The Time Traveler’s Wife
The story is about a person, Henry, with “Chrono Displacement” disorder that causes him to travel thru time. He travels randomly to his future or past usually at the time or place of importance in his life. Henry’s adventures can be as short as minutes or as long as few days after which he comes back to the present day and resume a normal life. Stress and ambiguity provoke his leaps in time creating unusual paradoxes and sometimes violent situations. Henry gives an analogy of a tape that can be played from any point. Clare, his wife, leads a more normal, sequential life but because of Henry’s time travels, her own life is interlaced with present, past and future. For example, she meets her husband at the age of six while he time travels. After the reader adjusts his understanding of the time travel concept, the science fiction part of the story takes a step back, exposing the true nature of the novel: it’s plainly a love story, sometimes a trashy one at that. I was slightly disoriented with different dates in the beginning but quickly caught on. The narration alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view creating for a unique writing style.
I would imagine that writing about time travel is extremely tricky as events begin to overlap. For the most part however, author does a dense job of sticking to her time line. In the same time, there are a couple of inconsistencies. For example, the author stresses one’s inability to change to course of events even when they know the future. Nevertheless, this does not prevent the two main characters from cashing out on the financial market trends and lottery numbers fetched from the future. The main heroine can afford to be an artist instead of slaving over the rent money which probably somehow, somewhere disturbs the balance. Although the idea is sweet, how does that not alter one’s present and future? At moments like this, the science fiction part of the story turns more in to that of a fantasy genre, or more precisely author’s fantasies.
Also, and this is not a criticism but an observation, this is the first book I have read where the profession of the main hero is librarian. Does not the word ‘librarian’ makes you think of an ancient, dusty man with thick glasses, suit and a bow tie? Henry is portrayed a hard rocking, free-living, organic creature who loves punk music but oddly is a librarian. I found the choice of his profession slightly perplexing given the nature of Henry’s abnormality.
Finally, I felt that the conclusion was disappointing. Personally, I am a big fan of unfinished endings, once that lead you pondering about what happens next. The author here left no room of interpretation but instead spend the last few chapters laboriously chewing up the events and pouring the digested mass back on the pages. She built up the apocalypse right at the end by topping the plot of one drama right after another. Instead of leaving you in a thought provoking state you are left an emotional wreck: puffy red eyes and a hollow voice. I am not advocating happy endings but on contrary, propose a drama equally spread out thru the book. It gives a reader a chance to contemplate and to analyze the event where as otherwise you are left feeling overwhelmed, sad and empty.
In conclusion, I think it is an entertaining read. The story contains an amusing plot and a curious narration. Out of five star ranking system I would give it 3.5. It is an ideal book for a certain mood and it probably will appeal more to women than men. So if you feel kind of blah, sick of tv, have nothing better to do and begin to take your relationship for granted, this may not bee too bad. I do not regret reading it.
I would imagine that writing about time travel is extremely tricky as events begin to overlap. For the most part however, author does a dense job of sticking to her time line. In the same time, there are a couple of inconsistencies. For example, the author stresses one’s inability to change to course of events even when they know the future. Nevertheless, this does not prevent the two main characters from cashing out on the financial market trends and lottery numbers fetched from the future. The main heroine can afford to be an artist instead of slaving over the rent money which probably somehow, somewhere disturbs the balance. Although the idea is sweet, how does that not alter one’s present and future? At moments like this, the science fiction part of the story turns more in to that of a fantasy genre, or more precisely author’s fantasies.
Also, and this is not a criticism but an observation, this is the first book I have read where the profession of the main hero is librarian. Does not the word ‘librarian’ makes you think of an ancient, dusty man with thick glasses, suit and a bow tie? Henry is portrayed a hard rocking, free-living, organic creature who loves punk music but oddly is a librarian. I found the choice of his profession slightly perplexing given the nature of Henry’s abnormality.
Finally, I felt that the conclusion was disappointing. Personally, I am a big fan of unfinished endings, once that lead you pondering about what happens next. The author here left no room of interpretation but instead spend the last few chapters laboriously chewing up the events and pouring the digested mass back on the pages. She built up the apocalypse right at the end by topping the plot of one drama right after another. Instead of leaving you in a thought provoking state you are left an emotional wreck: puffy red eyes and a hollow voice. I am not advocating happy endings but on contrary, propose a drama equally spread out thru the book. It gives a reader a chance to contemplate and to analyze the event where as otherwise you are left feeling overwhelmed, sad and empty.
In conclusion, I think it is an entertaining read. The story contains an amusing plot and a curious narration. Out of five star ranking system I would give it 3.5. It is an ideal book for a certain mood and it probably will appeal more to women than men. So if you feel kind of blah, sick of tv, have nothing better to do and begin to take your relationship for granted, this may not bee too bad. I do not regret reading it.