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Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife


Kell

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I thought that this was an extraordinary book. I loved the way that you are effortlessly drawn into a premise that is pretty unbelievable if you thought about it in any depth. There seemed to be very few places where there were loose ends that needed tidying up which can often be annoying when an author hasn't thought things through completely.

 

I loved the fact that this book was all about relationships and that the time traveling aspect is used as a tool to emphasise particular points of the relationships.

I loved the scene where he realises that the stranger who mentored him when he was younger was in fact himself and the way that she portrays the utter loneliness that he feels

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If nothing else it is the first (only) book that I actually got teary at by the end. I think it is a combination of loving the characters and the way that the ending is inevitable but even so you can't bear it when it happens.

Indeed I suppose that death is inevitable for us all but just like in the book we don't want to believe that it is going to happen

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Yeah, I just loved this book. It is one of my favourite for the year no doubt. As other posters have mentioned I just loved the characters and really enjoyed the dynamics the author created in the relationship.

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  • 2 months later...

Resurrecting an old thread, just to add my two cents after finally reading this novel.

 

There are only five books that have given me chills, were absolutely compelling from beginning to end and made a forever lasting impression on me - The Time Traveler's Wife is one of those books. This book made me laugh, made me feel nauseous, made me sad, made me cry, made me fall in love with the characters, the author's idea... I even became frustrated, because I didn't have as much time to read it as I would have liked. I've read some complaints about the ending, but I was satisfied with how it ended.

I felt that after everything Henry goes through, things just couldn't turn out differently. I would have hated a tidy, happily ever after ending. He was a tragic character from the very beginning.

The thing I loved most about this novel is that it's a love story with a twist. :)

Edited by Scarlette
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Scarlette -

Glad to hear you loved the book! :) It's a wonderful thing to have a book speak to you like this one did for you.

You said there were 5 that made quite an impression on you.. What were the others besides this one? :D

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Scarlette -

Glad to hear you loved the book! :D It's a wonderful thing to have a book speak to you like this one did for you.

You said there were 5 that made quite an impression on you.. What were the others besides this one? :)

 

Well, first I must say that I've read a lot of brilliant, memorable books, but these five are of the gave-me-chills variety:

Violin (Anne Rice)

The Book Thief

Falling (Olivia Liberty)

The Historian

And, of course, The Time Traveler's Wife.

(A few author's names left out, because I'm pretty sure everyone knows them by now, and also, they all have very difficult surnames :))

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I read The Book Thief, The Historian and The Time Traveller's Wife this year, and loved all three. Great books, indeed.

 

Absolutely right, Roxi. All three of these emotionally charged me, became a part of me. I love it when books do that. The Time Traveller's Wife got me a bit weepy, as did The Book Thief and...well...what can I say about The Historian? Wonderful, absorbing and blooming creepy! Magical. :she:

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Aha! So these are the books that spawned the visitor message? :she:

Quite so, my friend. You should browse my bookshelves - I ought to figure out a way of presenting a virtual tour...:lol:

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Quite so, my friend. You should browse my bookshelves - I ought to figure out a way of presenting a virtual tour...:she:

 

Take large photos and send them to me!! You have a large book collection?

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Well, I didn't cry at all. But then, I wasn't interested in the romance aspect, I was interested in the Philosophy. If you cry at romancey things or sad things, then yes, tissues might be good. Otherwise you should be okay.

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My copy arrived yesterday, I read it a few years ago but I misplaced my copy (I gave it to someone and never got it back). :she:

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  • 2 months later...

I finished this today, and loved it.

 

I'm not that teary a reader (or viewer), but this absolutely cracked me in places. The vein of sadness that threaded it's way through the book burrowed deep into me. I felt so much for them, but especially for Clare.

 

There was something about the way she was drawn her that made me really feel connected to her. She had an honesty that was painful to read at times,

and in those final pages I felt the weight of her years without him.

 

 

It is an unusual book that should be too tricky to properly get into, what with the years and ages changing as they do, yet I only needed to check the beginning of the passage I was reading to know where we were in the text.

 

It is a tapestry that is given to the reader a few threads at a time, but is so well interwoven to leave a sense of completion at the end.

You don't completely understand know why Henry has to die, but you accept that he does (have to).You have no real idea what Clare has done in the years between his death and his arrival in her old age, yet you know she has waited for him.

 

 

I will come back to this book at some stage as I think it deserves to be read again.

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