The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

"Now for me, it's different. Because I am a time traveler, I jump around a lot from one time to another. So it's like if you started the tape and played it for a while, but then you said Oh I want to hear that song again, so you played that song and then you went back to where you left off but you wound the tape too far ahead so you rewound it again but you still got it too far ahead. You see?"
          -Henry, explaining to Clare

Are you confused by my opening quote? Prepare to stay that way throughout the reading of this novel! It is like a "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" of a story! It just about gave me a headache trying to keep track of the "jumping around" in time. My last book was The Tiger's Wife, a strange saga to say the least. I begin to wonder if I am punishing myself with two weird ones in a row. Time to look for a good old murder mystery!

The Time Traveler's Wife is essentially the unconventional love story of Henry DeTamble, a librarian and Clare Abshire, an artist. They first meet when Clare is VERY young. The difference in their ages is puzzling because most of the time Henry is 8 years older but at certain points the age gap is 7, 11, 23, even 30 years! Thank goodness the author begins each chapter with the date and ages. The story is told alternately from his and her points of view, an interesting technique. The two end up getting married (obvious from the title) and Clare spends a great deal of her life waiting for Henry to return from his travels. It is extremely odd when Henry goes back in time and literally interacts with his younger self. He literally meets himself coming and going! When he jumps to the future and returns, he knows what is going to happen---both a blessing and a curse, for example he knows on New Year's Eve, 1999, that there will be no Y2K disaster but he also knows when he will die.  I found it rather humorous when Henry tells Clare "My whole life is one long deja vu."

It was surprising that when Henry vanished into another time, his clothes stayed behind! Then when he reappeared, he was naked and had to beg, borrow or steal clothes. I found it almost believable when Dr. Kendrick has Henry's DNA analyzed and locates a gene for CDP---chrono-displaced person---and then begins research on mice to explore the implications and possible drugs for Henry.

I am rating this book a 2. It was a page-turner but mostly because I wanted to be done with it! At 500+ pages it was tedious along with being challenging, as I've already indicated. The book cover has a medallion that indicates the novel was adapted to a "major motion picture." I can't help but wonder what the movie would be like!

I would love to read your comments!