Book: The Time Traveler's Wife: Pages 1-108

Author's Note: It dawns on me that this book has no chapters, only titled sections. So I put page numbers.

The Time Traveler's Wife is a book that has interested me for some time, and on the good word of mouth I've received I decided to give it a chance. This is a book that probably speaks to different people in different ways. For women, I imagine that the main hook is the deeply romantic tale of two people who are at once distanced and brought closer together by time itself. The story is a fairly complex dissertation on the power of true love and how it can overcome even the most outlandish of circumstances. Granted this is a generalization of how women may see things, but let's face it... I'm pretty dead on here.

For me, and perhaps the greater male gender in general, this book is interesting for the more (for lack of a better term) sci-fi elements contained within. Make no mistake, the love story is the central draw and the reason the novel exists, but the complexities of two people meeting at various different stages of one of their lives is at once fascinating and enjoyable. Personally, I would be remiss to exclude the fact that I am also turning each page to see how these two people end up together. I think any reasonably well adjusted human being finds comfort in the display of love as an all-conquering emotion, to say nothing of how it sometimes also makes life unnecessarily complicated.

For this "chapter by chapter" review, I will try and focus on each section of the novel.

The Man Out of Time "First Date, One"

This is a very interesting introduction to the concept of the novel. Though unbeknownst to the reader, the author Audrey Niffennegger writes this chapter the opposite of how she will write the rest of the book. This section deals with a 20 year old Clare meeting a 28 year old Henry. This is important because Clare will not meet Henry until he is 36, when she is 6 years old. Essentially, Clare has known Henry (a FUTURE Henry) since she was 6 years old, and some form of future Henry has known all of what was to transpire in her life ever since. The irony of "First Date, One" is that for once she has met present day Henry and he is uninformed. The other treat for the reader is that while reading the chapter one does not know that this is decidedly opposite of the rest of the book, but only upon looking back do the details reveal themselves. This is a technique that the author uses throughout the story; mentioning seemingly minor details that later either happen to one of the characters or plays a large part of the story.

This section goes a long way to demonstrate the way that each characters knowledge of each other doesn't necessarily always coincide with the other's and the general give-and-take of their relationship moving forward. Henry is presented here as a man with a very specific impairment; time traveling without a moment's notice, and he is understandably a bit disorganized and skiddish for it. Still, he is honestly committed to living as normal a life as possible. Clare, seen here in an obviously more adolescent-transition stage, seems to relish the flirtiness and 'power' that comes with the things she knows about her future husband. We learn fairly early on that each character has chosen (in either the future which is technically the past since it's "happened already" or the past when Henry was from the future) to withhold certain informations about and around the other as a means not to complicate their lives any more than they would have to. This is an effective literary tool which allows the author to be vague, as well as surprise the reader and her characters when they are given missing pieces to an almost complete picture.

The chapter deals with their rare "first date" (one which is presumably the first date for Henry with Clare but not vice versa), and how even though Henry has just met the girl he clearly feels a deep connection thanks to her intimate foreknowledge of him. The dinner they have is distracted at best as they try to root out how comfortable to be considering Clare has been presumably close to this man her whole life, though he hasn't done that yet. One thing leads to another and they end up back at Henry's apartment where they sleep together in what at once feels natural and awkward given the circumstances. It's revealed that, for Clare, this is the first time she is able to openly share this relationship with Henry in an honest and natural way with the world (as a time traveler story would likely get her committed). At once this scene is the end of Clare's time getting to know an older version of Henry, the beginning of Henry's knowing of Clare, and technically the continuation of a relationship that has existed for 14 years. Pretty cool.

"A First Time for Everything"

This is a very interesting chapter in which we learn three things: that Henry commonly meets up with himself at different eras in his life; the first time he ever time traveled; and briefly how it is he survives when he finds himself stranded in new times with few resources.

We are treated briefly to a story of Henry's five year old self enjoying the Field Museum of Natural History on his birthday to begin. This both informs the character's love of knowledge and learning (he's a librarian later in life) but also expresses the wonder he inherently possesses which will make the fantastic nature of his 'impairment' all the easier to cope with. We then cut to a narration of Henry later in life and he finds himself back at the same museum years in the past, only now he is much older. Here he will meet his five year old self upon his first involuntary trip into time. In the first of many paradoxical scenes we learn it is Henry who helps his young self come to terms with the disorienting nature of his condition, and that he remembers the encounter vividly from when he was five years old. We also get glimpses of the older Henry's proficiency in picking locks and going to rather illicit means to procure necessary items for survival (even when that survival involves indoctrinating the fragile child version of himself with the faculties needed to handle what's going to happen to him). It's a very sweet scene of a man and a child sharing a night that each remembers and will remember for the rest of their lives.

