Surprise of the year.

Just when I think I'm never going to like another bestselling novel again, along comes something like Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife.

I really, really, really liked The Time Traveler's Wife. I totally didn't expect to; it was a bestseller and a very popular book at the suburban library where I worked.* I'm not entirely sure why I did. But there you have it. I started it at the beginning of the weekend, and it felt like a mere blink of time when I finished it at the end of the weekend.** I even liked its cover, which for once, seemed made for the book, rather than a bit of phoned-in stock art.

Maybe I liked it because it was weird? The story is this: Henry is a time traveler, but he can't really control when or where he goes; as a consequence, he sometimes visits Clare, the woman he marries, when she is still a child; he often also visits earlier versions of himself, which are the really mind-bendy parts of the narrative. And that's it, really. (Well, there's more, but I don't want to give away any secrets.) I think what I loved is that, although this is a love story, is not really a sentimentalized love story. Henry can actually be quite the jerk sometimes, and Clare both accepts their decidedly strange life together and rails against it. Even when tragedy strikes (and it does, and you knew it was going to), Niffenegger, to her credit, doesn't try to spin it into any larger kind of life lesson (a la Mitch Albom), unless that lesson is "well, not much we can do about all this."*** Now that is a life lesson I can get behind.

I also knew there was some element of an older man (in his 30s) hanging out with a young girl who was going to become his wife, and I thought that might be weird, but it really wasn't. When I thought about it, I realized, yes, I wish I could go see Mr. CR in grade school, just out of curiosity, so that made that aspect of the book a little less weird. I know, I'm really selling it, aren't I? It's not as creepy as you think it might be!

So come on, read it. I'm dying to talk it over with someone.

*Yes, I'm one of those awful snobby people who don't often enjoy the books and authors everyone else loves.

**It's a surprisingly fast read, for not really having all that much of a driving plot, and for being a pretty thick book.

***"This" being life, generally, and Henry's time-traveling predicament, specifically.

Comments

[Emily]

I also really liked this book. I haven't yet seen the movie and I'm not sure I should or not. The way their relationship was described was very interesting. Clare knows Henry and has her whole life but he's just meeting her for the first time when he's in his 20s or 30s. I thought that dynamic played out well.

[Lu]

I'm so glad you loved this one, because I did, too. I really need to reread it.

Also, Emily, the movie is MEH all around. Not a bad portrayal of the book, but kind of confusing and rushed.

[Beth]

I have a copy at home that I got at a booksale, but I just took out Her Fearful Symmetry from my library, so I'll be reading that first. I'll report back....if anyone's interested of course ;)

[Citizen Reader]

Emily, Lu:
Yes, sometimes it's fun to side with the crowd. I think what I really enjoyed was the weirdness of the story combined with the plainness (I like straightforward) of the prose. Often when you get the weird literary stuff the prose is overdone, and I didn't think that was the case here. I agree that the twistiness of trying to work out how long each person knew the other also added to its appeal.

Too bad to hear about the meh-ness of the movie, but with Eric Bana involved, I'll still be renting it.

Beth,
I would very much like to hear what you think of this one, and about Her Fearful Symmetry, the title of which I already love. I admit I read her graphic novel--was it titled The Three Sisters?--and it wasn't much for me, but that may have been the format. I always feel like I'm missing a lot where GNs are concerned.

[Melanie]

I'm another one who loved the book. I'm afraid to see the movie becuase I liked the book so much. The time travel element was enought to get the brain working, but not too difficult to accept. And I love that Claire both accepted and question her relationship with Henry.

[J.S. Peyton]

Okay, now I'm sold. I've been avoiding this book like the plague. The story just sounded so melodramatic and predictable and the trailers for the movie didn't help much either. Now I'm thinking maybe I should give it a chance. I'll put it next to my copy of "Lovely Bones" - another incredibly popular book that I haven't read (but actually do have).

[Citizen Reader]

Melanie!
Yes, there was just something about it, wasn't there? I liked the supporting characters, too, even when they were unlikable--like Gomez.

I'm impressed at everyone who has the integrity not to see the movie because they're afraid it won't be adapted well from the book. I hear the words "Eric Bana" and all integrity goes right out the window. (I like Rachel McAdams, too.)

J.S.,
Okay, do try it, and let me know what you think--I'll be very interested. Stick with it past the first four or so pages--they're a little melodramatic--and see what it does for you after that. And of course, no harm no foul if you hate it--I will just want to hear why! And, p.s., I rather liked The Lovely Bones, too--but perhaps because I will love Alice Sebold until my dying day for having the strength to write "Lucky," one of the ugliest and saddest and best memoirs of all time. Don't tell anyone I'm turning into someone who loves all these popular books. :)

[Beth]

Lucky is an incredible book. I loved it. Just throwing a little support behind that one for those who haven't yet read it.

