The Time Traveler's Wife
Ratings565
Average rating3.9
I really liked how the author used metaphor of time travelling to emphasize emotional absence and irresponsibility. I'm not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but if you ever met people who have hard time keeping any of their promissis, and them backing out last minute, and somehow always having very "good" excuses - the main character is just like that. The book is well-written, but perhaps some chapters are way too stretched out. I found the main character VERY annoying, but it's great that the author was able to evoke those emotions in readers.
This is currently a favorite for me. It definitely gets the award for the best use of time travel in a modern, full-length novel.
DNF at 89%.....
I have a small amount left to read but it's impossible. Reading this is like walking on shards of glass.. pointless and painful.
I spent $16.99 on this book through audible and i can't even return it because i'm locked out of the account so not only was this a bad book but also a financial loss UGH.
The overall story was very good. It is a romance, but the time travel plays and interesting part to prevent it from being boring. The sci-fi is not the focus of the book, don't expect overly complicated explanations of paradoxes or the science behind it.
I watched the movie, and it captured all the important aspects of the book. There were some scenes present in the book that were intended to develop the characters, but felt too out of place.
Henry and Claire are in love. They have been in love since Claire was a little child, and Henry an old man. They wait through time to meet in the present so they can be together, but soon time will run out and they will be apart again, until the time will come again when they will meet for the first time.
There are those books that can just do without mindless, unnecessary details. And then there are those books which those mindless details is necessary and essential to the plot. And I think, this book falls in the latter category.
The mindless details is what makes the story happens.It's necessary to let the readers know about Henry and Clare. It's necessary to remind the readers again and again that Henry is not as normal as we like him to be. And those mindless details enable the readers to relate what the two main characters are going through.
Out all of the movies adapted from books, the movie version of this book is the most decent one, I think. It stays true to the book at most part. And just like the movie, it's filled with moments. Moments you can't even decide if you like them or not, but it stays in your mind nevertheless.
This would have been a really interesting book if I haven't read/ watched time travel stuff.
but still, I moderately enjoyed this book.
BLUF: Good concept, but the relationship is overly idealistic and keeps the reader at an arm's distance.
In hindsight...
I chose this book to fulfill the “classic romance” portion of my 2015 reading challenge. I don't really know what a classic romance is, but most books on the classic romance list were published in the 1900s or before – something I knew I wouldn't be able to finish – so, alas, I chose this classic.
Let's start with the bad: The relationship held by the main characters is insanely unrealistic. Their entire relationship is without conflict and is overly endearing. This is primarily because the book doesn't give you the opportunity to truly know the characters. Like another reviewer explained, you read about what they do, but aren't privy to how they feel. Also, there is too much sex considering how impersonal their relationship reads. It's not appealing.
The idea that Henry completely (and easily) drops his current relationship for Clare is hard to believe. Actually, everything surrounding that aspect of the book was hard to believe. From the ex's friend discussing and becoming friends with Clare to the suicide as a result of Henry leaving this woman. It should have been better explained.
Now with the good: Having read the reviews prior to the book, I entertained lowered expectations. So, feel free to take my review with a grain of salt.
I really enjoyed the concept behind this book as well as the execution. It didn't bother me that the book jumped in time. Actually, I enjoyed this style and cannot imagine any other style to be as effective. As another reader so finely put it, this novel is science fiction marketed as fiction to attract more readers and, guess what? It works.
I know this sounds ridiculous but I enjoyed that there were characters in the story that knew Henry's secret and that there was a medial research aspect entertained. It made the concept of time travel more real to me. (That said, I am able to suspend my disbelief easier than others.)
The end was heart wrenching. Truly. It was worthwhile and a large portion of why I voted three stars instead of two.
I can't think of much to recommend this one. The idea of the Time Traveler, Henry, who is suffering from a genetic disorder called “chrono-impairment” sounded interesting, but unfortunately the author never did anything with it. She fails to explore any of the philosophical, emotional, or scientific ideas of the effect this would have on Henry or Claire. It's a device; an impediment or complication to his romance with Claire, the title character.
This is mostly just a romance and doesn't really work for me on that level either. Other than the above mentioned device, there isn't much of anything interesting between these two. Claire has no personality whatsoever that I can grasp. Henry has slightly more of an inner life but no tension ever ratchets up in the story between them. She knows she's going to be his wife because of the various visits of his future self and she pretty much just accepts this. No rebellion, no exploration of other relationships, no real conflict....
The writing style didn't make it any better. Sure, it was an easy read, and I had some curiosity about where it was all going. But the passages were dull journal entries alternating between Claire and Henry and the language was stiff. There is no difference in the “voice” between the two characters and the dialogue was stilted.
I took a peek into the prologue and fell into the story.
The freefall was a fantastic experience with garden variety romance, only chronologically misplaced. Nearing the end when the looming ‘thud' was apparent, I knew I had to start another book to soften the blow.
Henry travels in time and has no control over when or where that happens. He meets his wife for the first time, when he is in his late 30s and she is six. He has to leave Clare, with no promise of a time of return. It's like a love story written twice, because neither has the memory of the other when they first meet.
“I'm at a loss because I am in love with a man who is standing before me with no memories of me at all.”
There is something about describing or atleast mentioning smells and textures, that makes reading a book a more immersive experience. By the first few chapters, I was comfortable and cozy lying around in the dimly lit recesses of this unshapely story. It's quirky and fun, with writing that made my heart melt.
“Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments line up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?”
Just to get this out of the way. The rating for this book is polarized. The one star-haters' main complaints are
1) It's a little Humbert humbertish.
It is reasonable that people find it creepy that a 40 year old guy meets his wife when she was 6, and could (in fact he couldn't), influence her whichever way he wanted. But the point is, that is not denied in the story at all. The author as well as Henry, seems apologetic, that it couldn't be any other way. It is just the way it happened. Which brings us to the second part.
2) Neither of them had a choice.
The novel stems from the premise of fate; that all of it has already happened and time is just flowing past us, rather than we moving forward. Henry himself says that, if you think you have no free will, it gets depressing. That's a note to the reader too. If you think too much of the choice they had, you wouldn't like it. Don't think. Just enjoy.
My only complaint is that the story was slightly, unnecessarily sad. It could have changed a teeny bit and still be able to pull at the heart strings, even without the gratuitous sadness.
“...had we but world enough and time”
I might read this again, in the know.
This seemed to be the book that everyone had just got done reading this summer. My friend Jenn recommended it to me and then I got it from the library and suddenly everyone else was telling me they had read it or started to. Wow. What a story and especially for a first publication. This is a story of lovers and love and of time and how nothing can keep it all apart. Not even time itself. Traces of this book will linger with me for a very long time to follow.
This is perhaps one of the most common books around for dividing opinion. It's a bit like marmite you either love it or you hated it. I fell absolutely into the loved it camp.
The story of Henry, a man who has the ability to literally move backwards and forwards throughout his own life is truly wonderful. The intertwined story of his love for Claire is one of the most engaging I have ever read. Yes, I can understand why some people find it far fetched and at times difficult to follow. All that jumping around through time means there is no chronological order to this book. Instead we are given snippets of what is to come and teasers and given as to what will transpire.
I loved the chapters where Henry met Claire as a young girl and chatted with her about how she would meet him in her future and they would fall in love. Building a love which she grew inside until the day his premonition came true and she did meet Henry at an age where they could have a loving adult relationship.
It is such a beautiful story that the whole time travelling actually doesn't need to make sense instead it's a book about an enduring love and the things we leave behind when we leave this world and those we touch along the way.
I admit; I love a well-written love story, I like the concept of time travelling, and I like stories with real, flawed characters in them. So this is gonna be brief: This book is definitely a must read!! I read quite a few books every year, most of them quite good. My favourite authors are Margaret Atwood and Dean Koontz, and I've read books by those two during this year...but I must say, that this book is the best I've read in a VERY long time!!
Some may find it too sentimental.....but who, among us, didn't get a sinking feeling in our stomachs when Henry visited November 16, 2011??
Highly highly highly recommended for ANYONE!!
I was a little unsure about reading this at first. My wife had read it and loved it, but she was hesitant to recommend it to me – she knows I love time-travel stories, but she thought that the romance elements would turn me off. I was also kind of worried because the central conceit of a time traveler who gets ‘unstuck' in time was a story that I'd known had been done excellently in both text and film (Kilgore Trout in Slaughterhouse Five and Desmond Hume from Lost, respectively). I was worried that this one wouldn't hold up in comparison.
I was pleasantly surprised to find this an absolutely amazingly written, powerful tragedy of a story. Henry and Clare are two souls, travelling alone through their lives, connecting for what seem to be all-too brief moments in time. And yet, they soldier on through those difficulties, knowing that the moments of togetherness are worth the moments of loneliness. I tend to dislike a lot of ‘romance' stories, because I don't think they really understand what mature, long-term love is, but this. one. gets. it.
I still suspect that if you think realllllly hard about Niffenegger's conceptualization of time travel, there would be some practical holes, but who wants to think too hard about a novel? I stole this off a friend's bookshelf on a weekend trip to Berkeley, and was done in time to return it to her. I enjoyed the prose style and the characters, flawed in all their glory, but I think the real triumph of the book is her exploration of how a few simple folds in our linear conception of time might result in life-altering wrinkles. Also, I'm a sucker for a messy love story, and for novelists who let their characters have great sex.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Rounded up to 4 stars
I actually really liked the snapshots and interesting timeline of this book. Everything was told from the perspective of the progressing present. At least with the audiobook, it was easy to understand who was speaking and in what time we were in.
The messages about loss, family, time, and life are very cute! I liked this book! Sure, it's dated and has stereotypical presentations of minorities with racist descriptions. It spoke to me on a few different levels, and I liked the book
Quotes:
“Don't you think it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”
“Love the world and yourself in it, move through it as though it offers no resistance, as though the world is your natural element.”
“It's dark now and I am very tired. I love you, always. Time is nothing.”
“Why is love intensified by absence?”
“Time is priceless, but it's Free. You can't own it, you can use it. You can spend it. But you can't keep it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”
“We laugh and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost, or dead, or far away: right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.”
This book is terrible. I can't believe there is so much hype about it. Once I started, I was determined to finish, however. Sadly, as the book goes on, it only gets more ridiculous. The only good thing I can say about this book is that I'm finally finished reading it.
I loved this and I'm definitely not a fan of time travel. It's so much more than that.
This was good, but I debated between 3 and 4 stars. I went into the book thinking it was young adult fiction. It is not. But it was a good story that kept me hooked. I listened to an audiobook version and appreciated the presentation of the different narrators with different actors. In general, I would recommend this but probably only to adults.
