Saralee Says
There are few books today that simply capture the reader from the beginning. As Oprah says, you experience an "Ah-ha" moment. Such is this selection for our book club, The Time Traveler's Wife (Macadam/Cage Publishing) by first time novelist Audrey Niffenegger. I found this book compelling, and I was entranced from the very first page.
Henry DeTamble is a librarian of special collections for Newberry Library in Chicago. When DeTamble is very young he witnesses the death of his mother, a famous singer. Things are never the same after that for DeTamble, who becomes a time traveler. We never understand exactly why or how, out of all the people in the world, DeTamble is a time traveler.
Niffenegger uses medical research and the laws of physics to explain time travel, but in order to really appreciate this book just suspend the laws of reality and enjoy the ride of this story.
DeTamble goes back and forth in time and along the way meets his future wife, Claire Abshire. As each chapter opens, the author helpfully states the ages of DeTamble and Abshire at that point in time. Abshire falls in love with DeTamble and is sure about her feelings from the first time she meets him. Since DeTamble travels in the past and also in the future, his character is a little more ambivalent about love, at least at the beginning of the story.
Is The Time Traveler's Wife a mystery, a book of romance or pure fantasy? If you have not read this book then select the paperback version (Harcourt). Trust me; you will want to consult the "reading group guide" in the back of the book because this is a book you will want to discuss again and again with other readers.
Larry's Language
I did not expect to like this book. Time travel stories such as The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (Tor) about our far future and Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock (MoJo Press) about traveling back in time to Gethsemane around 32 A.D. tend to follow a standard formula that works because so many genre writers have used it and perfected it. Even the undisputed master in this field, Robert Heinlein, in his time travel stories All You Zombies and By His Bootstraps honors the standard formula while breaking all the rules.
Usually when mainstream authors such as Niffenegger in The Time Traveler's Wife dip into time travel, they do not know the literary ritual and do not follow the usual prescription. Niffenegger, however, makes a success out of her ignorance in this stunning love story. She should have failed. Like the current Nicole Kidman movie, Birth, themes about a romantic relationship between an adult and a child make us all squeamish and uncomfortable. Only those writers like Vladimir Nabokov in Lolita (Vintage) who possess almost mystical writing talent can use their great skill to overcome our personal distaste. Niffenegger succeeds because we understand that the 36-year-old DeTamble is going to wait at least 12 years until the 6-year-old Abshire grows up. At that point DeTamble will be 24 and Abshire 18, and if that seems confusing and weird, then you know you are in the middle of a time travel tale.
The powerful attraction of the idea of time travel and its implications for history, morality, our sense of progress, and our sense of identity will generate discussion for any book club. Also, there are problems such as DeTamble's one time only visit to Abshire's future that will provoke disagreement in this book.
Join us for our next bookclub discussion which will feature Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf).
