Time Traveler's Wife??

[Kate]

Okay, I bought this book about 6 months ago, after fondling it a hundred times in bookstores, but Carol noted it as deserving to hit the wall. I'm dying to know what was so offensive. I trust this group for explicit criticism more than I trust Amazon.com reviews, so please tell me what you thought about this book so I know whether to put it on my short reading list or my mooch-away list. Thanks in advance!

[Alex]

My 2 cents - I read it and enjoyed it. I loved the premise but really loathed some of the elements of the story. First of all, it really bothered me that the author modeled the wife after herself. That seemed self-indulgent and, frankly, amaturish. Also, there were pages upon pages of "craft porn" where the author felt it necessary to let us know all about the beauty of creating her/the wife's art. Waste of paper in my opinion. I thought it was a little creepy how the husband kept going back to visit the wife as a child but didn't find it pedophilic at all. In the end, I liked the time-travel, the love story, and the sacrifice - so I remember the book fondly.

[Carol]

HEy Kate! I echo Alex " I thought it was a little creepy how the husband kept going back to visit the wife as a child but didn't find it pedophilic at all" though I'll ad that it was MORE than a little creepy and quite pedophilic. Plus, I found it odd that the author never addressed this concern at all...like it was totally okay for a 40+ year old man to arrive naked to visit an 8 year old.

Also these were two of the most selfish and self-serving characters I have read in a long time. As a mother, I would never put any child at risk.

Again, this taps into timing - perhaps I wouldn't dislike it so much if I was young and in love, and didn't have a child.

[Alex]

Here's a perfect example of where everything is relative. The "arriving naked" thing didn't even faze me because, in my house, being naked was never a big deal. Having an 8 year old see a naked body doesn't strike me as weird or sexual. I think that our individual experiences definitely affect our "take" on what we read.

[Xysea]

I'm in Kate's boat. I have this book now - it arrived from the library recently - so I am reading this thread with interest. Carry on... :)

[Jenn]

My husband read it and oddly enough liked it a lot. He's a huge horror fan so that is saying a lot believe me. Because of his review I read it, and I loved it. I've given it as a gift many times and everyone so far has liked it, and they are the kind of people that would've told me if they hated it.

[smetchie]

I loved this book. The premise of time travel being an uncontrollable genetic defect and not some poindexter in a time machine made the story so interesting to me. Very cool to take a sci-fi concept and put it in a real and honest world. I also liked that a situation that is automatically creepy (old henry young clare)was made romantic and lovely.

[Chrystal714]

I have to add I also very much enjoyed this book. I felt they did deal with the issue of old Henry and young Claire quite well. It went in to detail about how he wouldn't tell her anything about their future. He did everything he could to make sure she grew up as normal as possible. I would say its worth the time to read it. You could probably figure out after a few chapters if you like it or not. Just don't finish it if you don't like it.

[Rachel]

kate, i really enjoyed this book. the love story is beautiful, yet troubling; the main characters are likeable, yet seriously disturbed; the ending is insanely depressing, yet deeply touching. it was a wonderfully weaved plot and a great read.

[Heather]

I second Rachel's post above -- I wasn't sure about this book when I received it as a gift, but it's now on my all-time favorites list -- A beautiful, well-written and haunting story.

[ScottK]

I am at about halfway through the book right now and I like it alot,almost even love it. I didn't think the parts of young Clare/Old Henry were done badly at all. His nakedness is not done in a pedophilic nature,he just can't time travel with clothes.As a matter of fact in (I think) his first or second visit back to young Clare is when he asks her to hide some of her dad's clothes for him,so he could dress quickly. I love the characters and can't wait to se what happens.

[Jackie]

I found the book cleverly written--I thought I unearthed some holes in the plot (such as the time travel during the accident early in the time traveler's life didn't seem to add up), but the problem is that it was difficult to wrap your mind around the timing so it was difficult to substantiate the "holes." I heard even the author had to plot it out on a timeline as she wrote.

Either way, I found the book pleasant--quite steamy. The most offensive part of the story for me was when the wife referred to adopting a child as creating a "fake family" or something along those lines. As an adopted person, I was very uncomfortable with this characterization of adoption.

[Caroline]

I didn't really like The Time Traveler's Wife. Something about it made it feel like Henry was grooming the child version of his wife to be his wife, and it just felt kind of creepy rather than romantic to me. I didn't hate it, but it just didn't do much of anything for me.

Then again, I'm not much of one for romances, so that could be a lot of why I didn't care for this, since that's really all it was.

[Tanya]

I really disliked it. First, I found that the writer's narrative styles wasn't even all that refined. She just didn't reel me in. The concept was interesting enough, where I continued reading out of curiosity. However, I found both characters to be deeply unlikeable. Henry, because of his selfish, violent temper. Claire, because she basically was just pathetic - she gave in to a notion of a future laid out for her, based on what he told her when she was a child, and she lived her life not even trying to deviate from it. This sort of resignation irks me. But maybe it's me projecting things personally, because I've never believed just one single person is worth putting your entire life on hold. I believe in exploration, compromise, and coming to conclusions based on my own discovery, not based on some sort of fate.

[Sandi]

I liked it a lot. I have always like time travel stories and this was a good one that raised some interesting questions. It's only in retrospect that I realize that Henry's relationship with the child Clare could be construed as creepy. When I read it, I got the impression that Clare was his anchor to the real world and it was their souls that mattered. Their relationship was about a lot more than sex.

From what I've read around the web, it's one of those books people love or hate. There aren't many who are in the middle on it.

