The Time Traveler's Wife

Fascinating book! Really different. It bends one's thought about time and relationships. And, as time is something most all of us think about a lot (too little, too much, too full, too fast, etc., etc.), thought I'd point out this interesting novel.

In this book by Audrey Niffenegger, the primary character, Henry, can travel through time. And he travels pretty regularly - but has no control over his going and coming. At any moment, he can be gone, leavning all personal posessions (yes, clothes and all!) behind. So he's had to adjust his life around this, um, characteristic, trait, inconvenience? He doesn't drive. Wouldn't want to abandon a car on the highway! Doesn't make too many plans - may not make them afterall. But he does get married, to Clare.

I really liked Clare. I think at least in part because I can relate to her on some level as my husband travels for work, and we never know when he'll be coming or going. So... no plans, no pre-buying tickets for concerts or whatever, no spontaneous weekends, just flexibility. And this is where Clare and Henry are living, too. They never knew when they would pop out and pop back in. At least we have an hour's notice of when my husband has to leave! I think I can be more grateful for that after reading this book.

For much of Henry's time travel, he ends up visiting his wife, starting when she is very young on up through her old age. It is interesting to watch the interplay of who knows who and what, when. For example, when Henry first meets Clare in her real, linear life line, she is in grade school. To Henry, at that meeting when he's in his forties, he's know her for years and they've been married for most of that. But when Henry and Clare meet in Henry's real, linear life time (when he's in his late 20s and she's just out of college), Clare knows Henry very well, but Henry doesn't know her from Adam - okay, Eve. To Clare, she's know him for most of her life. (Yes, probably pretty confusing to describe.) So Clare grows up knowing much about her future husband and their life together. Henry grows up knowing nothing about his future wife.

But Clare doesn't know everything. That's one of the lessons Henry learned, and part of the moral code he imposes on himself in relation to his time travel and interaction with family and friends. He learned early on that, when he goes back in time (and does often to at least one particular heart-wrenching episode in his life), he can't change what happened (Star Trek fans will well appreciate this perspective!). Not that he didn't try at first. He did. But he learned that he just couldn't change things. He also found he couldn't change the future. So it was better not to tell to much to others about what would happen. (Yeah, okay, he did tell Clare a lot, basically grooming her to be his wife as she grew up. He was just selective about what he shared and how.)

I admire the Henry character for his ability to stick with the moral principles he developed. There was only one instance he broke one of his rules. And it really was a sweet reason. I also felt for him - such an eratic lifestyle. He lived in much fear of others finding out, and some hope that somehow he could find a "cure" for this condition.

Oh, and it was no problem for him to be with himself in another time period. Essentially he trained himself to be able to handle this time travel. Not sure what that does for the space-time continuum.... :)

Anyway, with all this time travel and interplay among different times of these two individual's lives, it just makes you have to stop and think about time and its meaning. Essentially, for these two it becomes somewhat irrelevant and at the same time very precious. Each moment together is more important because you don't know how long it will last. So they end up pretty much living in the moment. Not a bad plan.

Even reading the book was an interesting experience in time perspective. One time I could read for a while, feel like I'd read for hours and got far along, and find it had only been a few pages and our minutes. Another time I'd read and read feeling like I was getting nowhere only to discover I'd read an amazing amount of material and only in an hour. What relevance is time, anyway?

So if you want some thought bending on time and relationships, you might like to check out this book. It's a bit of a wild ride, but I found it worthwhile. Or, if you have read this book, I'd love to hear what you thought about it!

Hmmm, thinking about time and bending our thought about it, makes me think of another long time favorite - Einstein's Dreams. Think I'll have to reread and blog on it.