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It was during one such conversation that she asked me had I read The Time Travelers Wife. At this stage I had not even heard of the book let alone read it and intrigued by the title asked her what is was about. After she had told me I was a bit confused as to how it would work but was also ... Read review
This extraordinary, magical novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each ... more
other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the firs...
Postage & Packaging: refer to website Availability: in stock
This extraordinary, magical novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each ... more
other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. His disappearances are spontaneous and his experiences are alternately harrowing and amusing. The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's passionate love for each other with grace and humour.
Postage & Packaging:refer to website Availability:in stock
Presents the story of Clare and Henry, who have known each other since Clare was six and ... more
Henry was thirty-six. This novel depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's love for each other. Their struggle to lead normal lives in the face of a force they can neither prevent nor control is moving.
Advantages: Intriguing, beautifully written original novel Disadvantages: Plot can seem complex
...readers and are always on the look out for something new and original, finding a lot of the newer novels very much the same story with different characters and settings. As a consequence when we would meet up, which unfortunatly tends to be very infrequently now, the conversation invariably turns to any good books we have recently read.
It was during one such conversation that she asked me had I read The Time Travelers Wife. At this ... ...read it and intrigued by the title asked her what is was about. After she had told me I was a bit confused as to how it would work but was also curious so when I spied it in a three for two offer in Waterstones I decided to read it.
The Time Travelers wife was written by Audrey Niffenegger as her debut novel.
The Plot:
Before I start explaining this I'll ask you to please bear with me as it is a somewhat ... more
Both my friend and I are avid readers and are always on the look out for something new and original, finding a lot of the newer novels very much the same story with different characters and settings. As a consequence when we would meet up, which unfortunatly tends to be very infrequently now, the conversation invariably turns to any good books we have recently read.
It was during one such conversation that she asked me had I read The Time Travelers Wife. At this stage I had not even heard of the book let alone read it and intrigued by the title asked her what is was about. After she had told me I was a bit confused as to how it would work but was also curious so when I spied it in a three for two offer in Waterstones I decided to read it.
The Time Travelers wife was written by Audrey Niffenegger as her debut novel.
The Plot:
Before I start explaining this I'll ask you to please bear with me as it is a somewhat difficult plot to explain, one that can only be truely appreciated by reading the book.
Henry is a man diagnosed with Chronic Diplacement Disorder. In laymans terms this means he is literally pulled in and out of time. This is usually brought on my times of great stress and results in him travelling either backwards and forwards through time to events of consquence in his life. Claire is his long suffering wife. Henry and Claire first meet when Claire is 6 and Henry is 36. They marry when Claire is 20 and Henry is 22.
When Henry in present day time first meets Claire in his twenties he has no idea who she is, yet Claire has known him her whole life.
For both Henry and Claire this disorder is difficult to cope with. The nature of it is such that Henry cannot take anything with him when he time travels, down to the fillings in his teeth. This results in Henry arriving naked in periods of times anywhere from street corners and deserted landscapes to the library he works in. This leads to confrontations with members of the public and frantic searches, often resulting in crime, to find clothes and food as he never knows how long he will remain in one place.
We follow through the life of this young couple in love struggling to lead a normal life while Henry slips in and out of time. Other characters in the book include, Henry's dad, Claire's mum, Henry's Ex-girlfriend and Claire's friends. Some know about Henry's disorders and others don't.
We watch Henry experiencing the same parts of his life over and over again and being unable to do anything about it, being an innocent bystander watching his life unfold.
My Opinion:
I found it difficult to believe that this was a debut novel, it was written so well and the idea was so original. It is far from the sci-fi novel some details of the plot could have you believe.
The narrative is told from two completly different points of view. There is that of Claire of her inability to help her husband, her struggle to cope with his constant disappearances and reapperances when he is sometimes bruised both physically and mentally. We also hear from Henry in the first person about his travelling, and the worries he has for Claire and their life and at times his own.