[Stephanie]

I loved this book...it is one of my all-time favorites. Everyone else has written really good postings, so I am just going to leave it at that.

[Sheri]

I agree with Stephanie-everything has been pretty much covered. I will add that I thought it was much less romantic then was suggested. I think the idea of fate is basically a load of crap, though, so that might have had something to do with my feelings. And I also agree that Henry's time travel to mini Clare was more disturbing to me than sweet. I think seeing someone in your family naked when you are 8 and they are 40 is a little different then seeing a random naked 40 year old, although both are wrong in my opinion. I wish I could have given it something between 3-4 stars. Three seems too harsh, I liked it more than that. But I don't know if I liked it a whole four...but I would tell you to read it and not save it.

[Terry]

I loved this book....I was half way through it when I went on a solo backpacking trek....tore the book in half so I wouldn't have to carry the whole big thing....campted at 12,000+ feet and finished it....wept like a Danish school girl....TWICE....decided I couldn't sit still in the mountains so I packed up a day early and hiked back out....[bad decision, I know:]. I enjoyed the concept, the writing, and the story line. it was unique, entertaining, and captivating. It was suggested to me by a female friend who promised it WASN'T a 'chick book'..... I loved it....and I'm quite the manly man!!!

[Stuart]

Sandi wrote: "I liked it a lot. I have always like time travel stories and this was a good one that raised some interesting questions. It's only in retrospect that I realize that Henry's relationship with the ..."

I might be in the middle. I would not throw this book against a wall, but it is certainly not desert island material either.

[Laura]

I avidly agree with Sandi where she wrote "When I read it, I got the impression that Clare was his anchor to the real world and it was their souls that mattered." That was definitely my reaction while reading it. I loved the book. To those who were confused, and those about to read it, I found it was very much better to just roll with the changes in time. I hardly even looked at the dates, and I think that was better, because my friend spent the entire book trying to remember dates and what happened when and hardly enjoyed the story at all, whereas I didn't try at all and I loved the story line. It was very well developed. I think characters with more flaws is better than characters with no flaws at all, and it would be hard, when confronted with irrefutable evidence, as Clare was, to believe that she could change her fate. She saw one possible future, but not others, and so she accepted that that was what was meant to be. I don't think that's a problem, I think it was very realistic. It would be hard not to believe in one set future in her position.

[Emily]

I liked it for the emotions it gave me, but I realize that it wasn't very well written. The characters were pretty one dimensional and the plot got slow in some parts, but it was sweet and I was reading it at a time in my life when that kind of story was just what I needed. I don't agree with everything in it and I don't think it was the best book ever by any stretch, but I enjoyed it and it will always have a place in my heart.

[Peridot]

Loved it. Well thought out. Well crafted. Well written.

[Diana]

I read a few chapters but didn't enjoy trying to read around the sex and the cussing, so I gave up.

[Ketutar]

I started to read it but couldn't finish... the Lolita aspect is too much for me. It's not so much pedophilia, as the child is treated as a child, and the male character didn't meet the female as child first, but later. Nudity isn't sexual to me.

I tried to see it as movie, but couldn't finish then either. When Rachel McAdams' Clare first meets Eric Bana's Henry in the library, she has almost maniac sheen in her eyes... SHE met the man first when she was, what, 6? and she has met him several times after that, when growing up, and he looks the same all the time, so she knows him - and still "falls in love" with him, weds him and beds him...

When I was 6, and 8 and 10 and 12, the adults around me were ADULTS. Like different species. I fell in love with people of my own age. I started falling for adults, years senior me, only when I was an adult. The people I had classified as adults when I classified myself as a child, were and still are in the "different species" class. In my reality it would be impossible for Clare to ever think romantically of Henry, ever. A friend, a teacher, a father figure, perhaps, but not a husband and a lover. This is what I mean with Lolita aspect.

I cannot say anything about the book because of this.

[Peridot]

Diana. Under no circumstances should you read Lady Chatterley's Lover.

[Regine]

Peridot wrote: "Diana. Under no circumstances should you read Lady Chatterley's Lover."

I'll be reading it soon.

[LilaBird]

I love this book. I find it extremely romantic to picture a husband who is crazy in love with his wife being given the chance to go back to see her as a child. How precious she would be to him. How he would want to protect her and care for her. It's no wonder Claire fell in love with Henry while growing up. He exuded love for her. That's pretty irresistible.

[Maggie]

I'd had this book sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while before I read it - when I did read it I thought it was quite overrated and was quite disappointed - it was almost chick-lit. Now there's nothing wrong with chick-lit - I've read my fair share - but I feel this book was desribed as something else.

I didn't particularly like the main characters.

As for the nakedness - I agree, its one thing an 8year old seeing a famile member naked - but to be in the garden on her own to suddenly be confronted by a naked man is another thing. Its almost the same as a man standing in the bushes with a dirty raincoat on flashing his bits! Its all a bit pervy!

As I sais, I'd had this book for ages and was really looking forward to reading it - but no, overrated and disappointing.

Mind you, I have bought 'Her Fearful Symmetry' to see if that's any better - but I waited til I could get it for pennies!

[Laura]

Maggie wrote: "I'd had this book sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while before I read it - when I did read it I thought it was quite overrated and was quite disappointed - it was almost chick-lit. Now there's..."

I thought Time Traveler's Wife was alright, but when I got Her Fearful Symmetry from the library, I was really excited. Based on the summary, I was expecting it to be even better than TTW, but I couldn't even finish it, and I rarely quit.

[Maria]

I loved TTW but LOATHED HFS. Horrible book and such a disappointment as I'd fully expected to love it.