Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveller's Wife

[Michelle]

This is our Reading Circle book for the next couple of months. :reading:

Let the discussion begin... :typing:

[Kell]

I'm about 150 pages in & I'm surprised that it's not nearly so confusing as I thought it would be with all the jumping back & forwards. I'm rather enjoying it so far!

[Maureen]

...I just read the review about this book......sounds a bit strange!

[Kell]

It does sound strange, but it makes an odd kind of sense while you'[re reading it.

[Michelle]

I actually started this a while back, read about 100 pages, and just wasn't really being 'grabbed' by it. It got put aside as I got into other things.

I picked it back up on Sunday, and I have to say, suddenly it's working for me. Maybe I hit a good point, maybe my frame of mind is different.

The bit that my brain had trouble with was that he changes his age aswell. I expected him to be a set age, no matter where he jumped to.. I didn't think about him jumping throughout his life. :roll:

So, you have a 36 year old man jumping into his past.. he meets Clare when she's 6. However, when he's 28, he may jump to a part of his past where Clare is 20. It sounds odd, doesn't it?!

However, it's starting to flow together now, and make sense. :D

The actual writing style is really nice, it's 'grown up', but easy to read... if that makes any sense!? lol

[Maureen]

emmmmmmm.....

curiouser and curiouser :) :reading:

[Kell]

I'm particularly enjoying the writing style - when she's 6, you can really believe you're listening to the thoughts of a young kid & you see how it all changes as she grows up.

[Kell]

I reckon I'll get this finished tonight - it's intriguing the way the plot unfolds. Im' wishing I could have stayed home from work to read it! How's everyone else getting on with it?

[Kell]

Well, I finished it tonight & I've popped a review into the appropriate forum. I've tried (&, I think, succeeded) not to give away any of the plot & spoil it for anyone. Can't wait for folks to finish so we can discuss it!

[Michelle]

I'm getting there...

The bit I find strange is when he pops into his own past / future, and meets himself.. that must be the weirdest thing to deal with!!

Yes, it is enjoyable.. I'm caught up in the general story, as well as the time travel issue.

Anyone else reading along with us?

[Freewheeling Andy]

Hmm. I'm only 30 pages in (been busy the last few days), but I'm already getting deeply frustrated with the usual time-travel paradoxes. It'll be interesting to see if the book tries to resolve them. I'll say nothing more for the time being, and I guess I don't want anyone to tell me. It's just a broad comment at the moment.

[Kell]

There are a lot of paradoxes, but I found myself not minding so much once I got into the story (usually I pick things like that apart). I found that once I was submerged, the paradoxes didn't matter so much to me. I hope you'll get into it soon...

[Michelle]

Yep, I agree.. I'm not thinking too much about the details, just really enjoying the story. However, do you think it's more of a 'girly' story?

I've just realised how hard this discussion is with people at different points. Do we need a 'spoiler' thread, to discuss the finer points without spoiling it for others.. or will that stop the flow?!

[Kell]

I think that at certain points there's a more "girlie" feel, but then at others it's much more masculine. Strangely, I found the "Clare" sections to be the harder, more masculine parts (just some of the language she uses for a start!) & Henry's to be a lot softer & feminine.

[Freewheeling Andy]

I've not got much further in, thanks to too much alcohol abuse and too many hangovers, but I've a real problem with the implied Calvinism of the whole thing so far - Henry knows what he's going to do, anyway, so why couldn't he just sit around and wait for it to happen, rather than participate in the doing? Wouldn't you experiment to see if you could break your own past, and see what happened?

[Michelle]

I'm sure part of his frustration is that he can't change anything.

I've just finished it, and I just let the time travel part fleo over me.. it was just a fantastic story!

[Kell]

I'd certainly be tempted to try changing the past, Andy, but I think I'd be too afraid to actually do it in case I changed my own present too much into something I didn't want & then I'd be doomed to forever return to the past & change things to make a better future (a la Butterfly Effect).

I think part of the frustration was that Henry wanted to try changing the occasional thing but didn't want to risk losing everything that was good in his life. Also, there was the implied notion that there is no way he could change things no matter how hard he tried as it's all already happened anyway.

