This week’s book pick is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, which has also been made into a major motion picture set to open this Friday.
I first read this book four years ago while my husband was deployed and was disappointed to discover I couldn’t make it through the first few chapters. A good friend had raved about the story, so I was determined to read on and see what all the buzz was about. Four years later, it is still in my top ten favorites.
Henry is a librarian in Chicago who suffers from Chrono-Displacement Order, which whisks him from past to present and vice versa, during significant periods in his life. He meets his artist wife, Clare, when she is 20, though she has known him all her life.
The story chronicles both character’s lives as Henry is constantly, and without warning, transported to other times and places, while Clare is left behind, not knowing when she will next see the love of her life. We all can certainly relate to that, as our own husbands are constantly taken away from home for work ups, deployments, training, schools, you name it. I couldn’t help but empathize-and sympathize- with Clare throughout the book.
Author Audrey Niffenegger does an amazing job of creating emotional ties between the characters and the reader as she spins a tale about love, loss, loneliness, passion and life, in general. By the end of the book, you too will believe time travel is possible.
Do not be dismayed by the fact that this book is more than 500 pages long; I guarantee you will not be disappointed!
Next up: The collected works of Chelsea Handler (My Horizontal Life; Are You There Vodka, it’s Me, Chelsea?)
Photo by scifiscoop
