Proud Book Nerd: Time Traveler's Wife

This is hosted by Lori over on Escape Between the Pages, and looked like fun. While I don't see myself doing this every week, I do think that – given that I finished a recent movie-inspiring book – this is the perfect timing for me to do this! Every week she shares a book and posts the trailer from the movie. So, here I go! (Book description is from Goodreads.com.)

Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry finds himself periodically displaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler’s Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other, as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals – steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

When I saw the trailer, I knew I had to see the movie. I was disappointed in the movie, though. I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think it was as good as the trailer promised. I hadn't yet read the book. As you know (unless you're new here), I just finished this book YESTERDAY. It was PHENOMENAL! You can read my review if you want. I think I want to see the movie again, now that I have the "full" story!

***SPOILER ALERT***DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS!***

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. This book blew me away! I saw the movie when it came out, and thought it was OK. I didn't feel like I had to read the book anytime in the near future. Part of me is glad I'd waited – it had been long enough that I didn't remember a lot of detail from the movie. Part of me is sorry I waited – I'm trying to remember how the movie compares. I guess I'll have to add it to the Netflix queue!

This was an amazing book. Absolutely AMAZING. I have lots and lots of thoughts that are hard to pull together in coherent prose.

Why I liked this better than the movie: I could empathize with BOTH characters. I LOVED Henry's character in the book. LOVED him. He was smart, witty, funny, kind ... and reading things from his perspective really got me to LOVE this character. I wanted to know him, meet him, get to talk with him. I felt his pain, his torture, his happiness. I felt his despair toward the end.

I didn't like Clare very much toward the beginning. I hated how she compared the younger Henry to the Henry she knew from her childhood. I felt that poor Henry wasn't getting a very fair deal. I hated when the future Henry would be there and she'd call that one my Henry – as though the real Henry wasn't OK. Or something. I hated that. It made me feel bad for Henry.

Having seen the movie, I knew roughly how the book would end – that Henry was going to die. I think that is why I took so long to read it. I VERY MUCH enjoyed this book, but I wasn't ready to get to the so sad, depressing, make-me-cry-while-reading last few chapters of the book. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry.

This is one of those books I will be thinking about a LOT for a few days. A LOT. The story, so intricate and detailed. The characters, so human and flawed and real. The paradigm that is time travel ...

There are some parts that really got me thinking. And my brain hurts because I get stuck in a loop. A chicken-or-egg loop – you know, which came first ... did certain things happen because of his time travels, or would they have happened anyway? (Of course, now that I'm writing, the specific examples I had are gone from my mind.) Did certain things happen because of something his future self said or did when visiting the past? Would it still have played out that way had he not told anyone from the past anything? I don't know. And thinking about it makes my brain hurt!

I HIGHLY recommend this book. HIGHLY. It exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds!

Get your own copy HERE.

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