'Read' the book the lazy way and save TIME (The Time Traveler's Wife (Audio CD))

Member Name: bruffyboy

Product:	The Time Traveler's Wife (Audio CD)
Date:	21/09/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to follow

Disadvantages: Henry!

The film that is taking the world by storm right now is based on a book that took the world by storm a couple of years ago. I have read it, but recently began listening to the audio book too.

The main problem I've had with this book is explaining the concept to traditional romance lovers, so let me explain it personally to you.

I'll assume, for the sake of this illustration, that you are a married man. Now, imagine a world where you are still your current age (let's say 45) and you go back in time to different points in your wife's life. You interact with her when she was 5, 12, 15, 25, all the way up to her death. All the time, you know she will be your wife in the future, but she (when young) doesn't know that). Slowly, she falls in love with you, and you with her: it's a magical read!

Henry is the time traveler, and he travels back and forth through time, often visiting Claire, his future wife.

The concept is often difficult to follow, so how did they approach that with the audiobook? Well, they decided to give different roles to different people. Yes, there are two narrators in this audiobook - one male for Henry and one female for Claire. Now, this is a brave move, and I'm not convinced it works. The female narrator does a good job, seeming to match the voice and tone of her character pretty well as I imagined it from the book. However, the male narrator isn't so good. His tone and voice all point towards a cockiness that I don't think matches the text. He plays Henry as a kind of sneering and sarcastic guy, which I don't think he is (at least not all the time).

Still, it does make it easier to follow what's going on, which has been the principle problem with this book, so it's not all bad.

All in all, I would recommend this audiobook to those who think the split time narrative of the text may be a bit too tough to follow.

Summary: do it