Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Time Traveler's Wife

I have decided as part of my blogging experience that I am going review books and movies. Which will happen probably every six months - ha, ha!! Anyway, I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife. The first book I have read in a long time that was "just for fun."

As I mentioned in a previous post, it wasn't a book I would have normally bought. Mostly because it is a modern day love story and I am not a big romance reader. But, this was different. The time traveling gave it a twist that made it very intriguing. And it really wasn't sappy.

The book is about a husband and a wife. The husband is a time traveler and actually meets his future wife when she is just six years old (and he is in his early 40s). The book flips back and forth and forward through out both of their lives and intricately entwines their existences. The author takes turns telling the story from both the wife, Clare, and the husband, Henry's perspectives. And sometimes they would each tell of the same event but from their own unique view point.

The chapters would begin like: Wednesday, July 12, 1995 (Clare is 24, Henry is 32), CLARE: and then Clare tells her story. Then the next section might read Sunday, September 11, 1988 (Henry is 36, Clare is 17) HENRY: and then Henry tells his story. I thought it was really a creative way of telling their whole life story. And it really was about the only way I could keep straight where Henry was in time and what age he and Clare were.

The book essentially deals with how and why Clare spent most of her life "waiting" for Henry. And how Henry dealt with traveling through time and how it affected their undying love for one another. Not to mention married life and just life in general. How reliving your past, repeatedly, or knowing future events can really take a toll on your present life choices.

I guess the time traveling is a little far fetched, the author explains it a little bit and you kind of just have to accept it. But it works. It is kind of believable. The only other little draw back that I felt was unnecessary was the use of the "f" word and "c" word. I don't think I would necessarily note my objection to these words except I honestly felt they were not necessary in this story. They were just kind of thrown in their gratuitously, like the author felt she needed to use them to be relevant or connect with the 20 something set. Those particular words just seemed out of character for both Clare and Henry.

The story is sad and really couldn't have ended any other way. It was a little anticlimactic, though, because of all the time traveling turmoil through out the book. I would recommend it to any one who just wanted something to read to pass the time. Light reading, purely for enjoyment.

It was kind of fun for a little change of pace . . .

1 comment:

Ann said...

I don't do it justice. It really is worth reading.