Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Romance/Fantasy
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2004
528p
This is the story of Henry and Clare, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36, and were married when Claire was 20 and Henry 28. This is possible only because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with chrono-displacement-disorder - allowing him to travel in time.
I liked the concept of the story even though it's taken me a long time to get around to reading it. Unfortunately TTW and I had problems from the very first word.
Clare! A young woman called Clare and a book about time travel?
Suddenly I'm doing my own time travelling...........back to the 1990's and standing in my library I pick up a book - a lovely big, chunky book that sounds fantastic and so it would prove to be. It was called Cross Stitch , the debut novel of an author called Diana Galbadon. Her heroine was called Claire and she time travelled......and met a wonderful young man except his name was Jamie, not Henry. Although I have to say every time I read 'Henry' I thought of Henry James.
Not too happy about Clare but if the book had been something special I probably would have got over this little glitch. Except it wasn't.......
I didn't like the writing style.........it was jerky and had no flow. There was a lack of descriptive prose and far too much dialogue. And all that jumping around in time .........back and forth all over the place . And so all these things I didn't like, plus its not hard to pick how it's all going to finish up, stopped me from becoming completely involved emotionally with Clare & Henry and their personal story. Halfway through I almost gave up but it got a little better so I persevered with my tissues at the ready but I didn't really need them . I must admit to being a little blurry eyed during those last few pages..........the ending was very moving and the best part of the whole book but overall I simply wasn't impressed.
Big disappointment!
101 Fantasy Challenge
I had very similar issues with TTW when I read it, except i didn't know this other time traveling Claire exsisted!
ReplyDeleteMy review is here, but you'll find it's pretty much identical to yours.
Sorry that you were disappointed with this read. I liked it but I can see why others would not.
ReplyDeleteBummer, this book had the making of such potential. I haven't read either Outlander or TTW but it's always a big disappointment when you compare said novel to another, especially when one is vastly better than the other.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read the other book, but I did enjoy TTW, too bad you didn't :(
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY, unlike you I didn't complete it, I couldn't tolerate the jumpy writing style. I enjoyed the movie as the concept was intriguing to me.
ReplyDeleteI would never understand the hype.
The book was rather hard to get in to, and I was rather depressed by it all. I did read it and got really sad, but I do not think I could re-read it ever
ReplyDeleteAw, too bad you didn't enjoy this book. I liked it, but I admit that it was all over the place at times.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you didn't enjoy it, it seems to a be a love or hate book!
ReplyDeleteSo disapointed. I just got this book from the library yesterday. I will put it at the back of the line now.
ReplyDeletethanks.
Awwww...
ReplyDeleteI liked this book.. But I did get confused by the jumping around. But I went into the book knowing it will jump around, so I kept track of the year and Henry and Claire's ages, so I was fine.
Wow, now this is interesting! I picked this book up two weeks ago because I found it cheap at the second hand book store. A friend of mine loved it so much that it is the only book I can ever remember him mentioning on Facebook. I might need to bump it up on my schedule just to see what I think of the jumpiness. I generally do not like that in a book!
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed this novel -- it seems to be one of these "love it or hate it" kind of books. Some readers fall in love with it and others don't enjoy it at all. :-)
ReplyDeleteHeather & Becki- don't let me put you off. Most people seem to love it.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it Stephanie - it does seem to be a book that inspires a definite viewpoint.
I could not get into this book. I tried several times and could only get by one chapter or so. I had to put it back on the shelf. But, I must say I am curious if I would like it or hate it, and will probably give it another chance during the summer.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame it was a big disappointment!! This is one of my favourite books, but if I had already read a book with a similar plot, it probably would have bothered me too
ReplyDelete