Jayson’s Reviews > The Time Traveler's Wife > Status Update
Jayson
is 50% done
Notes:
(1) Henry introduces Clare to his dad and Mrs. Kim. It seems clear to me that dinner with Henry's people albeit more awkward and directly confrontational, feels more normal.
- No long, drawn-out, jokey pretense about cannibalism or heroin, like with Clare's people. Everything's out in the open. They can even joke about sex.
- All told, it's a much more successful and desirable outcome.
(Continued in comments)
— Dec 27, 2024 06:30AM
(1) Henry introduces Clare to his dad and Mrs. Kim. It seems clear to me that dinner with Henry's people albeit more awkward and directly confrontational, feels more normal.
- No long, drawn-out, jokey pretense about cannibalism or heroin, like with Clare's people. Everything's out in the open. They can even joke about sex.
- All told, it's a much more successful and desirable outcome.
(Continued in comments)
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Jayson’s Previous Updates
Jayson
is 95% done
Notes:
(1) At this point I've finished the novel. There's a sample chapter from a yet-to-be-released sequel but I won't count that toward my final assessment.
- I'll read it later though. Usually I won't bother and just wait for the book to come out, but it's been more than a decade now and experience has taught me to have an "I'll believe it when I see it" approach with long-awaited sequels.
(Continued in comments)
— Jan 05, 2025 03:10AM
(1) At this point I've finished the novel. There's a sample chapter from a yet-to-be-released sequel but I won't count that toward my final assessment.
- I'll read it later though. Usually I won't bother and just wait for the book to come out, but it's been more than a decade now and experience has taught me to have an "I'll believe it when I see it" approach with long-awaited sequels.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is 86% done
Notes:
(1) "She is sitting on the rock, coolly immaculate in a white silk dress, white stockings and shoes, and short white gloves."
- Clare dresses head-to-toe in white to see Henry on her eighteenth birthday. How very virgin-symbolic. Vestal, even.
- Henry jokes that it's not their wedding day. Though, I think part of her believes as much. I mean, she makes him wear a tuxedo and everything.
(Continued in comments)
— Jan 04, 2025 08:30AM
(1) "She is sitting on the rock, coolly immaculate in a white silk dress, white stockings and shoes, and short white gloves."
- Clare dresses head-to-toe in white to see Henry on her eighteenth birthday. How very virgin-symbolic. Vestal, even.
- Henry jokes that it's not their wedding day. Though, I think part of her believes as much. I mean, she makes him wear a tuxedo and everything.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is 74% done
Notes:
(1) "I kiss her, very roughly. She is resistant. I release her, and she turns her back on me.
'That wasn't very nice,' she says in a small voice.
What is wrong with me? Clare, at fifteen, is not the same person...'"
- Yeah, what's wrong with you? that's sexually assaulting a minor!
- As emotional and touching as this book can be, toxic scenes like this throw cold water over everything.
(Continued in comments)
— Jan 03, 2025 09:30AM
(1) "I kiss her, very roughly. She is resistant. I release her, and she turns her back on me.
'That wasn't very nice,' she says in a small voice.
What is wrong with me? Clare, at fifteen, is not the same person...'"
- Yeah, what's wrong with you? that's sexually assaulting a minor!
- As emotional and touching as this book can be, toxic scenes like this throw cold water over everything.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is 62% done
Notes:
(1) "I got stuck in 1973 and I couldn't get out and I was in Muncie, Indiana, for days living in a barn and I got decked by the guy who owned the barn because he thought I was trying to mess with his sheep."
- Presumably, "mess with" means having sex with the sheep. Can't fault the barn owner. I mean, Henry time travels buck naked, I think most people would come to the same conclusion.
(Continued in comments)
— Dec 31, 2024 01:00AM
(1) "I got stuck in 1973 and I couldn't get out and I was in Muncie, Indiana, for days living in a barn and I got decked by the guy who owned the barn because he thought I was trying to mess with his sheep."
- Presumably, "mess with" means having sex with the sheep. Can't fault the barn owner. I mean, Henry time travels buck naked, I think most people would come to the same conclusion.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is 41% done
Notes:
(1) Clare: "You're corrupting a minor."
