Author’s Debut Novel Transcends Time

By Jordan Jolley

How would it feel to be sitting in class, quietly behaving, possibly paying attention, when suddenly everything changes, literally, and you find yourself standing in the middle of a public library with no recollection of how you got there, no one to help you, and no clothes?

This is a situation that Henry DeTamble constantly finds himself in. Audrey Niffenegger’s first novel, “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” focuses on one of the two main characters, Henry, a time traveling librarian whose life is changed forever when he makes his first trip through time at the age of five.

The second biggest change for him is when he meets his future wife, Clare Abshire. When Clare and Henry meet at the opening of the novel Henry has never met Clare, but she has apparently known him her whole life.

The chapters of the novel switch regularly from Henry’s point of view to Clare’s but the timeline of the novel closely follows a regular time stream, though the constant reminiscing and time jumping by Henry makes it seem a little more confusing.

The main focus of the novel is their relationship, which is already complicated enough by a close friend being in love with Clare, an ex-girlfriend of Henry’s, and problems both of them have with their families. Throwing in the added stress that Henry disappears regularly into the past to either talk to himself, admire his dead mother, or meet with the past child version of Clare doesn’t help.

After nearly missing his own wedding, only making it because a future Henry travels back in time to marry Clare after current Henry is pulled away from the present, it becomes clear that no matter how much they want to be together, time will always be a member of their relationship.

Things only evolve when a death in Clare’s family and her inability to conceive drive her into a depression that Henry can hardly help due to the fact that he can’t always be there for her. The only solution they can think of is to try and stop Henry’s involuntary time jumps, and after finally convincing a doctor of his condition they start to make a little headway.

Near the end of the novel, both start to worry about having a child that shares Henry’s condition and an impending doom seems to fall concerning the well being of Henry.

Overall the book was well-written and, though all the time traveling made it slightly confusing or hard to follow at times, the structure of the novel was excellent and new. The novel did contain some adult situations that may be thought of as inappropriate, so beware.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is a long novel, though the pacing is acceptable up until the end when the last few chapters seemed to be drawn out for far too long.

It was an excellent book, but I would not recommend it unless you have a lot of time to devote that it would take to truly enjoy it.