science fiction

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger Book Review

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"The Time Traveler's Wife"
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Review Summary
The main character, Henry, has been a time traveler since he was 5 years old. He finds himself in the present and the past with only his naked body. When Henry is in his 30's he meets his future wife, Claire, a beautiful artist, who is only 6 years old at the time. They have frequent meetings, which she keeps from others, until Claire is a young adult.

After several years of not seeing one another, Claire & Henry meet in REAL time. Of course Claire knows all about Henry from their 15 years of meeting in HER past, yet Henry does not know her yet since he was over 30 when he traveled to her past!

They eventually get married, as Henry had told her when she was just a child. Unfortunatley it is a very difficult union due to his dangerous time traveling. She never knows when he may just disappear or in what condition he will return.

Theirs is a love story full of romance, sadness, loss, uncertainty, and happiness.

Linda Dilts, Resident Scholar

This is a romance between a man Henry and a woman Clare. They have a unique problem. Henry travels in time and back--mostly to times within his own lifespan. Clare lives sequentially. In present time (Clare's time) Henry is eight years older than Clare. butClare first meets Henry in 1977 in a meadow near her house when she is six years old and he is thirty-six. He visits her there a lot during her childhood. Because in his time traveling he is unable to take anything with him and will arrive naked, Clare keeps a box of clothes in the meadow, so he can dress on arrival. Henry tells Clare that that they will marry one day, He also says when she is 18 she won't see him for two years, and when she does it will be in the present.

One time Clare meets Henry in the library where he works. She is 20 and he is 28. Because Henry never saw Clare in the meadow until he was over 30, he doesn't recognize her. But a couple of years later they get married. A doctor tells Henry his time traveling is genetic, and that Clare keeps losing babies becaus of a rejection problem. This is solved by immune system threapy, and they have a daughter. Alba.

Of course, throughout his life Henry time travels to a lot of places besides the meadow. It's dangerous because he could show up anywhere, anywhen, naked. In one of his later trips (he is forty-two) he gets frostbite and loses both feet. Eventually, at forty-three, he is shot and arrives back in the present dead or dying. Alba is a time traveler too, and she can see her father occasionally, but Clare doesn't see him again until she is a very old woman (he is 43).

Shelagh Pratt Mooberry, Resident Scholar


Detailed literary breakdown of The Time Traveler's Wife
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%




Tone of book - sensitive (sigh....)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Time Travel: - into past and future equally
Romance Yes
Romance plotlets: - destined love (dream or prediction)
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Time Travel story? Yes
Family relations Yes
Story largely takes place in - 1980's-2000

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - librarian
Age: - 20's-30's
Has magical/special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character: - teleportation
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - very athletic - average physique

Main Adversary
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - explicit references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - descript of touching personal anatomy - licking - impregnation/reproduction - actual description of sex
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to The Time Traveler's Wife
The Life of the World to Come by Kage Baker
The Corridors of Time by Poul Anderson
Kaleidoscope Century by John Barnes
The Otherhood by Lytchcov Zammana
A Very Strange Trip by L. Ron Hubbard




Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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