The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is a wonderful story told by Henry, who suffers from Chrono-displacement, and his wife, Clare. Niffenegger examines what would happen if you could travel back and forth in time, revisiting parts of your life, and visiting yourself, through the years surrounding your existence. The humor and danger inherent in these trips leads the main character, Henry, to question the flow of time and the way life progresses.
This book is good for one main reason: characters. These are people that you understand from the first page, chracters that suck you in and linger in your mind. Clare and Henry tell the story, of their lives, of each other, and of themselves in a way that makes them tangible. You feel their triumphs and pain. It is compelling because it is heart rendering in the way that only real life can be. The reader knows that there has to be some tragic ending, some mountains are too high to pass, in the story of Henry and Clare. Niffenegger gives clues throughout the narrative of what the mountain will be, but the appearance of the obstacle still wrenched my heart.
I was reading this book during one of my evening desk shifts, but I had to put it down eventually because no one will ask you questions if you are sobbing over a book.
This book has been highly recommended by many and now I know why. Definitely a good read.
–Jane, loves a good book