Review: Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, published by MacAdam/Cage in 2003.








I stumbled across this book in a very round about way (thanks to my friend Julia!) - which was lucky since the publisher's review, whilst enthusiastic in its praise, probably would not have tempted me. We reviewed the book at bookclub on 10 September 2007. Here's the quote:

" A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry deTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant" Hmmm.

What can you say about a book that's more than a love story, that dabbles in science fiction and time travel without becoming too fantastic, that celebrates and explores relationships without becoming sentimental, that makes you feel you could know these people and go to the places they go to? (which, in fact one could, as the geography of the novel is very real and embraces Chicago like an old friend).

Without going into the details of the plot too much, The Time Traveler's Wife chronicles the extraordinary relationship of Henry and Clare over their lives, starting from when Clare is six and Henry is 36 through to Clare's old age. From the beginning the reader is drawn into their lives and their future lives. The dual narrative voices of Henry and Clare allow the reader to be privy to parts of Clare's life (by virtue of Henry's time travel) that Clare has not reached yet. There's an intimacy is knowing what Clare doesn't know and an expectant thrill in looking forward to getting to where Henry is. It's not always a comfortable journey. Like (real) life, it's punctuated by the unexpected, the bad, the sad and the glorious, but it still retains a fairy tale quality - which incidentally, was part of the attraction for me!

The Time Traveller's Wife was Audrey Niffenegger's first novel. It took about four and a half years from conception to finished manuscript and was rejected by about 20 publishers before being accepted by MacAdam Page (which paid out, incidentally, the largest advance they've ever given for a first novel). As Ms Niffenegger says, she "didn't have to worry too much about how long it ... nobody cares if you're done ... you don't really have anyone to impress yet"

It's an accessible, fantastic read, a carefully crafted book with much to recommend it, even if you're not a fan of romantic or science fiction - which I'm not. Look beyond the "labels" and just jump in. You won't be disappointed. We weren't.

Incidentally, the book is being made into a film scheduled for release next year - it will be interesting to see how it stands up to the test! Here's the link: http://http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452694/