The Time-Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

[goodreads]

Title: The Time-Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 518
Date read: June 2006, May 2011, May 2015

The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry finds himself periodically displaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other, as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals -- steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.


I love the idea of this book and am amazed by how well Audrey Niffenegger pulled it off. It's an extremely interesting book - well written, with almost all loose threads tied up as we go along, and no inconsistencies that I could find at least. It's a sad book, but a brilliant book.

2011: I recently watched the movie, which I thought nothing special in itself, but made me want to reread the book. I still love it :)

Reread 2025: I had forgotten just how sad it is. There are a few chapters near the end that are almost depressing, and the NYE chapter had me sobbing.

There were also a few chapters that seemed almost pointless - I've never enjoyed reading about other people's dreams, and clearly this was no exception. The long descriptions of Claire's work bothered me less, as that seemed to help flesh her out as a character.

I'm nitpicking though. I still really enjoyed the book - even if I did downgrade it from 5 stars to 4.