Thursday, September 25, 2008

Roxy's Been Reading Again: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and highly recommend it. I don't think I'd even put it in my usual category of "shameful page turners" with Jodi Picoult, James Patterson and Nicholas Sparks.

From the book jacket:

Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was 6 and Henry was 36, and were married when Clare was 23 and Henry 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other, as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals -- steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.


I picked this book up at the beach this summer for only 50 cents at the Anchor & Palette art gallery on Mount Street in Bay Head, NJ, where the proceeds go to a local charity. I apologize for not being able to use my own words to describe it, but time travel is hard to describe, and I think Niffenegger does a great job keeping the technicality to a minimum while emphasizing the storyline and characters' emotions.

In my comments section, Henson mentioned the Journeyman TV Series with a similar concept. It's doesn't appear to be available on DVD yet, but I'm going to add it to my Amazon wish list of TV show boxed sets for my train commute. I better plan on heading in to our NYC office more often!

2 comments:

Henson Ray said...

I read this book last year and really loved it. Then they had that show on TV "The Journeyman," which seemed to have a very similar premise. Very well written and interesting.

RoxiticusDH said...

Henson,

I had an early morning giggle as I reviewed my comments, since I thought you were responding to my post about "Happy Birthday, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle."

I had not heard of "The Journeyman" TV show.... Was it a weekly series, like Desperate Housewives? Available in a boxed set? I will have to seek it out, though I can't believe how far behind I am in my TV viewing. The DVR on my TV popped on last night to let me know it was taping Grey's Anatomy...the season premiere and I haven't watched two or three of last year's episodes! Maybe I'll get a few boxed sets (Grey's, Brothers and Sisters) for my birthday and try to watch on my computer when I take the train in to NYC...how do you commute to New York?

Roxy