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The Time Traveler's Wife (2003) is Audrey Niffenegger's debut novel. It is an unconventional love story that centers on a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time travel, and his wife, an artist who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences. The story is set in Chicago and South Haven, Michigan.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Sales and critical response 3 Film adaptation 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Told from the alternating perspectives of Clare and Henry, the novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Abshire (born 1971), an artist who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Displacement, that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991 at the opening of the novel, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. Clare's past is still in Henry's future. Henry begins to experience the events in Clare's childhood at the same time that he experiences life with the adult Clare in the present.

Henry, who began time traveling at age five, is unable to control his time traveling: when he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trip will last. His destinations are tied to his subconscious, as Henry most often travels to places and times related to his own history. Certain stimuli such as stress or the flickering images on a television can trigger Henry's time traveling, an experience described as similar to epilepsy or a panic attack. He runs as a way of keeping calm and remaining in the present. Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past, always arriving naked and having to struggle to find clothing, shelter, and food. He amasses a number of survival skills including pickpocketing, lock-picking, and fighting skills. He learns many of these skills from older versions of himself.

"It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays."

— Clare[1]

Henry frequently travels to Clare's childhood and adolescence in South Haven, Michigan, beginning in 1977 when she is six years old. On one of his early visits, Henry gives her a list of the visits he will make; she writes these dates into a diary so she can expect his visits and provide him with clothes and food. During one of Henry's visits, he inadvertently reveals that he and Clare will be married in the future. Over time, they develop a close relationship. His last visit takes place on her eighteenth birthday in 1989, during which he and Clare make love for the first time. They are then separated for two years until their timelines converge for the first time "naturally".

Clare and Henry marry, but Clare has trouble bringing a pregnancy to term because of the gene Henry is presumably passing on to the fetus. After six miscarriages, Henry wishes to save Clare further pain and has a vasectomy. They have a daughter named Alba who is diagnosed with the same disorder. Unlike Henry however, Alba has more control over her destinations when she time travels. Before she is born, Henry travels to the future and meets Alba, who is ten years old and on a school field trip. Henry learns that he died when she was five years old.

During what is to be his last year of life, Henry time travels to a Chicago parking garage on a frigid winter night where he is unable to find shelter. He experiences hypothermia and develops frostbite. When Henry returns to his 'present', his feet must be amputated. Henry and Clare both know that without the ability to escape by running, Henry will certainly die within his next few jumps in time. On New Year's Eve, the DeTambles throw a party, ostensibly to celebrate the new year, but the real reason is known only to Henry: he knows that the journey that will take his life will happen that night, and he doesn't want Clare to be alone when that happens. Just before midnight, Henry time travels into the middle of the Michigan woods during deer season and is fatally shot by Clare's brother, a scene foreshadowed earlier in the novel. Henry returns to the present and dies in Clare's arms.

Clare is devastated by Henry's passing. During this time, Alba meets Henry through her travels, though Clare never meets him. Clare later finds a letter from Henry which asks her to "stop waiting" for him, but leaves her with a description of an experience he has with her in her future when she is an old woman, though he refuses to tell her what occurs. The last scene in the book takes place when Clare is 82. She is waiting for Henry, as she has done her whole life. Henry, 43, travels to his future and sees an elderly lady sitting with her back to him. He approaches her and she turns around, and it is Clare.

[edit] Sales and critical response

UK sales were boosted in 2005 when Richard & Judy included The Time Traveler's Wife in their Book Club. It was also picked for the Today Show's book club,^[2] and won the 2005 Boeke Prize.

Kathy Balog of USA Today praised Niffenegger's "moving, razor-edged prose."^[3] Michael Farrelly of Bookslut said, "what better testament to good writing is there than the ability to make characters so developed and true that even their imagined slights move us to tears?"^[4] W. R. Greer of ReviewsOfBooks.com said the novel is "time well spent" and "a highly recommended read".^[5]

Claude Lalumière of The Montreal Gazette said, "There's a lot to love in this book, although a few minor points sometimes strain credibility."^[6] Phil Reed of Noise to Signal criticized the novel in a lengthy essay, saying: "Every event in this book is singular. It begins, is explored, is wound down, and ends, and is never referred to again. ... It's terrible, terrible writing."^[7]

[edit] Film adaptation

New Line Cinema has developed a film adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife. The adaptation will be directed by Robert Schwentke and stars Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Filming began in September 2007. ^[8] The film was originally due for release on June 6, 2008, but now has a release date of August 14, 2009.^[9]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Time Traveler's Wife Official page from publisher MacAdam/Cage
• Time Travel Without Your Dental Fillings: A Review of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife