The Time Traveler's Wife - an original and compelling read (The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger)

Member Name: sonic0209

Product:	The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Date:	03/01/09 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Original structure, compelling, thought provoking

Disadvantages: Just short of perfect, you can only empathise so far...

The Time Traveler's Wife is essentially a love story, but it's a love story with a twist - set in Chicago, Henry has a genetic dysfunction which results in him travelling through time, where he meets Claire. For the first half of the book she is a young girl who is visited occasionally by Henry, the older man, who knows all about her and what happens to them in the future. Then they meet in real time and it is Clare who knows about Henry through his visits from his future into her past, whereas he is meeting her for the first time.

Niffenegger's version of time travelling is completely outside of Henry's control - that is, he can move in time without notice, and can end up anywhere and anytime, although usually (but not always) in his own past and in places with which he is familiar. He can take nothing with him and arrives in his destination naked, leaving nothing but a pile of clothing behind him and often resulting in dangerous situations on his arrival. As a result, he develops survival skills such as lock picking, pick pocketing and fighting. He can also travel to a time where another version of himself is present so that it is possible for two versions of the same person to be in the same room interacting with each other.

The concept of time travel is not a new one and has been used many a time in science fiction. I enjoyed the mind twisting scenarios that came up and the occasional having to pause to make sure I'd 'got' it. One example of this is where Henry, whilst travelling into the past and meeting Clare the young girl, gives her a list of dates when he will return to visit so that she will know when she can expect to see him. Thinking about it, he must have been older on this visit than he is on the later dates in the list he gives her, so that he will know of their existence. When they meet in the present, she gives the list to the younger Henry so that he will know when to expect to be returning to her. This forms a loop in time. Similarly, when he visits a time in the past where he comes across a younger version of himself he teaches his younger self some of the survival skills that he will need over the years. This is also a loop as he originally learnt the skills he is passing on from himself passing them on to him..... Anyway, I have learnt from doing this review that this is called a predestination paradox.

Whilst suffering from an extreme disorder, Henry chooses to live his life as normally as he can, this results in embarrassing, unexplainable and sometime comic scenarios - meeting the future in laws and getting married are stressful enough experiences, but factor that you cannot control when you might disappear, how long you will be gone for in what circumstances you will reappear (naked). When Henry disappears just before his own wedding, quite fortunately a slightly older Henry visits from the future and takes his place, to almost comic effect.

The whole theme of time travelling throws up questions that are absolutely relevant to us non-time travelling readers. In particular, how much of our future is pre-determined and what is it pre-determined by? Henry and Claire do have a pre-determined future and they know what that future is (Henry because he is visiting from there, Claire because she has had visits from Henry and can pass this on to the Henry of the present) and the novel explores the impact that this has on their relationship.

Because it turns time on its head, and in particular because Henry can travel to a time before his mother's death and visit her, or visit his wife and his daughter in the future to a time after his own death, I also found that the novel made me think about the transience of time, the painful loss of loved ones, the yearning for times gone. These are big subjects indeed and it is a brave novel that will put you in this place.

The strength of this novel is that it deals not just in plot twists or the adventures that you would expect when you travel unexpectedly in time, but is rooted in the characters the form the heart of the book and their relationship. The characters are very well developed, their motivation and their emotions explored, explained and understandable. And yet, somewhere in the novel, perhaps in the odd inconsistencies over how the time travelling is used or in one of the more casual sex scenes or in one of the less than necessary sub-plots, a little bit of momentum is lost and along with it some of the sympathy I had with the main characters. So that when the novel reached its (inevitable and pre-determined) end I was moved, but the book down feeling it was a very good, but not an exceptional read, hence the 4 star rating. I would, however, strongly recommend it.

About the Author and the Publication of the Time Traveler's Wife
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This is the debut novel from Audrey Niffenegger. Apparently, she is an art professor at the Columbia College, Chicago, and has written and published her own picture books since she was a teenager, usually in print runs of 10 copies. The Time Traveler's Wife started life as a title. Once she started work on the book itself, she realised it was impossible to tell the story in pictures and decided to write a traditional novel. It took her four and half years to complete.

The story of the books publication has caused a storm in the States. It was picked up by a small publishing house called Macadam/Page, which publishes around 30 books a year and which seeks out new talent. Where the larger publishing companies do not read any unsolicited manuscripts, Macadam/Page read everything that they are sent (they receive around 100 a week). The book spent weeks in the best seller lists before being published with further success here in the UK.

Other Info
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Published in the UK by Random House and then Vintage. Originally published in 2003, new edition in 2004.
Amazon are selling it at £4.99 (RRP is £7.99), but other vendors on the site are selling it from £2.49.
A film is being made based on the book and is due for release in the USA later this year. According to IMDb the rights were snapped up early on by Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt.

Summary: Highly recommended