The chapters jump around not only between Claire and Henry's viewpoints but also through time. Some people have mentioned that they found this confusing however I found it an excellent tool to pull the reader more firmly into Henry's life and his own personal struggle. Each chapter clearly defines at the beginning who is narrating and how old both Claire and Henry are.
The thing that struck me about this book most of all was that it didn't seem far fetched at all. It wasn't a novel about some mad scientist who discovered a way to travel through time, it was believeable. Henry had no desire to travel through time and wished it would stop, but this unfortunatly was beyond his control.
The book is essentially a passionate love story about two people madly in love who still want to be together despite the massive obstacles in their way. The time travel is practically secondary to this story of love. Despite what seems like a perfect love, the characters themselves are less than perfect and exhibit all the flaws and error of judgements of normal human beings. It is easy to ephasise with all the characters in the book, both main and secondary, in that each character is richly developed into a three dimensional person each with their own part to play.
The descriptive writing aids both the ease of reading and the realism of a plot that you know can't be real. Below is an excert from a passage from Henry's narrative that show's the wonderful writing used to describe both scenery and emotion:
"Sometimes it feels as though your attention has wandered for just an instant. Then, with a start, you realize that the book you were holding, the red plaid cotton shirt with white buttons, the favorite black jeans and the maroon socks with an almost-hole in one heel, the living room, the about-to-whistle tea kettle in the kitchen: all of these have vanished. You are standing, naked as a jaybird, up to your ankles in ice water in a ditch along an unidentified rural route. You wait a minute to see if maybe you will just snap right back to your book, your apartment, et cetera. After about five minutes of swearing and shivering and hoping to hell you can just disappear, you start walking in any direction, which will eventually yield a farmhouse, where you have the option of stealing or explaining. Stealing will sometimes land you in jail, but explaining is more tedious and time consuming and involves lying anyway, and also sometimes results in being hauled off to jail, so what the hell."
The Verdict:
I couldn't put this book down once I started reading it, and even when I did I found it long lingered in my mind. I could almost believe that I was there experiencing and feeling the things described. This book can be both heart warming and heart wrenching at the same time and I know this sounds cliche but this book did everything, I felt angry, sad and happy through various stages of the book.
At times it is easy to predict where the plot is going on but I still found myself nervously plowing forward either in the desperate hope I was right and at times that I was wrong.
The plot is complex but I found after the first chapter it was easy enough to follow and definitly worth perservering with. There are a few graphic scenes that would not be suitable for young eyes.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something original to read and indeed anyone who enjoys a well written novel.
Information about the book:
Published January 2004 by Jonathan Cape ISBN: 0224071912 Currently retailed on Amazon for £7.99 and often available in Waterstones and other book stores on their three for two offers.
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 ... ...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 ...
sonic0209 03.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Advantages: Original, Intelligent, Beautifully Written, Compelling Storyline Disadvantages: Maybe a little too high-brow in places?
This novel is the story of Henry, a librarian, and Clare, an artist. They have known each other since Clare was 6 and Henry was 30, and were married when Clare was 22 and Henry was 30; at this time Henry had known Clare for two years, but Clare has known Henry for most of her life.
Confused?
This scenario sounds impossible, but has come about because Henry is the first person in the World to be diagnosed with a genetic condition called Chrono-Displacement ... ...in countless books, usually with the protagonist travelling through large chunks of time, back into the past or into the distant future, through some magical or technological means. For Henry, however, time travel takes place mostly within his own life span and by a means he has no control over: periodically, his genetic clock resets and he finds himself pulled unwillingly through time, often to points of great emotional gravity in his life. He may ...
Collingwood21 20.08.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Advantages: Wierd, wonderful and moving. Disadvantages: Not many....
We have a magazine in the library that is designed primarily for members of Reader's Groups (it's called New Books Mag). I like to have a look in it too because it gives snippets from books and some book reviews by members of the public. This is usually the place where I spot something that sounds interesting ~ a book to seek out and read in full. This is how I found The Time Traveler's Wife, by the wonderfully named Audrey Niffenegger.