[Maureen]

Hearing you talking (or do I mean reading you talking?) I am reminded of back to the future. (starring MJ Fox Kell)

[Kell]

Well, it definitely has elements of it in there - the whole questions of the ethics involved in time travel & the resonsibilty of the person doing the travelling is kind of grasped at in the background. It kind of makes you think about it a lot. Like Andy said, there are holes in the theories, but it's still very enjoyable to read as the underlying love story, I thought, was beautifully written.

[Michelle]

Well I was sitting outside the school (in the car) waiting for Beth, and trying not to cry as I neared the end. It was very well written.

[Kell]

Yup, I'll admit to shedding a few tears while sitting in the cafeteria at work & trying to hide it so nobody would be tempted to ask me if I was alright.

Even thought the end had an inevitable feel to it, it didn't change the fact that I didn't want it to end that way.

[Maureen]

Ohhhhhhhh, must be one was old and dying and the other still a teenager then! :(

[Kell]

Nope. Not at all. *evil laugh*

You're going to have to read it & find out... I will not ruin the plot for you!

[Maureen]

I feel so sorry for them both...can't decide who has it the worse...Harry or Claire. :(

[Kell]

I think I felt more for Claire - all that waiting around she has to do. First she's waiting for her life with him to begin, then,, once she has him in the "here & now", he keeps disappearing & she never knows how long he'll be gone nor whre he is. The constant worrying must really take its toll. Then with the whole baby thing - I know it affects Henry too, but the phsyical danger she is put in must put terrible strain on the relationship.

[Freewheeling Andy]

Ah. I read the last third of this in the middle of the night. What a fantastic book. I think the more I think about it the happier I am with how well the book worked, how well it avoided the big paradoxes.

What really got me was the way that it made clear that for Henry at least the future and past were fixed and immutable, but that what was going to happen to him began to crystallise over the preceding years from his earlier visits. And the story crystallised that future, too, slowly. I'm still intrigued that he didn't ever try and change the past, though, just to see what would happen.

Although it was a love story, I didn't think it was particularly girly, really. It's clearly not a driven action book, but the characters weren't particularly girly (even Clare and Alba seem to be quite tomboyish).

There were some technical points, such as the lottery incident, where Henry seems to travel forwards when he chooses to, and clarify things about the past, even though in theory he really struggles when travelling forwards.

[Maureen]

Do Not read if you have not finished the book!!!


I am sad. Not the tears coursing down my face sadness that I had in the early hours of this morning when I finished this book, but another sadness - as if I have lost something dear to me...or have had a huge fight with someone I love. I must say that I wasted some time thinking why Harry did not change the end....he could have!!! He should have gone back and warned Claire to hide the guns or something! He should have as well! It's so sad. (Unbelievable how one ficticious death can have this effect on me, when usually I read books where I am knee deep in bodies by the end of the first chapter - and am eagerly waiting for more.) I am also sad cause I know that even if the author writes six other books which are very good - not one of them will be as good as this one - (rather like Dan Brown trying to top "The Da Vinci Code"). And I have finished this one. And I am still thinking about it. Have also been thinking about it on my way to work. It is one heck of a story! ................................And I am still not sure who I feel sorry more for - Harry or Clare. :cry:

[Freewheeling Andy]

Ditto, do not read, etc...

But, Mau, if he had told Clare to hide the guns one of two things would have happened - either Henry's past and future are (and were) always immutable, because that's the nature of his time travel, and there was never anything he could do. His future was always going to happen.

But worse, if he messed with the past he could ruin his present, he could change everything, and it might mean that he never met Clare, and never had Alba, and was that a risk worth taking?

One aspect that interested me was the way the Henry led up to the end of the story in the manner of the terminally ill. I saw parallels (which were obvious) of people with terminal cancers, trying to tie up all the loose ends.

I did wonder, in particular, though, whether he was inordinately mean telling Clare that they'd meet again in the distant future. Because that might be the thing that puts her life on hold, that leaves her waiting for him rather than going off and doing other stuff of her own.

[Kell]

ANOTHER DO NOT READ BIT

I did wonder, in particular, though, whether he was inordinately mean telling Clare that they'd meet again in the distant future. Because that might be the thing that puts her life on hold, that leaves her waiting for him rather than going off and doing other stuff of her own.
I was rather upset at him for that too - it meant that Clare could never fully move on, because she knew that a) she would see him very briefly with their daughter when the little 'un was about 10, & that she would see him again as an old woman. That made me sad, that he wouldn't think about that & want to see her happy with someone else after he was gone. Almost like he WANTED her to wait for him on some level.

