acclaimed much more widely than I think it has.
I resisted because it sounded kind of sci-fi, and I haven't really been in the mood for that lately.
Well, I should have known they were right. It's not really science fiction at all. There's a sci-fi element to it--time travel, duh--but other than that it's as much a straight work of literary fiction, set in the real world of here and now, as anything.
I won't get into the plot too much, because I don't want to spoil it and also because there's really no way you can do justice to the plot without simply reading it. Suffice it to say that the plot is highly original, while at the same time being rooted in the basic realities of human relationships. The fawning quote on the front cover of the book, from the Chicago Tribune, calls it "A soaring celebration of the victory of love over time." Which is probably as apt a description of the plot as anything you could fit into 10 words.
What I do want to talk about is the writing, which is absolutely stellar.
Niffenegger isn't a writer like Barbara Kingsolver, one who is given to arresting you now and then with utterly astonishing and poetic turns of phrase. Niffenegger's writing is plainer than that. But it is utterly well crafted. Flawless prose. It's like the kind of classic antique Shaker furniture that people pay way too much for at fancy auctions these days: plain and simple, but elegant beyond measure and displaying a degree of craftsmanship that you just don't see these days. I really admire Niffenegger's ability to simply say what she has to say without pretense or affectation. Without getting in the way of herself, or of the story. It's beautiful.
On another level, she has done something quite remarkable in this book. It's a first person narrative, yet it is told from two different people's points of view. Each scene in the book is either from the POV of Henry or Claire, the two main characters. It's hard enough writing good first person material for one character, let alone two. Yet, she does, while still managing to keep each person's voice and personality totally distinct, readily identifiable, and utterly believable. Oh, and she does this while still managing to show these characters growing and developing over literally decades of their respective lives.
And because of the time travel element of the story, the reader encounters the scenes and moments from these people's lives in only a semi-chronological order. The reader gets frequent peeks into the future and back to the past. You would think it would be confusing, but it's not. It's a great device for allowing the author to control how and when the reader learns various things about these people's lives, giving clues here and there, holding back surprises for maximum impact. But she handles it so well, with such smooth facility, that I never felt like I was being manipulated. I never had the sense of "hey, you held that back on purpose!"
I'll stop there, though, because to say anything else I'd have to start giving away plot details, which I really don't want to do. Suffice it to say it's a great book that deserves to be read and acclaimed much more widely than I think it has.