Jayson’s Reviews > The Time Traveler's Wife > Status Update

(2) "'You never kissed me before.'
Oh, no. My face must be funny, because Clare laughs. I can't believe it. What an idiot I am.
'Oh, Clare, Just—forget that, okay? Just erase it. It never happened. Come here. Take two, yes? Clare?'
She tentatively steps toward me. I put my arms around her, look at her ... I place my hands over her ears and tip her head back, and kiss her."
- Okay, on the one hand, Henry does acknowledge that rough-kissing a 15 year-old is a bad thing. On the other hand, he goes in for a "take two."
- I understand that first kisses are important moments, and that Henry does not want hers to be tainted with unpleasantness. At the same time, two wrongs do not make a right. She's still 15, dude!
(3) After many miscarriages, Henry wants to adopt, while Clare wants to keep trying to conceive.
- At least on the surface, it seems like Clare is the eternal optimist, while Henry is the practical pessimist. Though, to me, it seems like Clare's a person who's experienced miracles and magic, and has faith in the impossible. Whereas time travel has always been a burden to Henry, something dangerous that's forced him to relive trauma and which he's desperate to stop despite its positive moments.
- Additionally, I guess Clare doesn't want to feel like her children died in vain, that the story must end in success and not capitulation. After so many losses, you need a win.
(4) I find that having two narrators that often alternate, and no defined chapters makes it confusing to figure out who's speaking.
- It'd be so much easier if they each had chapters of their own to keep things straight.
(5) "I should be at work, in 2002, but oh, well. Matt will have to cover for my afternoon Show and Tell, I guess. I make a mental note to take him out to dinner."
- For at least a decade, Henry repays co-workers who cover for his absences with food.
- I guess it's a small price to pay for a free meal. Plus, it turns irritation into anticipation.
(6) "'Persevere, Clare.'
'What?'
'Hang in there. In my present we have a baby.'
Clare closes her eyes, whispers, 'Thank you.' I don't know if she's talking to me or to God. It doesn't matter. "Thank you," she says, again, looking at me, talking to me, and I feel as though I am an angel in some demented version of the Annunciation."
- Henry just happens to travel to the exact moment Clare gives up on having a baby and instills renewed hope by telling her the future.
- As much as this book talks about time travel in terms of genes, DNA and science, there's a constant refrain of divine intervention. Henry even uses this language in comparing himself to an angel, which is what young Clare initially thought he was.
(7) Clare: "Henry has caught the cold I had sixteen years ago."
- I don't quite understand how Henry can catch a cold from Clare in the past and bring it into the present. The whole point of the shards of glass scene was to show that he can't bring anything back that isn't part of his body, presumably including cold viruses.
- Can foreign objects become "part of his body" if processed by the body? If so, that would explain why he can eat in the past and not just leave behind a pile of excrement in addition to the clothes he wears.
(8) I generally dislike dream sequences, though I understand their utility. We get a whole section of just dreams here, which is quite a jarring horror detour in this sci-fi romance.
- It's sort of like an alt-metal music video you'd see in the '90s.
(9) "As I penetrate Clare she looks at me and I think I don't exist and a second later she turns her head and sees me. She cries out, not loudly, and looks back at me, above her, in her. Then she remembers, accepts it, this is pretty strange but it's okay, and in this moment I love her more than life."
- Henry has sneaky sex with Clare while his other self is sleeping in the bed beside them. I wonder if we'll eventually get some context to this, the motivation at least, or if we're meant to chalk it all up to simply a sexual kink?
- On the bright side, at least they both seem into it, they're both adults in this instance of forced sexual activity, and it's one of the more minor (pardon the pun) sexual deviances in this book.
- We find out later that Clare is impregnated by this Henry and not vasectomy-Henry who's snoozing beside them. Not exactly the virgin birth, but arguably divine intervention nonetheless. You can't vasectomy against fate.
(10) Henry and Clare have celebratory baby-naming sex. Which is as good a reason as any.
- Though, could they please not make it part of their sexy talk? This book is creepy enough without them both getting aroused by their baby's name and its meaning.
(11) Henry meets his daughter in the future, which is one of the more wholesome and touching moments of the book so far.
- She's older than Clare was on their first meeting, which is something to consider. The child being older than the mother is an upside-down situation, so is Henry being younger than Clare in this instance.
- On one hand, he's reassured that his child lives, but on the other hand he finds out when he dies. It's interesting that he asks her how many years its been since he's died, which is easy math for a rough date. I don't know if many people would want to know, though he does already know that it happens, knows the range, and probably wants to know how much longer he has to sort things out.
- Past this point, there's a definite shift in urgency. We have a cut-off point, and even though there's a good chunk of this novel left, time with these characters feels limited.
(12) At first I thought Opart Thai was another pun like Beau Thai. Perhaps to sound like "apartheid"?
- But it turns out this is a real Thai restaurant in Chicago. I wonder if Beau Thai is as well?
(13) Henry's dad teaching his daughter to play the violin in the future is an important point.
- It's reassurance that even though Henry's gone, she'll at least have a father figure that's involved in her life for the long-term.
(14) There's a section called "Secret" which is in a noticeably smaller font.
- A nice touch and a small bonus for prose readers over the audiobook.
- It's about how Clare sometimes secretly enjoys that Henry's away.