Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

January 24, 2007

It is hard to imagine that this is Audrey Niffenegger's first novel. This book is incredibly well written. I have been putting it off for a while because the plot sounded complex and too close to sci-fi (not my favorite genre). Instead, this is the story of Henry, a librarian, and Clare, his artist wife. Henry suffers from the not-yet-named Chrono-Displacement Order, which transports him from the present to another point of time (usually the past) without warning. One minute he may be with his wife in 2003, the next minute he may find himself spying on himself and his parents when he was a child. Sounds confusing, and I admit to being a little slow to warm up to the concept. I thought I'd be constantly confused by the time; however, the author clearly states the date, place, and age of Henry and Clare with each segment. I loved the book. Warning: some rather explicit scenes within.