[Maureen]

The thing is...Clare always knew that he could "visit" her in the future. What he did is he told her that he will come to her only once...when she is old....you could say that he told her to get on with her life because he will only see her when she is old....although perhaps not in so many words...(Why just once when he could visit Alba?)


either Henry's past and future are (and were) always immutable, ..yes Andy I know...and I think that is the cruellest thing of all.

Also he seemed to be getting seriously ill towards the end.....but the story did not explore that .....perhaps his "abrupt" death spared him a long painful illness..........it was already bad that he ended in a wheel chair....it is really sad!

[Michelle]

It seems like we all enjoyed this one then. :D

I was disappointed over the lottery win - everything else had to go along as it should, even his death. The lottery bit seemed like really cheating, it was an easy way for the author to get them some money.

Back to more important matters though.. I also thought that Clare would always be waiting for that last meet.

With regards to his death, maybe he knew deep down it would be for the best. He needed to run, and that was taken from him when he lost his feet. It also made time travel extremely difficult.. image the situations he could find himself in.

The part where he witnessed Ingrids suicide was also so well written.

I also agree with Maureen.. the author is going to have a hard time following this one up.

[Maureen]

but the phsyical danger she is put in must put terrible strain on the relationship. Harry has to put up with physical danger all his life though....with all the popping here and there......

[Kell]

True, but that's something neither one of themcan help - it's Henry's irresponsibility that, in the end, gives her the child she so desperately wants, even though it could have killed her.

[Maureen]

I would not call it irresponsible.....after all he did not do it just for the heck of it....and she wanted a child much more than he did.....

[Freewheeling Andy]

I was chatting to a mate about this, and he pointed out something rather interesting. The book, though it is written in this nice romantic fiction kind of way is, at the very least, very ambiguous about the effects of love. With someone staying in a loveless marriage in the hope of getting back with the woman he loved; with that woman apparently living a spinsters life for years to arrive in an unworkable relationship, and then apparently waiting another 50 years to see that person one more time. And another who commits suicide after a single, short, failed relationship. And another man who's lived loveless and decaying for 40 years after his wife died young.

It's actually a pretty damned dark book, when you look at it.

[Kell]

Crikey, you're right, Andy - it's pretty bleak when you look at it like that!

[Maureen]

Well, love in real life is not easy to find, nor does it come with a g/tee that it lasts forever, or can be replaced or retargeted at someone else......but it is the greatest thing on earth when it happens. It can also be the most heartbreaking feeling on earth if it is not reciprocated.
Just like in TTW.

[Freewheeling Andy]

The more I think about this, the more satifying the end becomes. If the book is a book about love, but about love being awkward, and fickle, and mucking people around for their entire lives, then the previously unsatisfying ending, although still not "happy" in the way an ideal world would produce, is much more in keeping with the whole timbre of the book.

[Kell]

i agree - it's defniitely more about the harsh realities of relationships, getting to grips with being with someone who you can know so well & yet still have them be a stranger, keeping secrets from one another, working out your problems & trying to just keep it all together - if that's not a real relationship, i don't know what is. Niffenegger certainly writes it well. I think it's a contemporary classic that will most certainly stand the test of time & have people talking about it many years from now. It's made of the kind of stuff that endures.

[sparkymarky]

i found this book very sad at end but highly enjoyable and unputdownable.loved the way towards the end there were hints that others were beginning to show symptoms of time displacement as well-reminded me a little of a book called retro lives by lee rimes but that was more to do with a form of alzheimers that occured every ten years or so in peoples lives and caused the males in the family to mentally switch back to periods of past even though were physically still in present.
this meant that they couldn't understand who people were in their on family because they didn't believe they could be as old as they were when they still remembered them as being the same age.an old book but if you see it second hand would reccomend picking it up.read it several years back....anyway back to TTW-yeah this book was a literary classic i thought.very good stuff

[Maureen]

I have yet to hear someone say they did not like this book.

[maclsj]

I finished reading this book and Kell suggested I post my comments on this topic :) Seems a while since anyone did but nevermind.

It was a good book, well written, tugged at the heart strings. It has to be a good book if by the end of it I was willing things not to happen and shedding a few tears (don't want to give too much away).

