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Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife

I'm surprised to see so many mixed views here - I thought I was the only person who didn't love this book! I too had mixed feelings about it - to begin with. By the end I hated the damn thing. Here's my review from another place, from January of this year. May contain spoilers: but in such a muddled story, will they really ruin it for anyone?

me! said:
The good news about Audrey Niffenegger's American bestseller (so successful there that the British publishers couldn't even bring themselves to anglicise the spelling, for fear of jinxing it) is that it is based on a thoroughly good, original idea, and furthermore that it reads extremely speedily despite its 500-odd page length.

The bad news is that there isn't any more good news. So let's tease out what we can. Henry and Clare are time-cross'd lovers: he suffers from Chrono-Displacement, a fanciful condition that regularly, but unpredictably, whips him clean out of the here and now and deposits him elsewhere - elsewhen - in time. So far, so Philip K Dick. It is certainly a novel conceit for a mildly literary, mainstream love story. However because it's a love story and not science fiction, Niffenegger doesn't really work out her logic very much. She makes the rules, and they're all designed to her convenience - such as the fact that Henry always ends up somewhere known to him when he time-travels, and never on the other side of the world. Similarly, before the 'now' of the book, he only ever visits the past; and in the 'future' of the book, he only ever visits the future. This makes the story very linear for such a potentially bouncy chronology, presumably to make it easy for us and permit us to keep our minds on the love story.

The love story itself is nothing special, other than in its self-fufilling circularity. Henry and Clare are destined to be together - they meet in a library where Henry works when he is 28 and she is 20. But they only get together at Clare's instigation, because Henry has been appearing to her - from his future time - regularly since she was six years old, telling her how they are destined to be together. When they meet at the library, Henry doesn't know Clare because he hasn't met her yet - and it's only because he loves her in the future, and then travels back in time to see her as a child, that she invites him for dinner, and he accepts. And so the relationship is built on itself, unsupported by anything else: they are only together because they are together.

The two characters - who take turns to narrate the novel - do not have very distinct voices, and frequently I would find myself in the middle of a passage of Clare's thinking it was Henry, until she says something like "Henry looked at me." But if Clare is just banal, Henry transcends this as the novel progresses to become positively unlikeable. I did have my doubts in the sections referred to earlier, where he appears in his thirties and forties - naked because his clothes disappear when he time travels [And that, Your Honour, concludes the case for the defence] - in front of Clare when she is as young as six years old. Not just because it's a tad distasteful - though he heroically restrains himself from fucking her until the birthday when she comes of legal age - but also because it shows that the whole edifice of their relationship is built on Henry's will. If a mystery friend comes and visits a child routinely from the age of six, it's a pretty safe bet that her desires will become shaped by what he tells her. This is true both of her tastes for food - so if Henry tells her as a youth, "Your favourite food is Marmite", then she'll go off and try it, again and again if necessary, until it is her favourite food - and her taste for Henry.

Henry goes from bad to worse when he kicks a man to a bloody pulp for insulting him, and from worse to worser when Niffenegger (what was she thinking?) decides to make him a preening erotomaniac, so thoroughly satisfied of his own sexual prowess that I really cannot bring myself to reproduce the relevant passages for fear of vomiting on my keyboard. And naturally, when
he dies
(like, sorry to ruin it for you) he leaves Clare a note telling her that he will return to her in the future (from his past when he was still alive) just once or twice, thus making her spend the rest of her life - some 50 years according to the times given - waiting for him to the exclusion of finding happiness with someone else. Oh and did I mention his random abandonment and subsequent harsh treatment of the girlfriend he was seeing when Clare 're'-entered his life, led to her committing suicide?

All of which would be fine if Henry was supposed to be a repellent creep through and through, but I think Niffenegger wants us to like him, and to celebrate his brainwashing possession of Clare as some great epic love story. Epic it certainly is, and for most of the book little happens - one fifty-page section describes Henry's first Christmas with Clare's family, where nothing of interest happens, and even for the rest of the book, when Henry and Clare are not celebrating their fantastic lurve, it's slapstick-lite with us wondering whether Henry will get to the church for their marriage on time, or how he will explain himself to colleagues when he keeps re-appearing naked at work. So when it all descends into melodrama near the end,
with amputations, suicide, shooting and so on,
I couldn't help but smile and wish good riddance - to Horrible Henry, and his silly story too.
Click to expand...
 
Mmmm, Shade, all good points, I had the same problems with Henry and his unprovoked violence . I also wondered why it was called 'The Time Traveller's Wife' when Henry seems to be the one with the most control in the realtionship.... You've given me a lot to think about, I'll have to go and re-read it now....
 
