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.
This was the most beautiful, unique story I’ve read in ages. I was intrigued by it almost from the start. I’m not a poetry fan, but the poems used in this book were beautiful and odd and appropriate. I liked the use of both Henry and Clare’s points of view. For me, it raised some interesting questions about fate and free will. Despite the jumping around in time, I didn’t find it hard to follow at all.
I read some of the negative reviews on Amazon, because when I like a book this much I like the see why people *didn’t* like it, to see if I was blinded to something. It seemed to me that the people that didn’t like either 1) didn’t like that it jumped around in time, 2) didn’t like the language and/or sex, 3) found some fault in the mechanics of the time travel, 4) thought the characters were flat (huh?) or 5) thought it was too long and/or wordy. Personally, I enjoyed the level of detail, and I liked that it was really set up as a series of vignettes. It seemed to be the only way it could be done. Dates and ages were given at every step, so I’m not sure why people get so lost.
I did listen to this rather than read it, and I wonder if I would have felt the same if I *had* read it. I listened to the unabridged version read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow, and it was masterful. The only problem was that towards the end I was in danger of DWS — Driving While Sobbing. Very distracting!
