Kell Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 Author: Audrey Niffenegger ISBN # 0099464462 Publisher: Vintage 1st Published: 2003 Clare met Henry when she was 6 & Henry was 36. They were married when Clare was 22 & Henry was 30. In essence, the pair met before they met Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maureen Posted November 21, 2005 Share Posted November 21, 2005 The cover of this book, intrigued my other half enough for him to ask me what this book is about! Him that couldn't care less about books! Him that does not even read the instructions on a packet of soup! :upsidedown: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maureen Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Have to add that this was a fantastically good read in my opinion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inanna Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 This one is on its way to me now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maureen Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 This one is on its way to me now You're in for a good time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inanna Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Thats good to hear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sassenach Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 It's one of my all time favourite books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crystall_child Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 I really loved this book and thought it was exceptionally well written as it would have been so easy to lose the plot with such a complicated and fragmented use of time, but it always remained completely believable. Only nearly in tears Kell? You did better than me then! :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted July 14, 2006 Author Share Posted July 14, 2006 OK, maybe a stray tear escaped... LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inver Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 I loved it once I got past trying to keep track of how old he was etc. The story kept me interested and page turning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louiseog Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 It's one of my all time favourite books. and me, loved it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 I've just started reading this (about a third of the way through) and really enjoying it. Before joining the forum i'll admit that i wouldn't even have given this book a second glance, but now my horizons are broadening i am so glad i decided to give it a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maureen Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 madcow, you won't be sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcow Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 thanks Maureen, i'm not so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I read this whilst on holiday last August - lying on a sunlounger by a pool, with all-inclusive beer to wash it down with. A perfect book for a perfect time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 More threadomancy from me. What? Well you all shouldn't read so many books and set up a site in their honour, shouldn't you? *ahem* I may have a reputation as an acid-tongued, cold-hearted beeatch, so to go some way towards disproving that, I had to do a search for this book and say just one thing: It has the best closing line of any book I've ever read. Bar none. Yes, even Gone With the Wind which is my favourite book (I think my best-loved would have been Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True but for the Hollywood ending). That's how much I love it. God knows how Niffenegger kept all those timelines straight in her own mind; they would have given me a migraine or five but after reading TTTW, I had that rare feeling of, "Damn. I wish I'd written that," which has only happened a handful of times since I learned to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I don't have a problem at all with old threads being brought to life again. In fact, it's much better than starting a new one.. which means that we have to merge them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 It's not on my chunky challenge list (I love saying chunky challenge chunky challenge chunky challenge...) but I may read it again soon just to remind myself of how much I love it. I'm kinda sorta not looking forward to the film as they're never as good as the books, but then again, Eric Bana's playing Henry, and you know me and my 'thing' for Aussies... I think I'll wait for a re-read until I have my migraine medication drawer restocked. Trying to figure it out makes my head spin. But even through all that I know I love the book. I must have a thing for time travel books because I adore Diana Gabaldon's novels as well - I've read books 1-5 in the Jamie and Claire series, some more than once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted March 20, 2008 Author Share Posted March 20, 2008 God knows how Niffenegger kept all those timelines straight in her own mind; they would have given me a migraine or five but after reading TTTW, I had that rare feeling of, "Damn. I wish I'd written that," which has only happened a handful of times since I learned to read. I think I remember reading an interview somewhere that said she'd kept two separate timelines - one for Claire and one for Henry - then checked back to see who knew what at each age. It must have been SO complicated to keep on top of all that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary_Digit Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 (edited) I just finished this book, and my soul is still a little bit raw. I'm left feeling emptied out, like a cracked and brown leaf in late autumn, begging to be crumbled into dust so that I can just blow away. This book began with so much promise. The interweaving time lines were rich with possibilities. I loved how neither Henry nor Clare chose their fate, and it was undeniably fate. When Henry first meets Clare he is 28. He does not have a clue who she is. When Clare first meets Henry she is 6. She does not have a clue who he is. This paradox leaves only one possible conclusion: destiny has placed these two together. This fact, and the delicious discussions about predestination and free will were very satisfying to me. If anything, this only made the second half of the book more disappointing for me. The seeming meaninglessness of Henry's death, Clare bent over a breakfast table with a grunting and balding Gomez behind her, 42 year old Henry with an elderly Clare. This last scene for me was more empty than poignant, a brief embrace without any greater depth than what you can take from that which came before it. As Henry's death became inevitable I hoped that Niffenegger would do something to at least make it meaningful. I pictured Henry sacrificing himself to save an infant Clare, or Henry murdered by Gomez, but Henry accidentally shot by a deer hunter? Never. In the end, a story driven by fate, for me, falls flat in the payoff. I picture myself in a hospital bed, my body ravaged by advanced age, or disease. My death is looming before me, and I am faced with the reality that my loved ones must go on without me. I will not see my son grow into a man. This book put me in that bed, and I saw through those eyes. For that reason, it is a great book. I only wish that I had put it down then, in that very moment, before Henry's ultimate demise. At that moment, I felt filled with Henry's love for those around him, and his sorrow at the inevitable fact that he must leave them behind. It was a powerful and poignant moment, but from that point on, everything began to slowly deflate. Alba remained a two-dimensional character. Clare began to lose her luster for me. In his ultimate moment, a footless amputee Henry will somehow manage to become a "flash of white, a tail perhaps?" Mark will raise his rifle, aim carefully, and somehow mistake a naked man for a deer before ending his life. Amputee Henry lies in a bed while his "soul mate" seems almost disinterested. The jacket of this book reads "A soaring celebration of the victory of love over time." Had I written the review it would have read, "A heart rending story about the inevitability of death and the sorrow of mourning." For me this book was not heart warming, not in the least. My heart feels cold and sad. To me, it read like an allegory for terminal disease. Forgive me if you feel I'm too harsh. I literally just set this book down, and it still stings. I'll try to come back and do better when the pain has dulled somewhat. Edited April 1, 2009 by Binary_Digit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 (edited) What a brilliant review, Binary Digit! I agree with your sentiments to a large extent, although I don't think I felt quite as strongly as you (which may or may not be a good thing). Edited April 1, 2009 by Kylie Giving credit to wrong member :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ii Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Interesting review, Binary_Digit. had I had a bit more coffee by now I'm sure I'd give a better reply, but... Life is.* I did read the book in a slightly different manner. I personally thought the story lost steam at mid-point, on which I'm sure we agree. But where you saw it becoming a heart-breaking story about imminent death, I just found it boring. I felt like up until then the story was going somewhere, and then it just started wrapping things up, trying to get to an ending of sorts. And on top of that, it was a cop out, an easy ending, not by far in par with the beginning and the setting of the book. About Henry's death. You said it was meaningless. But can't it be seen as the ultimate randomness? You called Henry and Claire meeting a "fate". I'd call it random. And in that light, the way Henry died, without any big declarations and big sacrifices (if you think of the actual dying, how his life ended, and not the whole gearing up to it), was the very fittingly completely random. There's a certain symmetry there that I find pleasing. That being said, I didn't like the ending. The first half of the book was good. * yes, frankie, that line. I love it, sue me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 What ii said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimmy619 Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I really liked this book and I am glad that it was recommended to me as I probably wouldn't have even picked it up if it wasn't! I quite often recomend this book to others, but I am always a bit stuck for what to say when people ask me what it is about as it is difficult to explain the travel element to someone who hasn't read it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlette Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I'm hearing good things about this novel. I think I will definitely buy and read it. I was a bit apprehensive at first, although it did catch my interest, but now I'm absolutely going to try it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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