The last time I experienced that same combination of awe, amusement, and melancholy was when I read Robert Silverberg's "Dying Inside." And that was a long, long time ago.
"The Time Traveler's Wife," by Audrey Niffenegger. Go read it. Don't let the book club recommendations scare you off.
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I read it while sitting in Chicago. I loved the way she captured the city. *needs to get the book back from her stepsister*
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I just finished it a couple weeks ago. I read the entire thing in a day and a half, on top of nearing finals week and everything. I thought it was fantastic... REALLY fantastic.
I highly recommend it, for anyone who hasn't read it!
I just gave it to... FORCED it upon my mom, and said "Read this. Right now." Hopefully she will.
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I picked it up after a friend recommended it and then spent the day in bed reading it instead of doing homework or any of the other fifty things I should have been doing. Definately worth a read.
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Ah, good. I have been looking at this book for a while, and I am glad to have a hatrack recommendation. I'll have to take my checkbook to the Bookstore tomorrow. Heh. I blame you! Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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For those who have no clue what I'm talking about, "The Time Traveler's Wife" is about a man, Henry, who becomes displaced through time at random intervals, and his wife Clare whom he meets during his travels. Henry pops out during times of stress (or because lights are flickering at him, or for no reason at all) and appears somewhere and somewhen else naked and with no idea when he'll be popped back. He becomes accomplished at breaking and entering, pickpocketing, and other skills that help naked guys on city streets survive.
When Clare is 6 she meets a strange man, naked and alone, in the woods by her family's meadow. He befriends her (after borrowing her towel), tells her stories, and lets her know the next time he'll be showing up so she can have clothes ready for him. And that's where it begins.
It's a love story, first and foremost. He doesn't have to save her from something, there's no scientific thriller ending or a race to cure him. It's simply their lives, told through both their viewpoints. It's told more or less linearly from her viewpoint, with some occasional forays on his part. Each section is prefaced with the date and the ages of Henry and Clare so you know which versions you're reading about:
Friday, June 5, 1987 (Clare is 16, Henry is 32)
and I never got confused about what was happening in which order.
You read about the problems inherent when two lovers aren't always in sync, when one knows the other's future and can't (or won't) disclose it. Sometimes she knows more than he, when she encounters a younger Henry. You read about the loneliness of waiting for your love to return fromm an unknown and dangerous journey. You read about passion and self-discipline and heartache. When I read Clare's description of her desire for a baby I suddenly realized it described my wife's own pre-pregnancy behavior perfectly so I read it to her. You read about the families of the two ain characters, how they interact, how they held together or broke apart.
It's a tear-jerker. It'll make you laugh. You'll enjoy the odd thoughts of a middle-aged man talking to a 10-year-old girl, knowing he'll marry her someday.
I'm actually reading it again now, curious to see how much of the early parts of the book hint at later events in ways I didn't know to look for the first time.
Some warnings: definitely adult situations. Some language, but not much and not often. Some sex scenes but no "throbbing" explicitness. Brief discussion of religion but no bashing (or encouraging, for that matter).
[ January 12, 2005, 10:44 PM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
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So, I'm a little slow on the up-take, but I just read this book this week. Absolutely amazing. I was bawling by the end. Skipped out on real life stuff to finish it.
If anyone else out there hasn't discovered this book yet, you want to rectify this immediately! :-)
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I was thinking about picking up this book, but I wasn't quite sure that it would be coherent or interesting...I think I'm going to go get it now.
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*smacks forehead* I had the chance to get that at a library booksale for .50 cents recently and I passed it up in favor of Dune.
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I loved it too! I thought it was an original time travel idea that I found so interesting. It's a fun, fast read.
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Wonderful book. One of my favorites. I can't say enough good things about it. It will break your heart.
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quote:Originally posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong: I tired of Henry quickly. There was something small about him.
That did not seem to bother Clare.
I just finished this novel. For the first fifty or so pages, I hated it. I finished it last night, very late, and got a massive headache from trying not to cry, knowing my eyes would be all swollen today, and that I would have...a headache.
