The Time Traveler's Wife

To be honest, I did not make it through the remainder of this book. I paused around page 120 and just never went back.

After hearing so many amazing things about this book, I felt the need to read it and picked it up. So disappointed. This book drags horribly. I was bored, confused, and frustrated. Having to constantly keep track of what time Henry is in, how old he is, what his situation is. It all took away from the story within I think.

I did enjoy the chemistry between Henry and Clare, but that was it. They alone were not interesting enough to keep me involved in this story. Perhaps I will pick it up another time, but for now this book gets one star from me.

This book is terrible. I can't believe there is so much hype about it. Once I started, I was determined to finish, however. Sadly, as the book goes on, it only gets more ridiculous. The only good thing I can say about this book is that I'm finally finished reading it.

Loved the first half, got bored with the second. Never finished.

I was a little unsure about reading this at first. My wife had read it and loved it, but she was hesitant to recommend it to me – she knows I love time-travel stories, but she thought that the romance elements would turn me off. I was also kind of worried because the central conceit of a time traveler who gets ‘unstuck' in time was a story that I'd known had been done excellently in both text and film (Kilgore Trout in Slaughterhouse Five and Desmond Hume from Lost, respectively). I was worried that this one wouldn't hold up in comparison.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this an absolutely amazingly written, powerful tragedy of a story. Henry and Clare are two souls, travelling alone through their lives, connecting for what seem to be all-too brief moments in time. And yet, they soldier on through those difficulties, knowing that the moments of togetherness are worth the moments of loneliness. I tend to dislike a lot of ‘romance' stories, because I don't think they really understand what mature, long-term love is, but this. one. gets. it.

This is currently a favorite for me. It definitely gets the award for the best use of time travel in a modern, full-length novel.

I still suspect that if you think realllllly hard about Niffenegger's conceptualization of time travel, there would be some practical holes, but who wants to think too hard about a novel? I stole this off a friend's bookshelf on a weekend trip to Berkeley, and was done in time to return it to her. I enjoyed the prose style and the characters, flawed in all their glory, but I think the real triumph of the book is her exploration of how a few simple folds in our linear conception of time might result in life-altering wrinkles. Also, I'm a sucker for a messy love story, and for novelists who let their characters have great sex.

This seemed to be the book that everyone had just got done reading this summer. My friend Jenn recommended it to me and then I got it from the library and suddenly everyone else was telling me they had read it or started to. Wow. What a story and especially for a first publication. This is a story of lovers and love and of time and how nothing can keep it all apart. Not even time itself. Traces of this book will linger with me for a very long time to follow.

Il libro narra di una bella storia d'amore frullata nelle spire del tempo.
Pur essendo sostanzialmente una storia d'amore, lo stile narrativo (con eventi anticipati e svelati successivamente) e la particolarità della storia (il protagonista viaggia inconsapevolmente nel tempo) rendono il tutto “particolare” e “suggestivo”.
Insomma un libro ben svritto che si basa su un'idea originale che lo differenzia da altri libri del genere.

I must've omitted this from my Goodreads list. I struggled with it. Yes, I know. Shocking, huh? I got bored with it about half-way through and actually moved on to something else, which is very unlike me. I generally persevere. But I came back to it. I'm not sure why, but I did, and praise the holy good book that I did. I love, love, loved the ending. It moved me. So much so in fact that I might even have had the sniffles for a second or two.

One of my all time favourites. Henry is an awesome character.

Fabulous read!!

I reread this book in about two days in preparation for the movie. The first time I read it, I did so on the subway while commuting to Queens from Manhattan for an internship. Eventually (probably about two thirds of the way through the book) I had to stop reading it in public. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of crying in front of strangers. Fortunately I reached the end of the book in the comfort and privacy of my studio apartment (my creepy World Of Warcraft playing roommate happened to be gone) so that I could ugly-cry in peace. We're talking drool, people. Not cute.

Bottom line: one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking books I've ever read. Forget the movie — though entertaining and made 6 of the 8 people I saw it with last night cry — but it's middling in comparison to the beauty of Niffenegger's novel. A must-read.

Henry leidet unter einer speziellen Genmutation die ihn zum Zeitreisenden macht. Unter Stress verschwindet er plötzlich und findet sich in der Vergangenheit und manchmal auch in der Zukunft wieder. Er trifft auch sein juengeres Ich und auch auf seine grosse Liebe Claire. Claire ist 6 wie sie ihn kennnelernt, er in den späten Dreissigern. Er besucht sie in ihrer Kindheit, als sie ihn endlich in der Jetztzeit trifft, hat er von ihr noch keine Ahnung. Sie heiraten, versuchen lange bis es ihnen glueckt ein Kind zu bekommen. Henry wird in der Vergangenheit angeschossen und stirbt in der Gegenwart. Aber da er schon in der Zukunft war, wird Claire ihn wieder sehen können ...

I'm not much of a crier, but I was sobbing at the end of this one. Consider yourself warned.

One of my favorite books, and one of only a few that I've re-read more than once. An emotional tour-de-force.

I admit; I love a well-written love story, I like the concept of time travelling, and I like stories with real, flawed characters in them. So this is gonna be brief: This book is definitely a must read!! I read quite a few books every year, most of them quite good. My favourite authors are Margaret Atwood and Dean Koontz, and I've read books by those two during this year...but I must say, that this book is the best I've read in a VERY long time!!

Some may find it too sentimental.....but who, among us, didn't get a sinking feeling in our stomachs when Henry visited November 16, 2011??

Highly highly highly recommended for ANYONE!!

I've been disappointed lately by books that were like wedding cake—they looked much better than they actually tasted. Several recent reads—Ella Minnow Pea, Jennifer Government, Calculating God—were books that were based on an extremely clever plot twist. Unfortunately, that's all these books had—an extremely clever plot twist. No character development, no plot. Just an extremely clever plot twist.

The Time Traveler's Wife does have an extremely clever plot twist. Henry has Chrono-Displacement Disorder; when stressed, Henry suddenly finds himself shifting, shifting, to another time. During one of these shifts, Henry meets his future (present?) wife, Clare, as a six year old girl.

But the extremely clever plot twist is just the hook that snags us into this book. It is the relationship between Clare and Henry (ever changing, yet ever remaining the same) that is the line that pulls us into the heart of the story.

Without giving away too much, Niffenegger uses the time shifts to add resonance to the characters (wonderfully flawed, all) and to create an intricate and intriguing plot.

The time traveling felt very real to me, as if there could actually be people in our world who have Chrono-Displacement Disorder, perhaps even friends or relatives. Possibly I could even time shift myself, if I gave it a try.

I felt myself losing track of time, traveling into another place while I read The Time Traveler's Wife. ;-> Recommended.