Bookish Thoughts: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Clare: It's hard being left behind. ~ Opening of The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Mariner, 2003
Fiction; 546 pgs

Every time I start thinking of Clare and Henry I begin to get misty-eyed. Every time.  Days after reading the book.  Oh my gosh, I'm doing it again!  Okay. Let's try to make it through this review.

I have been avoiding reading this book for years. I own a copy. It's sitting on my bookshelf right now, in fact. For years friends have recommended I read The Time Traveler's Wife.  Some rather strongly. I said I would. I never did.  Until the book arrived in the mail one day via my Postal Book Club.  I was a little surprised given the page limit for books we're supposed to read is lower than the page count for this book--but it is a fast read, so maybe that was taken into consideration.  I seem to be the first person in the group who hadn't read the book, which, upon reflection, isn't a surprise.  I mean you all have read it, right? Most of you, anyway.

From Goodreads: 

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant. An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler's Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

And it did. I was spellbound and captivated. I wanted to be Clare. I wanted my husband to be Henry--at least while I was reading. I felt romanced and loved and completely wrapped up in Clare and Henry's story. I felt torn up and sad and lost as I read about the struggles they faced, loving each other and yet often, nearly always apart. (There I go, getting teary again. Darn it.)

The first time Clare meets Henry, she is six.  The first time Henry meets Clare, he is 28. Both at completely different points in time.  That sort of thing would complicate life, don't you think? It was interesting to see how their lives intersected, how Henry saw Clare grow up, him knowing he would eventually marry her; and then years later see an adult Clare meeting a version of Henry that hadn't encountered her yet as a child. I worried at first I would have trouble following the narrative, given the jumps in time and their unusual chronologically-challenged romance. The author made it easier by documenting the dates and ages of the characters over the course of the book which helped immensely. That, in part, made it easier to follow--that and such a compelling novel whose characters I grew to love.

Neither Clare nor Henry are perfect, not really. Okay, so maybe a little close to perfect, but not quite. Henry, especially in his young adulthood (before Clare), was a bit of a rogue. He went through drugs, alcohol and women like they were a bag of potato chips. Clare, especially in her childhood, at times seemed precocious. They did not always agree and there were definitely tense moments throughout their marriage, especially when they were trying to have a child. My heart ached for them.  I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be Henry, not being able to change the past, life just happening to you, really. No free will.  I change my mind. I am glad I am not Clare and that I am not married to Henry.

As much as I enjoyed reading this book and being caught up in the experience of being a part of Clare and Henry's world for a short time, I, at times, wished the author had taken the characters deeper, taken certain threads a little farther than she did. Yet there were times when she did, when she caught so perfectly the feeling of grief, the varying nuances of being both happy and sad to be alone, and the pure joy of being in love.

When I finished the book, I felt for sure I was missing something. I wanted more. I wish I could say it was just that wonderful sense of wanting more because you don't want a book to end. While it is true I didn't want Henry and Clare's story to end, I also felt a little let down. I thought the very end was perfect. It's what happens--or doesn't--right before that that left me wanting. Is that too much of a spoiler? Probably. Which is why I won't say more. Other than to say, I have questions!

At it's heart, The Time Traveler's Wife is a love story. It is about their courtship and eventual marriage. And it is about their life together, about the hardships they faced in living such an unpredictable life and yet trying to have a normal life just the same. My emotions as I read were all over the place. There was heartache. Lots of heartache. And yet, this is such a beautiful story of two people so utterly in love with each other. It's hard not to feel the joy in that.

To learn more about author Audrey Niffenegger and her work, please visit the author's website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads. 

Source: Many thanks to Tanya of GirlXOXO for sharing this book with me through our postal bookclub! 

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