Henry: "Oh, he would get there anyway, without me. Wouldn’t you?"
Bobby: "I've been trying, but it ain't easy, here."
- I know they're joking about exposing a kid to punk music, but Clare may as well be referring to herself.
(2) "'You do have a record player, right?' 'My parents have one,' Bobby says. Henry winces."
- I react the same to CD talk.
(Continued in comments)
— Dec 26, 2024 02:55AM
(1) Clare: "You're corrupting a minor."
Henry: "Oh, he would get there anyway, without me. Wouldn’t you?"
Bobby: "I've been trying, but it ain't easy, here."
- I know they're joking about exposing a kid to punk music, but Clare may as well be referring to herself.
(2) "'You do have a record player, right?' 'My parents have one,' Bobby says. Henry winces."
- I react the same to CD talk.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is 30% done
Notes:
(1) "It occurs to me that Clare might prefer to be with this later edition of me, since after all they do know each other better."
- While, she clearly has no problem with older men, the smaller the age difference the better. I mean, the bare minimum's already eight years.
- Turns out, Henry's right. Side-by-side, Clare does prefer older Henry. Young Henry's like domesticating a stray.
(Continued in comments)
— Dec 23, 2024 08:05AM
(1) "It occurs to me that Clare might prefer to be with this later edition of me, since after all they do know each other better."
- While, she clearly has no problem with older men, the smaller the age difference the better. I mean, the bare minimum's already eight years.
- Turns out, Henry's right. Side-by-side, Clare does prefer older Henry. Young Henry's like domesticating a stray.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is 20% done
Notes:
(1) Apparently, Ouija boards actually work in this universe! To her own surprise, Clare's childhood friends divine that Henry's her "husband."
- This suggests some omniscient being or spirit is guiding the rollers, an agent of fate unconcerned with disclosing the future.
- It also suggests time travel here isn't strictly science fiction, but more than likely supernatural/magic as well.
(Continued in comments)
— Dec 21, 2024 10:30PM
(1) Apparently, Ouija boards actually work in this universe! To her own surprise, Clare's childhood friends divine that Henry's her "husband."
- This suggests some omniscient being or spirit is guiding the rollers, an agent of fate unconcerned with disclosing the future.
- It also suggests time travel here isn't strictly science fiction, but more than likely supernatural/magic as well.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is 10% done
Notes:
(1) There's an awful lot of nudity talk in the prologue, as if to constantly underscore, and drill into your head, at the outset what time travel here entails.
- In this case, it's waking up naked and vulnerable.
- On the plus side, probably not "Naked and Afraid" (like that TV show), since I suppose you'd get used to the feeling pretty quick. I mean, there'd be no fear of the unknown.
(Continued in comments)
— Dec 16, 2024 08:30AM
(1) There's an awful lot of nudity talk in the prologue, as if to constantly underscore, and drill into your head, at the outset what time travel here entails.
- In this case, it's waking up naked and vulnerable.
- On the plus side, probably not "Naked and Afraid" (like that TV show), since I suppose you'd get used to the feeling pretty quick. I mean, there'd be no fear of the unknown.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is starting
Notes:
(1) Contrary to popular belief, I will on occasion read books other people might be interested in and/or have actually heard of.
(2) I'm reading this now because one of my goals for 2024 is to read at least one 500+ page book.
- Lucky enough, after being on hold forever, this eBook just became available at my library.
- I don't expect to have a problem finishing before the return date, but the clock's ticking!
— Dec 07, 2024 04:00AM
(1) Contrary to popular belief, I will on occasion read books other people might be interested in and/or have actually heard of.
(2) I'm reading this now because one of my goals for 2024 is to read at least one 500+ page book.
- Lucky enough, after being on hold forever, this eBook just became available at my library.
- I don't expect to have a problem finishing before the return date, but the clock's ticking!
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I remember liking this book at the time
TL wrote: "I remember liking this book at the time"There's definitely stuff to like :)
Henry: "Most people... no, I imagine not. Only people who haven't known each other very long and still can't believe their luck, I would think. Is it too much?"