"First Date, Two"

This section deals with the first time Clare meets Henry. She is six years old at this time (Henry is 36). Of course Henry knows a lot about Clare as he is from their mutual future, but he does not know yet the first time he meets her as a child (the technical first time he meets her is when he is 28, as seen in "First Date, One"). That just so happens to be the day he finds himself in. It's a very delicate scene for both the characters and the reader as we are essentially presented a naked 36 year old hiding and being discovered by a 6 year old. It plays reasonably well and Henry is able to convince his future wife that he is indeed from the future, and that if he is to continue traveling back in time he will need her help and companionship. These are fun moments in this book because we get to learn things the characters assume, but have never experienced yet. For instance Clare remembers the times as a girl she met Henry and got to know him, but the 36 year old Henry in this section has never had that initial meeting, but knows it has to happen (because the Clare who is his wife has told him it will/did). Seeing it play out is a rare mix of what is arguably destiny or fate -- two topics that are sometimes touched on later in the book to much discussion.

Here we learn the set up of how Henry will travel back to dates he tells Clare (because she wrote them down as she grew up he can tell her when he comes back when he came back), and how she will wait for him and provide shelter, food, and clothes. We also get the first few forays into the Clare coming to terms with the fact that she knows someone who knows how her life will play out no matter what she does (a concept that is expertly handled for the character as she matures and realizes the ramifications of such a friend).

"Lessons in Survival"

This is a fairly simple chapter in which an older Henry imparts on his nine year old counterpart the skills he has learned (from himself when he was nine -- a veritable mobius strip of continuity) in order to stay alive when he travels to dangerous and bewildering times. It involves the two learning to pick pockets and properly dupe unwitting marks as well as dealing with the moral ramifications of existing in such a way.

There is a fairly poignant scene later in the section in which Henry the older must reveal to Henry the younger that they are indeed the same person. Ultimately this serves to dishearten the younger as he finds for the first time that he is truly alone (without some mystical protector who guides him through his endeavors -- young Henry was under the impression that old Henry was in fact a fellow time traveler and that there were others like himself), and that he is unlikely to ever find someone like himself to lighten his burden. It is a testament to the author that these scenes, while absolutely fantastical in nature, can still resonate so personally given their unusual context.

The rest of the section deals with two 15 year old Henry's engaging in what I suppose could be considered masturbation (he is the same person only a few weeks older in one instance) and how their father deals with that. We get some more musing between Clare and Henry on just how real Henry is (that is to say she wonders reasonably if he may be a figment of her imagination); Clare gains obviously deeper attractions to Henry and begins to pry about their future; and over chess they have conversations about the nature of fate, how God is involved if he exists, and if their lives are already set in stone and they are just living out a script. These are all interesting vignettes as the questions and encounters are just as easily shared by the reader as they are with the characters. If anything the extraordinary circumstances of the novel cause the reader to become more mentally engaged in the complexities of the proceedings, and that's as admirable as it is entertaining.

"After the End"

This section opens with a very cryptic scene in which a 13 year old Clare awakens to find a 43 year old Henry in the meadow confronted by her angry father and brother. Not much more is revealed as to the 'how' of the situation, except a foreboding that something significant happens that both Clare and the reader are not privy to. The section title "After the End" also suggests a tone of finality.

The rest of the section covers a quiet moment where Henry accidentally reveals to Clare the way her mother will eventually die, and the inevitable sexual overtones their relationship begins to manifest as Clare reaches the age of 16. We are also shown an instance in which an adult Clare has only informed Henry of vague details of a brutal act committed upon her when she was young that an older Henry helped exact vengeance for. The section is concluded with a scene where the two briefly flirt with the idea of seeing if they can affect the future by changing the past.

Overall, The Time Traveler's Wife is a very intriguing book. The writing is very tight and makes it easy to designate the various layers of complexity that make up its narrative. It is also a book that forces you to retain details as you go due to the nature of time travel. It definitely has me turning each page with anticipation and enough curiosity to wonder where this is all going to end up, and frankly it would be hard to ask anything else of a novel these days.