Hi Shade,
I can hardly quarrel with the factual basis for your criticism; you seem to have the facts exactly right. However, I'm inclined to take gentle issue with the harshness of your review, partly for disussion purposes but partly because I think there is an explanation for why the reactions here, though not overwhelmingly positive, are more muted than yours.

I would mention a few points where we at least agree on the facts.

First, and first in the book, when Henry appears naked to the little girl Clare, and there are none of the expected natural or naturalistic reactions by her, my own reaction was to think that 'OK this book is going to have a certain fairy-tale quality to it.' I didn't immediately put it down to incompetence by the author, but was willing to let my disbelief be suspended a little while longer. And then the episode was over, and we were onto another episode.

That made it clear to me that this was going to be a book of disjointed episodes, each one written for itself, perhaps like mini-short-stories, without smoothe and narratively satisfying transitions into the adjoining story or emotional context. 'Different' I thought, but not yet necessarily incompetence or poor craftmanship.

Third, when Henry's unattractive background, before he met Clare in real life, are hinted at and then portrayed, I wasn't thrilled with him as a character either. But given, the time structruing of the book I thought that a) these were inevitable parts of the story anyway, that had to be the way they were -- everyone has a past -- and b) perhaps we shall see that meeting Clare is a redeeming influence on him, and that will be the point of the book.

The fourth fact, that he manages to keep her on the hook and induces her to wait for him for an unconscionably long time, does sound like a mean domination of another person's life. But In the episodic manner of this novel, it's not 50 long years. It's just one more episode, a mere turning of a couple pages of suspended disbelief.

Fifth, and finally, these are all sumraized in a general thought that it is the time dissection and re-sequenced structuring of the story itself that govern our reactions to it, equally as much as the actual narrative story itself that we come to see in bits and pieces and put together in our mind.

Thus, the fact that the girl commits suicide after Henry drops her, is physically separted in both actual page count and in manipulated time from the scenes where he does drop her. So her story is never told in a naturalistic manner to have its proper full impact on the reader's senses, I would suggest. Henry's culpability in her suicide is therefore muted for the reader by the author's (deliberate) manner of telling the story.

So to keep it short. I agree, that this story, told simply as the story that you outline in your review by collecting all the pieces and connecting them in proper order, would not be a very appealing story, and Henry would not be a very appealing character.

However, by the techniques of time travel and structural plot rearrangement on the actual page layout of the book, the author manged to create a novel that intrigued a fair number of us and caused us to regard more favorably than we might have otherwise.

I'd be curious to hear why others here, in addition to myself, did not seem to judge it so harshly -- those that didn't.

BTW That is somewhat similar to the unusually structured appproach of another recent novel, Cloud Atlas, but that is a whole 'nother story, and a good one at that.

So, you are right about the story,
But somehow the story doesn't come across that way, :confused:
Peder
 
Shade, I thoroughly enjoyed your review and applauded at the end. I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't think it was a great book. You put into words the problems I had with this book. I felt, like Peder said, that it was intriguing but it was also repellent and I could neither be sympathetic for Henry's plight nor did I think Clare was a Penelope for patiently waiting for him to show up. How many real-life women would stay with a real-life man if, for instance, every so often he walked out the door and she never knew when he'd come back-in ten minutes, ten months or ten years? I'm supposed to believe her love was so strong that she accepted this and spent her life waiting for the moment when he'd reappear? Huh.
 
Ms Shelf,
If you thought it had some of the characteristics of a fairy tale you might, you think?
Peder
 
Hmm. I didn't even try to think of it that way. But it wouldn't change my mind in the end. Henry was unlikeable and Clare is still a doormat. :D
 
Ms Shelf,
Um, yes, and yes. No particular arguments there. I was curious why, with two characters like that, there was so mild a reaction in this thread compared to Shade's and let's say yours. Or maybe the reaction wasn't so mild and I am simpy projecting my own mild personal reaction beyond proper limts.

Maybe I'll count the vote,
and find out I'm wrong.
Wouldn't be the first time :)
Peder
 
I loved this book I thought it was so inspired. I have never read a time travel book before and probably never will again but this one hit the spot for me. A few of my friends didnt like it they just couldn't get into it. I found once I got into who was where I loved it and cried buckets at the end, I'm such a sap :rolleyes:
 
westylass said:
I'm such a sap :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh Westy,
Please don't say that, or even think it. In my book, empathy is a fine emotion to have, and the fact that the author carried you (and me) along to such an extent speaks well of her abilities. Even if we are having trouble here putting our finger on exactly what those abilities are. :rolleyes:
Peder
 
Peder said:
Ms Shelf,
Um, yes, and yes. No particular arguments there. I was curious why, with two characters like that, there was so mild a reaction in this thread compared to Shade's and let's say yours. Or maybe the reaction wasn't so mild and I am simpy projecting my own mild personal reaction beyond proper limts.

