Liz's review
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
Right on sister, this is the best review I've ever read for this book.
I am mirroring your review exactly. The name dropping of bands and punk history made me want to stop reading the book completely (but it's for a book club.) The entire play for play at the pool table made my irritation level rise as well.
you said it SO much better than i could have.
Nicely put. I'm inspired to post my own review now.
The only difference is I also liked it.
yep, the hipster-approved band references grated on my LAST nerve.
Excellent point about the food porn. I'd add the actual porn, too. More substitution of actual things for fictional depth, such that the characters have a romance, rather than an actual marriage. I don't mind reading sex scenes, but it's still shorthand.
exactly..but i felt the whole time it was author who was so concerned about proving her "credibility"
and trying to take some attitude towards any potential "oprah" audience which just made her /the author/ and the work even more annoying..as if she could sense a certain lack of depth about the writing itself that had to be made up for..anyway, to repeat others, glad to know i wasnt the only one
I think you're all missing the point: Henry and Claire are in love. This is a romance, everything else is trivial, and it certainly comes off that way. Her family, their friends--everything is background, and I feel that the characters and the author do a good job of treating it that way.
Ryan; Niffenegger constantly tells us that Henry and Claire are in love. If she had done a better job of showing us, perhaps I would buy that premise. "Show, not tell" is writing 101.
This review is right on. I am so tempted to stop reading this book. It´s cheesy and Nieffenegger does a teribble job at making us feel a connection with the characters. Just as Kelsey said, Nieffenegger tells us everything. Nothing is subtle, nothing is left for us to observe. I would say in general, she is a bad writer and this book is nothing more than a fluffy beach read with a sci-fi twist.
Couldn't agree more -- it was almost refreshing to hear someone else say that by the time they got to the end they were so emotionally distanced from the characters that it was barely even a noteworthy climax. I didn't feel a thing -- even reading his letter at the end, normally I would be bawling over something like that, but it didn't even make my heart strings so much as twitch. Totally non-compelling. Also, I winced when she mentioned Kimy's "flat Korean face." And how about the literal play-by-play of the first half of It's a Wonderful Life? Do we really need that kind of filler?
Liz's review
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Liz's review
rating:
I recently read The Time-Traveler's Wife and was pretty disappointed---the author somehow manages to turn such an awesome premise (the dude actually time travels!) into something pretty flat and prosaic and dull. The first hundred pages really hooked me, but after a while I started to get irritated by:
1. All the name checking of hipster-approved bands in an attempt to establish Henry's supposed "punk" cred. He liked the Violent Femmes in 1991. That's why he's so badass? Seriously?
2. The food porny descriptions of the meals they eat. Some paragraphs read like the menu of a pretentious bistro.
3. The awful ethnic stereotypes that characterize the few non-white characters (Nell, the mammy-esque family cook (complete with dialect), or Charisse, the "childlike" Filipina).
4. The fact that everyone is successful and at least upper middle class, if not fabulously wealthy. Even Henry somehow manages to keep his job at the Newberry library for 20 years, despite...more
1. All the name checking of hipster-approved bands in an attempt to establish Henry's supposed "punk" cred. He liked the Violent Femmes in 1991. That's why he's so badass? Seriously?
2. The food porny descriptions of the meals they eat. Some paragraphs read like the menu of a pretentious bistro.
3. The awful ethnic stereotypes that characterize the few non-white characters (Nell, the mammy-esque family cook (complete with dialect), or Charisse, the "childlike" Filipina).
4. The fact that everyone is successful and at least upper middle class, if not fabulously wealthy. Even Henry somehow manages to keep his job at the Newberry library for 20 years, despite...more
Right on sister, this is the best review I've ever read for this book.
I am mirroring your review exactly. The name dropping of bands and punk history made me want to stop reading the book completely (but it's for a book club.) The entire play for play at the pool table made my irritation level rise as well.
you said it SO much better than i could have.
Nicely put. I'm inspired to post my own review now.The only difference is I also liked it.
yep, the hipster-approved band references grated on my LAST nerve.
Excellent point about the food porn. I'd add the actual porn, too. More substitution of actual things for fictional depth, such that the characters have a romance, rather than an actual marriage. I don't mind reading sex scenes, but it's still shorthand.
exactly..but i felt the whole time it was author who was so concerned about proving her "credibility"and trying to take some attitude towards any potential "oprah" audience which just made her /the author/ and the work even more annoying..as if she could sense a certain lack of depth about the writing itself that had to be made up for..anyway, to repeat others, glad to know i wasnt the only one
I think you're all missing the point: Henry and Claire are in love. This is a romance, everything else is trivial, and it certainly comes off that way. Her family, their friends--everything is background, and I feel that the characters and the author do a good job of treating it that way.
Ryan; Niffenegger constantly tells us that Henry and Claire are in love. If she had done a better job of showing us, perhaps I would buy that premise. "Show, not tell" is writing 101.
This review is right on. I am so tempted to stop reading this book. It´s cheesy and Nieffenegger does a teribble job at making us feel a connection with the characters. Just as Kelsey said, Nieffenegger tells us everything. Nothing is subtle, nothing is left for us to observe. I would say in general, she is a bad writer and this book is nothing more than a fluffy beach read with a sci-fi twist.
Couldn't agree more -- it was almost refreshing to hear someone else say that by the time they got to the end they were so emotionally distanced from the characters that it was barely even a noteworthy climax. I didn't feel a thing -- even reading his letter at the end, normally I would be bawling over something like that, but it didn't even make my heart strings so much as twitch. Totally non-compelling. Also, I winced when she mentioned Kimy's "flat Korean face." And how about the literal play-by-play of the first half of It's a Wonderful Life? Do we really need that kind of filler?