Take Time to Get Lost in Niffenegger's Gem (The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger)

Member Name: Puggers

Product:	The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Date:	03/02/09 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A complex plot wonderfully laid out, skillfully built characters

Disadvantages: Requires a little effort to get into

Part brilliantly-plotted time travelling epic, part deeply affecting love story, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife is a stunning novel. Comparable to little that has gone before, this genre-spanning tale relates the story of Henry and Claire, two star-crossed lovers. Henry suffers from an extremely rare, initially nameless genetic disorder with causes him to periodically become "unstuck" in time. As if losing his footing on the ladder of his life, he tumbles backwards or forwards, visiting places that were or will be significant to him. He does not change into the person he was or will be - instead he is simply a temporary presence in the time, holding a guest pass but inevitably reverting to his "real" time.

Claire, unafflicted by any such condition, leads a quite normal life, in temporal terms. One of the main themes of the book is the effort the pair put into being a normal couple, into cultivating a life together as unswayed as possible by Henry's frequent departures.

We first join the pair in 1991. To the best of Henry's knowledge, he has never met the young woman standing in front of him, eight years his junior. For Claire, though, this is a chance reunion with a man she has known for most of her life. This little paradox kicks off the book in confusing fashion, yet this isn't a negative; the slow-release comprehension the reader goes through over the first chapter or so serves as both a satisfying way to meet the protagonists and an introduction to the conventions and conditions time-travel under which the book operates. Though Claire has been visited by the time-travelling Henry as a child, and remembers them as anyone would - because her life runs in a linear fashion - for Henry, he has not yet made these journeys. These visits to the past are still to happen in the coming years of Henry's timeline, but until they do, he has no knowledge of them.

Perhaps this sounds somewhat confusing. In truth, it is - and it's to the author's great credit that she manages not only to convey such apparent contradictions skillfully and accurately, but that she also ensures that the plot is not overwhelmed by the mechanics of time-travel. This is, at its heart, a simple love story; boy meets girl, each falls in love with the other, but must overcome adversity to make their relationship work. The time-travelling of the title is important, certainly, and is the device which drives the plot along with such unique, innovative energy - but the husband-wife dynamic is the part of the book which really makes it so memorable and delivers its most heartfelt punches.

Niffenegger writes her characters in such a way that they are able to carry the weight of this sizeable story on their shoulders and really make it live. They are wonderfully believable, life-like creations with faults and flaws and real-life concerns beyond the problems caused by your soon-to-be-husband disappearing during your wedding ceremony, or stumbling naked along a freezing harbour where moments earlier you were sitting at home in pyjamas and slippers (though Henry's body can move easily though time, his clothes cannot - we've all been there, right?). Her supporting cast are all also ably written and help build up and hold up the plot, but it is our central two who really give the story its soul. For all that they are well-written characters individually, together they are something more, and it is in its dealings with Henry and Claire as a duo that the novel shows its most powerful, emotionally affecting moments.

The pair take it in turns to provide the narrative, a device which furthers our relationship with each and both. Although they don't overlap too greatly insomuch as they take alternate portions of the plot, they do provide different perspectives on the experiences and dilemmas they share - and of course, on occasions, they do not share their moments, as they are in different places in time.

The back-and-forth in time focus works extremely well as part of the novel's structure, building up a multi-layered picture of the characters and their lives. It also enables some powerful foreshadowing; lacking the ability to choose when he travels in time or when he travels to, Henry is unable to change the future, yet often sees signs of what is still to come. This device is utilised powerfully by Niffenegger, most tellingly of all in the rise towards a ending which leaves an lasting imprint in the memory, such is its intensity, and such is the skill with which it is scripted.

The Time Traveller's Wife is simply a stunner of a novel - it feels like several worthy books mixed into one, yet is written with a delicate, precise touch. The slow-burning plot takes a while to come to the boil, simmering whilst the author lets her characters make their marks before reaching a just climax. This has to be one of the most impressive books I've come across, and is fully deserving of the many accolades which have come its way.

Summary: A time-travelling, heart-churning, awe-inspiring epic.