The Time Travller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

[Vertigo]

A fascinating idea competently executed; I was surprisingly engaged by this romance despite a frequent excess of detail (the reader is really not likely to be all that interested in exactly what dishes are being ordered and eaten in the Thai restaurant). ‘Surprisingly’ because I am generally not very keen on romances and approached this book with some hesitation, encouraged only by the presence of time travel implying science fiction; my favourite genre. And yet, despite that time travel, this really is a romance first and science fiction second. In fact the idea of time travel being a genetic disorder is, from a science perspective ludicrous, but it allowed what all good science fiction allows; the opportunity to explore the implications of a situation that simply cannot arise in real life. And explore it Niffenegger certainly did, and with considerable flair.

The story can be a little difficult to follow, but what time travel story isn’t? However Niffenegger’s technique of beginning each section with the relative ages of the two main protagonists – Henry and Clare – does make this a lot easier and despite the entire story being written in first person from each of their perspectives, which I normally dislike, it did work here, again made easier by starting each new perspective with the ‘Henry:’ or ‘Clare:’. Simple but effective.

The story of the romance itself is successful in being sweet without being syrupy and poignant without being sentimental. And that is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Niffenegger manages to convey the trials and tribulations of romance without ever resorting to the clichés of misunderstanding fuelled breakups, the love and passion without ghastly sentimentalism.

Throughout the book I was, I confess, dreading the ending; I simply couldn’t see how the story could be ended without turning it into either a clichéd tragedy or an equally clichéd ‘happily ever after.’ But yet again Niffenegger came through, delivering an ending that might not have been the best I have ever read but it satisfied without resorting to either cliché.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is not my usual style of book but it is one that I am very glad to have read. However I do have one big criticism that greatly irritated me; Niffenegger constantly and unnecessarily does artistic and literary name dropping. I understand already that she is clearly very knowledgeable on art and very well read, I don't need to be reminded of this every chapter.

4/5 stars

 

[The Judge]

I didn't notice the name dropping, at least not enough to interfere with the reading, but you were evidently a good bit more impressed by the novel overall than I was. My verdict when I read it:

It isn't a bad book by any means, if a little overwrought for my taste, but I got to the end and thought "And?". Plenty of description, little of it necessary to my mind, lots of dialogue, things happening, but no actual plot as far as I could see – any number of scenes, even chapters, could be removed without affecting the structure or the ending. And for all the time-travelling chrono-impairment stuff, I'm mystified why it's labelled Science Fiction.

Re that last bit, what I meant was I considered it a romance first and last, and middle, too. I don't recall her examining all the implications of the disorder as thoroughly as she could have done eg not as Matheson did with The Shrinking Man -- to me the time travel was simply a McGuffin, a way for her to write about separation and trust within a marriage without actually having to think of something plausible.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Actually, for me it was one of the few sci fi books I've read that I felt did explore the implications on a human basis. That, and the well-rounded characters, is what makes it one of my favourite books of all time. The name-dropping irked me, to be fair, of both art and music, but I found it one of the most satisfying books I've read (but, for me, character is king.) having said that the time-travelling element was ludicrous in terms of science, but the exploration of the 'what if' was fantastic, imho, and that's what I look for a good sff to do.

 

[Vertigo]

I didn't notice the name dropping, at least not enough to interfere with the reading, but you were evidently a good bit more impressed by the novel overall than I was. My verdict when I read it:

Re that last bit, what I meant was I considered it a romance first and last, and middle, too. I don't recall her examining all the implications of the disorder as thoroughly as she could have done eg not as Matheson did with The Shrinking Man -- to me the time travel was simply a McGuffin, a way for her to write about separation and trust within a marriage without actually having to think of something plausible.

Actually, for me it was one of the few sci fi books I've read that I felt did explore the implications on a human basis. That, and the well-rounded characters, is what makes it one of my favourite books of all time. The name-dropping irked me, to be fair, of both art and music, but I found it one of the most satisfying books I've read (but, for me, character is king.) having said that the time-travelling element was ludicrous in terms of science, but the exploration of the 'what if' was fantastic, imho, and that's what I look for a good sff to do.

I agree that the time travel was no more than a trick to play with the separation and uncertainty but I didn't have a problem with that in the same way that a story that needs FTL travel might include it with little or no examination of the how. That said, with that being the only science fiction aspect, and that really being fantasy, maybe science fiction is not quite the right classification. Interestingly on Goodreads there were 1400 SF classifications and 3500 Romance classifications and 2100 fantasy classifications. I think it suffers the same problem as Banks' Transition which has been published and printed as both Iain Banks and Iain M Banks; it has one science fictiony thing (the actual transitions) but nothing else is SF and so is it Science Fiction (Iain M Banks) or is it not SF (Iain Banks)? Similar issue.

I do very much agree that it is first and foremost a Romance and then only maybe SF!

Interesting that you picked up on the name-dropping as well, Springs (I'd forgotten about the music name dropping as well).

Judge, I very much agree that an awful lot of the description could have been dropped (along with all the Chicago details that seem to assume you are an expert in all things Chicago) and whilst I agree there was very little actual plot I didn't have a huge problem with that either.