I think it's a good book on the imperfections of relationships. Nothing is perfect, least of all love. Niffenegger manages to illustrate this in numerous ways and shows that even the best relationships have their crosses to bare. For Clare and Henry this is coping with the unpredictability of his condition and Clare's desperation for a child which Henry does not necessarily share 100%. Each of them is able to reach some level of understanding about the other to cope though. Clare accepts to an extent Henry's condition and lives with it, while Henry is able to see what it means to Clare to have a child (and ultimately helps her to do so).

Any book that involves moving backwards and forwards in time and space at random is going to have a difficult job keeping their audience from total confusion. This has to be one of the best efforts I've read though. Yes, there is always a small element of confusion, but I feel it adds something to the book. It echoes the confusion of the characters at various points (e.g. Henry when he *first* meets Clare when he's 28, Clare's confusion over various points in her youth about Henry, various members of Clare's family feeling like they've seen Henry before, Gomez's confusion over seeing Clare and Henry together when he's supposedly dating someone else etc etc). Yet for the most part you could still follow the storyline.


It is a very cleverly crafted book, with characters with depth and enough imperfections to keep them interesting. Even Alba sounds slightly pretentious. It's what keeps the story real. No angels and no devils.

I would definitely recommend this to others, though not if you are in a particularly emotional place.

[pat-catherine]

Sorry but I must the one that was glad to finish the book. It was ok but would not recommend it. I was very happy to finish it

[Janet]

Sorry but I must the one that was glad to finish the book. It was ok but would not recommend it. I was very happy to finish it
Well, I think you're very definitely in the minority as most people seem to have loved it, but it's good to have varied opinions. :)

[~V~]

Well, I think you're very definitely in the minority as most people seem to have loved it, but it's good to have varied opinions. :)

Everybody who I know who has got into it has loved it and rates it up there with other favourites

However, I've never known a book that so many people just can't get into. Neither my parents nor my boss could get past the first few pages, unusual with all of them

So maybe it's another that polarises opinion, as so many great works are?

[wrathofkublakhan]

Sigh -- what a good book this was, I just did not want it to end!

[~V~]

Sigh -- what a good book this was, I just did not want it to end!

I was the same when I read it. I was on holiday at the time and lay in the sun devouring most of the book in two days. the last three chapters I dragged out over a whole day as I couldn't bear it to finish

[Maureen]

When I finished this, I thought that it would be a heck of a job trying to best it. (She hasn't tried yet, though!)

[Paul]

I like happy endings, especially sentimental ones, so this book is high on my happy list.

[LittleLijah]

I thought this book was great as long as you didn't think too much about the time travelling, that confused things for me (not that it takes a lot)!

[Karen]

I finished this book earlier today. I'm still trying to work out exactly how I feel about it. On the one hand I thought it was beautifully written and a great story but another part of me was a little confused at times trying to keep up with what was present day and what was the past. I found it a fairly easy read, and I did enjoy it but I wouldn't say it gripped me as such.

[Galactic Space Hamster]

I finished this yesterday and overall I liked it. I didn't set my world on fire nor would I say it's the best novel I ever read, but I liked it. The end had me almost in tears which meant that the characters had meaning for me; I think this is really important for any novel. The story was well constructed and nicely ( if a little simply ) written. I thought the novel got better and better as it went on. My first reaction on reading it was "it's ok" and then about half way through I thought "this is good" and then by the end I was thinking "this is really good" Would I recommend it, yup, but have the tissues ready at the end unless your nick name happens to be 'ol stoney heart!

[papillon]

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, in places the prose was good, funny and clever, the characters were strong and so believable that they immediately pulled you into the story. The choreography of Henry’s journeys was done with such ease that you were able to sympathize and accept the joys and traumas of time travel, more or less as Henry, a genetic defect that needed to be cured. The references to poetry and art were also a bonus. So far, so good.

Spoiler..
Then, a little over half way I began thinking "oh that as well...".. Think about them. The lawyer wasn't only a lawyer but a lawyer for abused children, then Ben with aids, Ingrid’s suicide, his father a great violinist becomes an alcoholic on and on and then six miscarriages. Although I appreciate that the birth of the doctor’s son had to be extraordinary as were the miscarriages, and, some would say life’s like that, but there was just too much of it, too much heartache and that, for me, turned what could have been an excellent book into just “a very sad one”.

Sorry if I sound heartless, I did shed tears.

[piccolina]

I agree, it ended on a happy note, however I sobbed for the last 50 pages.

One can only hope to experience the true, forgiving, unwaivering love that Nora has for Henry.