Clare: "I don't know. Maybe."
- I'm surprised she hasn't compared notes with any of her girlfriends. Surely Helen would have lots to say.
- I wonder whether the idea of knowing that you're life's already happened has robbed her of a sense of agency or ability to say no to Henry, of whom she's always regarded as an oracle and/or the eternal adult who's judgement she's by default deferred to.
(3) "When I was sixteen, I was waiting for you late one night ... and I was just crazy to lose my virginity. I suddenly got the idea that I would hide your clothes."
- Yes, Lolita indeed. That's the problem with knowing your future, you sort of want to hurry along the inevitable.
- My question is whether this is a matter of nature or nurture: is she just naturally sexually precocious, or did Henry's injection into her childhood make her that way.
(4) Clare: "I mean, it wasn't like you would've been raping me, because I was absolutely asking for it."
- Clare seems to be entirely unaware that statutory rape's a thing.
- Though, how do you prove the age of a naked man not known to any locals? By sight? It's not like he has tree rings to count or anything. I'd assume fingerprints or dental records would just point to his younger self. But then, he'd still be eight years older and I doubt that's an age gap covered under Romeo and Juliet laws.
(5) Henry: "I'm not kidding about wanting that much sex. I mean, I realize that it's not practical. But I've been wanting to tell you: I feel so different. I just... feel so connected to you. And I think that it holds me here, in the present."
- Presuming this isn't just a line to keep her saying yes to more sex, Henry seems to be suggesting that sex with Clare specifically is a kind of medical treatment against time travel.
- Assuming Henry's correct, I guess this means he travels a lot in his 40s because they stop having sex so frequently. Can't say it doesn't make sense.
(6) "'You know that I love you. Will you marry me?'
'Yes... Henry.' I have an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. 'But you know, really... I already have.'"
- Am I the only one who finds this proposal distinctly unromantic and perfunctory?
- That's the problem with knowing your future, you feel you have no choice but to accept fate.
- I guess having too much sex wasn't any sort of deal breaker.
(7) Henry gets a haircut, which is juxtaposed with the next scene where he compared himself to a worm transforming into a butterfly.
- It's a symbolic change from the long-haired stranger Clare hadn't met to the one she's known since childhood.
- Clare similarly has a transformational dream about being a mermaid, and not being able to marry Henry because they're a different species. Ironic how, in her dreams, she's the anomaly not him.
(8) "I can barely see outside, it's raining so hard. How is Henry going to run in this?
'Perfect weather for a wedding,' Mark jokes. I shrug. 'I didn't pick it.'"
- Despite what Alanis Morrisette might say, rain on your wedding day isn't ironic, but traditionally auspicious.
- Though, Mark joking about it being unfortunate may actually be ironic.
(9) Clare and Henry have sex the morning of their wedding, which they joke is doing things in reverse.
- At least they got it out of the way before Henry got whisked off to the '70s. See, that's foreword thinking.
- Ironic, because the sex (and jogging in the rain) was supposed to anchor Henry to the present. Just goes to show, no matter how much you try, you can't change fate.
(10) Henry and Clare's wedding is sort of like Back to the Future, Part II meets The Parent Trap.
- Sort of makes sense now how The Parent Trap was the movie Clare and her friends watched during the Ouija board sleepover. You know, when it was foretold she'd marry Henry.
(11) Clare and Henry have two wedding ceremonies. One at the church where she marries old Henry, and one at the courthouse where she marries young Henry.
- Though, technically Henry only gets married once. He's already married his second time around so it's really a vow renewal.
- Whereas Clare does get married twice, once as an unmarried woman and again to an unmarried man.
- Funny how they never have a true wedding of two single people, since one of them is always already married, albeit to the other.
(12) Clare: "I wonder if I'm a bigamist?"
Charisse: "I think you're allowed to marry the same person as many times as you want."
- Yes, but it's always the first wedding for one of them. It's only a vow renewal if they're both already married.
- I guess technically they're both bigamists... or will be.
- Presumably, this means Charisse knows Henry's secret too.