The Time Traveler's Wife
When I started this book I had two thoughts: 1) What an intriguing and unusual premise -- a love story about a man (Henry) who travels in time and the woman (Clare) who loves him and accepts the difficulties that come with loving someone who literally disappears and reappears without notice. Not only that, but sometimes Henry is 28 and Clare is 20 and sometimes Henry is 35 and Clare is 6 and sometimes Henry is 40 and Clare is 17; and 2) How in the world is this author going to be able to tell this story in a way that the reader can follow?
Niffenegger succeeds in solving that potential problem. And the storyline definitely had my attention. But I have to say that I didn't get emotionally attached to these characters for some reason. Maybe I'm just not as much of a romantic as I thought I was. And there were a few incidents in the book that just didn't seem plausible to me. And this is after I accepted the rather implausible premise of the story in the first place.
For instance, the main character, Henry, meets his end after being shot in the stomach during one of his time travels. He then reappears in his own living room during a New Year's Eve party:
"Henry's skin is warm, his eyes are open, staring at me, he is heavy in my arms, so heavy, his pale skin torn apart, red everywhere, ripped flesh framing a secret world of blood. I cradle Henry. There's blood at the corner of his mouth. I wipe it off. Firecrackers explode somewhere nearby.
Gomez says, 'I think we'd better call the police.' "
The next page is a month later. Apparently there has been no legal fallout from this fatal shooting. Henry's wife Clare, is described as being depressed "past hunger, past vanity, past caring." All very understandable, but there is no mention of how this violent death was resolved in the real world. Are we to believe that just one month later the police investigation has been concluded to the satisfaction of the legal system? That's a leap I just can't make.
I wanted to love this book but it turns out that I just liked it.
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