I fell asleep clutching my forty-two year-old husband, and dreams and reality melded in strange ways.
I am still trying to figure out what I feel about this novel. I was definitely squicked by the older man/small girl business. It took me a bit of time to figure out the bits of time.
In the end, though, I absolutely adored this story. I agree with Irami that Henry might not be the most wonderful character, as far as intelligence, heroics, and whatever else he feels should make a character worth reading(I read his thread). The thing is, though, it doesn't matter, when you adore someone. And I think that most lifetime relationships have a strange blend of parent-child, lover, friend, and drinking buddy, among other things.
The thing that got me the most was when she confessed to liking the solitude of his absence. Boy, do I feel that! And I also feel the guilt attached. How can I want to be alone when I might, at any moment, truly be alone?
Anyway,I loved this story. At this point in my life, I just don't analyze literature beyond loving it, liking it, or not liking it.
[ April 23, 2007, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
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I just recommended this book to brother yesterday. Told him if he was looking for a book with an awesome ending (like the Hyperion series), he needed to read it.
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Also, the story made me realize how young my love with my husband is. We have been together twenty-two yeas, but I feel that we are at the beginning, in many ways. Maybe that is why Clare's loss of Henry at the age of forty-three hit so hard.
I wonder if my husband visited me from his twenties, if I would think he was a major pain the butt. I am sure he would think that way of me. Yet, here we are.
It is just weird. And true. And sad. And joyous.
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My wife read this book and recommended it to me. I resisted for a long time and then grabbed it one day on my way to the airport for a business trip - just to get her off my back.
I loved it. It made me cry twice (if you've read the book you can probably guess...), and I can't really think of another book that's made me cry in a long time.
Henry was pretty normal - but that's the point. He's not a hero, he's just an average guy with a strange disorder...
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Yes, this is one of the books that I've forced on others, and the others who read it generally went on to push it into the hands of still others. I'm wondering where my copy is now. Or, I should say, my two or three copies.
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quote:Originally posted by Celaeno: I didn't care much for Henry, but I adored Clare.
Although I didn't like him, I still cared about what happened to him. I love it when authors can do that.
I will echo everyone's recommendations to read this.
Ditto, ditto, ditto.
quote:Originally posted by dean: Yes, this is one of the books that I've forced on others, and the others who read it generally went on to push it into the hands of still others. I'm wondering where my copy is now. Or, I should say, my two or three copies.
I know which Hatracker has my copy. (I'm pretty sure.) I do wonder if I'm ever getting it back, but it's pretty cool that it has hopped from 'racker to 'racker since last summer. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I feel better about the movie now that Brad Pitt isn't going to play Henry. I was hoping they'd get Billy Crudup (he'd be just perfect!) but they've cast Eric Bana apparently. Not the worst thing ever.
I just reread this book. It's the third time I've read it, and it still completely absorbs me. A most amazing and wondrous book.
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quote:Originally posted by rivka: I know which Hatracker has my copy. (I'm pretty sure.) I do wonder if I'm ever getting it back, but it's pretty cool that it has hopped from 'racker to 'racker since last summer.
*whistles innocently*
Yes, you'll get it back.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I've been listening to this on audiobook while knitting for the past few weeks, but there's never enough time. I think I'm about four hours out from the end still, and I'm enjoying it immensely Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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This is one of the books, like Steven Gould's "Jumper," that demonstrates that even the most overused, cliched science fiction trope can be used to tell a brilliant story.
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It'll be interesting to see how they do with adapting the novel. The intimacy of the book will be difficult to duplicate I think. I really liked the book (I cried buckets of course), so I hope the movie will be done well.
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quote:Originally posted by Stray: I've been listening to this on audiobook while knitting for the past few weeks, but there's never enough time. I think I'm about four hours out from the end still, and I'm enjoying it immensely
I've been wanting to listen to that audio book for quite a while now. Not enough to, you know, buy it, but I've been keeping my eyes open.
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