Maybe I'll count the vote,
and find out I'm wrong.
Wouldn't be the first time :)
Peder
Click to expand...


Maybe there was a mild reaction because the book doesn't polarize readers the way some books do-"either you love ir or you hate it"? It's relatively inoffensive, and perhaps because the characters behave in human ways that people can identify with. I don't hate the book, I just don't see it as a love story the way I interpret love to be.
 
Miss Shelf said:
I just don't see it as a love story the way I interpret love to be.
Click to expand...

Ms Shelf,
Interesting point that I hadn't thought of. It may be yet another example of the way the author has given the story a one-step remove from exact or at least believable reality. Shade has already observed that the characters of Clare and Henry have the same voice and one often can't tell who is narrating. I would say that was another step in that same drection of the characters being not quite real, whether the author intended it or not. Maybe she can't write convincing characters. I'm not sure how to describe that unreal aspect of the book. I have used the term fairy-tale-like, but the book certainly isn't a fairy tale either. So I don't know what the word is for that strange quality that this book has. Of course one might simply say 'badly written,' :eek: but I am not quite ready to yield the point so easily. :D

Or maybe this is simply a missed attempt at something that could have been better. :confused:

Peder
 
Well, I really liked it. It's a very quick read, though I will admit that after I found out
Henry dies when Alba's five
I did kind of feel a bit of "get on with it". But I thought the idea of unique and the love story quite beautiful. also
liked the way they handled Clare's miscarriages
 
Peder said:
Oh Westy,
Please don't say that, or even think it. In my book, empathy is a fine emotion to have, and the fact that the author carried you (and me) along to such an extent speaks well of her abilities. Even if we are having trouble here putting our finger on exactly what those abilities are. :rolleyes:
Peder
Click to expand...


Thanks Pedar. I thought for her first book (at least I'm pretty sure it is) it was fantastic.
 
The Time Traveler's Wife

Sorry if there has already been some post about this book - I did have a look but couldn't seem to find anything.

I am over half way through this book and I think it is lovely. It is quite unlike anything I have read before - and while at first the jumpy narrative was a bit confusing (it is helpful to have the chapter headings - well actually I think it would be impossible without them) I have got used to it now and I am just enjoying the story, seeing where all the ends tie up etc.

I was just wondering if anyone else has read this book and what they thought of it - without giving the ending away!
 
chop_chop said:
Sorry if there has already been some post about this book - I did have a look but couldn't seem to find anything.

I am over half way through this book and I think it is lovely. It is quite unlike anything I have read before - and while at first the jumpy narrative was a bit confusing (it is helpful to have the chapter headings - well actually I think it would be impossible without them) I have got used to it now and I am just enjoying the story, seeing where all the ends tie up etc.


I was just wondering if anyone else has read this book and what they thought of it - without giving the ending away!
Click to expand...

I loved it... :)

Did you know there is a reading guide out for this book now?
'The Time Traveler's Wife' (Reading Guide Edition)
Audrey Niffenegger ...Paperback - September 1st 2005
Link below!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...5308/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_11_5/202-5101158-7831837

She also has another book out! (Don't know what its like though)

'The Three Incestuous Sisters ' ~Audrey Niffenegger

Jonathan Cape
Hardcover - September 1st 2005
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...5308/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_11_2/202-5101158-7831837
 
I loved it too, I read it in a day, and was completely immersed in it. It stayed with me for a few days afterward. It took me longer to read the last 150 pages than the rest of the book because I didn't want it to end. Though, I felt cheated because
i wanted Henry to give his wife permission to move on after his death. I found like she lost the rest of her life, waiting for him to come back
 
Erica said:
I loved it... :)

Did you know there is a reading guide out for this book now?
'The Time Traveler's Wife' (Reading Guide Edition)
Audrey Niffenegger ...Paperback - September 1st 2005
Link below!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...5308/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_11_5/202-5101158-7831837

She also has another book out! (Don't know what its like though)

'The Three Incestuous Sisters ' ~Audrey Niffenegger

Jonathan Cape
Hardcover - September 1st 2005
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...5308/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_11_2/202-5101158-7831837
Click to expand...

Her new book sounds very interesting - I will see if I can get a copy from the library to have a look at.

I will post another message when I have finished the book - then I can have a proper talk about it with those of you who missed the first thread. I don't know why I couldn'd find it though - not looking in the right places perhaps.
:eek:
 
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