[Rachael]

Mmm, Eric Bana. Sorry, distracted for a moment.

I've been trying my best not to read this. I'm a book snob, too, and I really hate it when I have to change my mind about an author I haven't read. Same reason why I won't pick up a Picoult. (I saw the movie of The Notebook and was *way too traumatized* by how much I loved it to ever consider reading the book.)

But dang it, now I may have to read this one. I'd say thanks, but there's no good emoticon to convey sarcastic irritation delivered with a poorly suppressed grin.

[Rachael]

Also, Alice Sebold made me cry like a massive toddler. The audio of the Lovely Bones was so well done, I was sorry I hadn't read it sooner. Lucky was just a heart-breaker, and I was so amazed that she could both survive that and write something ugly-beautiful about it.

Like I said, I hate it when I have to admit my assumptions were wrong...

[lesbrarian]

No surprises here: I didn't like it. I had expected a science fiction novel (the title does sort of imply that) but what I was only mildly speculative. It was a literary fiction novel that happened to have a light overlay of science fiction. There was so much that could have been explored, but the main speculation in this speculative fiction novel dealt with people's emotions and romantic feelings. Not for me.

[Citizen Reader]

Lu-
I asked in a comment but I think it got deleted: How did you like Spain? What would you recommend seeing there?

Rachael,
Yes, Eric Bana. Okay. Now what were we saying? I know just how you feel when someone suggests a book you had no intention of reading. Damn it! Now I have to go read that! Sorry to do that to you. Look at it this way: perhaps you will hate it and then you can retreat to your prior convictions AND have the satisfaction of knowing I was way, way off. But I will never suggest that you read a Picoult, I promise.

Yeah, "Lucky." I never knew whether to suggest that one to teen girls or hide it so they never came across it even accidentally.

Lesbrarian!
My anti-recommender. That is so hilarious. Some day we will have to discuss and make a list of books that we both like, because that will truly be a "best bets" list of something for everyone, as we are diametrically opposed in our book tastes. Sure, it'll be a tiny list, but it'll be a doozy.

[Jessica]

Loved it!

Rocket Scientist and I discussed the scene when Henry visits himself as two instances of teenaged boy, and what, erm, ensued. I kept trying to ask him if he thought this behavior was likely, but before I could finish a sentence he kept saying, "No." It was pretty funny.

[Donna]

I don't read much current fiction, but I did read this and really liked it. This is as close to reading science fiction as I'm ever going to get.

[Citizen Reader]

Jessica,
Glad to hear it! Ah yes, the two teenage boys story. I rather wondered about that myself (I think Mr. CR would react in much the same way as Rocket Scientist), but I don't know...don't teenage boys experiment? At least he would know where he himself had been...

Have you ever seen the movie "Y Tu Mama Tambien"? There's a similar scene in that that didn't seem to ring too false...

Donna,
Hey, this is so much fun, to like a book lots of other people like! I have read and liked science fiction in the past, but I too will admit that it's not my first choice, so it was nice to get a hybrid of time travel/romance here.

[Anonymous Library Employee]

I LOVED this book when I read it, which was when it very first came out, because I work at the library and get on the hold lists for the shiny shiny new books months before they're released. I watched with dismay as it became a big book-clubby bestseller, the same kind of dismay I felt when Nirvana was on the Weekly Top 40 and now feel when characters in crap movies have Smiths posters on their walls by way of co-opting "alternative" cool. I still love "Time Traveler's Wife" and use it as my example of a rare time when the mob is actually right about something. That said, your crabby self liking it makes me feel a little less embarrassed about it.

[laura]

I also avoided The Time Traveler's Wife for a long time, and I also loved it when I finally did read it. I am partial to books with time travel in them, so that helped, but I also loved the characters, even the irritating ones. And it's a book that makes me feel nostalgic about Chicago, and THAT takes some doing. The Violent Femmes concert helps.

[Citizen Reader]

ALE,
Always glad to oblige with my crabby self. :) I too actually found I was a bit embarrassed to like it so much, and I have a staunch history of admitting I like any old thing, including the TV show Gossip Girl, bodice rippers, and chick flicks.

Laura,
I'm with you on the characters; perhaps their irritating traits is what made them seem real. I didn't even think about the book being set in Chicago--and that's saying something, since I am not a fan of Chicago and usually find it distracting as a setting. Glad you felt a little nostalgia for it! (I love nostalgia.)

[The Time Traveler's Wife SoundTrack]

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it despite it not living up to the book. I hope to see it soon! One nit-picky thing. Henry's girlfriend pre-Clare was Ingrid, not Celia.