~~~THE PLOT.
... ...a rather good tale about the effect of Chrono-Displacement Disorder on a marriage. The key characters are Claire (an art student) and Henry (a Librarian) DeTamble, a couple who met, fell in love and got married. Sounds simple enough at this stage doesn't it?
The problems start because Henry has the oddly named illness I mentioned above ~ a disorder which means he can travel through time and that his body clock "resets" itself from time to time. ...
tange 13.04.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Advantages: Funny, interesting, passionate, beautiful and tragic !! Disadvantages: None for me
== THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE ==
By === AUDREY NIFFENEGGER ===
"I met Clare for the first time in October, 1991. She met me for the first time in September 1977; she was six, I will be thirty-eight. She's known me all her life. In 1991 I'm just getting to know her." Right, I saw the film so now I've read the book. Did I do it the right way round? I think that I did. Which was the best, definitely the book, although I did enjoy the film. My daughter ... ...having her head buried in the book all through her recent visit; we went to the cinema together to watch it and then she passed on her book to me. I believe that she paid £7.99 for the book from Waterstones (it is a nice thick book with 540 pages in it), but when she came to visit me she found that Sainsbury's were selling it in a ' buy 2 books for £7' offer, and there were plenty of good choices available, so do look around before buying - but buy ...
oldchem 03.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
...waited for them, standing on the edge of the water, scanning the horizon for the tiny ship. Now I wait for Henry." Clare is waiting for Henry…but the concept of 'long ago' has become a strange one, for long ago may not have happened yet for one of them.
Clare met Henry when she was 6 and he was 36. They married when she was 22 and he was 30.
Henry is a time-traveller.
Clare is not.
In a twist on the normal time-travel tale, Henry's movements ... ...even one as wilful as the TARDIS which can be programmed, but has no guarantee of accurate delivery). Henry cannot control his timing. He suffers from a genetic malfunction whereby his internal clock intermittently resets itself and he finds himself pulled forwards or backwards into his past or future. Making the time-slip a function of Henry's own genetic make-up neatly accepts one of the fundamentals of time-travel, should it be possible ~ that ...
hiker 07.01.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
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Advantages: easy to listen to Disadvantages: Henry's tone
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 timetraveler, and he ...
Advantages: Very good plot, a touching story of love Disadvantages: Have tissues ready when you get to the last 20 pages, guarantee of tears
I?ve heard of this book before but did not get round to read it until recently. With the movie adoptation of the book, it has become the hit in the charts again. The author named the book in a very clever way. The time travller?s wife actually means two persons: the timetraveller and his wife, the two main characters in the book. And it is told from the perspective of both of them. I personally find it hard to categorize the book, it?s a mix of sci-fi and romance.
At the beginning of the story, you may get a bit confused as it started off with Clare meeting Henry again when she is 22. It is Henry?s first encounter with Clare but it is Clare?s reunion with him. Before the start of each section, the author states the date, age of both Clare and Henry. Time is a very important theme in this story and hence this style of layout ...
Advantages: Some lovely writing Disadvantages: Disappointing novel
HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY
AUDREYNIFFENEGGER
I am so disappointed!!
When I read AudreyNiffenegger's first novel, "The TimeTraveler's Wife"
(reviewed at http://www.ciao.co.uk/TheTimeTravelersWifeAudreyNiffeneggerReview5862798).
I thought that it was the best book that I had read for a very long time.
So, when I found that she had a new novel out, I was very eager to read "Her Fearful Symmetry".
Is this the same author who wrote such a mesmerising first book?
"Her Fearful Symmetry" is a long-winded, but not terribly complex, novel about two pairs of twins, a cemetery and family secrets.
Whereas "The TimeTraveler's Wife" was complex and gripping, "Her Fearful Symmetry" is not, it is slapdash and missing the character quality that made her debut so enjoyable to read.
Audrey ...
This extraordinary, magical first novel is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, a librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in 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.
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