Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife

Let me start by telling you I’m a huge fan of books and movies that involve time travel and /or immortality. The Time Traveler’s Wife steers away from pure sci-fi, instead telling the story of a romance between a girl and a time traveler.

Henry DeTamble is the time traveler - a librarian who inadvertently time travels whenever he’s stressed or excited. Rather than treat the time travel as an oddity, Niffenegger writes the time travel as an illness called ‘chrono displacement syndrome’.

His girlfriend/wife is Claire Abshire an art student from a well-heeled family. The course of Claire and Henry’s lives seem intertwined, as Henry unconsciously time travels into Claire’s life at various stages from his future. Henry also crosses his own time stream a number of times and revisits a traumatic event from his childhood.

The biggest challenge with time travel stories is avoiding confusion. Niffenegger achieves this semi-successfully by reminding us at the start of each chapter of the date and age of the two main characters. The narrative also alternates between Henry and Claire’s viewpoints, which helps to bring the characters to life and helps the reader to empathise more with their situation.

I won’t ruin the story by going into too much detail on the plot, but in short Niffenegger manages to craft a tale that is warm, witty, romantic and above all, human. As a matter of fact, one of my favourite characters in the book is Gomez, a tragic figure who marries Claire’s friend, but secretly loves Claire. Niffenegger deals with Gomez particularly well, letting us know early on about his feelings for Claire, but also showing how his relationship with Henry develops over the years.

In Summary

The Time Traveler’s Wife is a touching tale that uses time travel as a tool to tell the story of two people. So, despite time travel being a central theme in the book, the focus remains on the relationship between Henry and Claire. Initially, I was a little disappointed that the time travel wasn’t the central theme of the book, but the true value of the book is in the human interactions.

When you look at it, The Time Traveler’s Wife covers all the key events in life: teenage life, romance, marriage, family, children. There’s so much to relate to and that’s probably why I found the book so touching in the end. Sruthi has also written a good review of the book, although she walked away underwhelmed.

Perhaps that’s because there isn’t a ‘happy-ever-after’ ending. I don’t know, but I do recommend the book. If you’ve read it, tell me what you thought in the comments. If not, pick up a copy and then come back!