Book Review: the Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Niffenegger was able to hold my attention for 518 pages over approximately four weeks. I absolutely loved this book and I looked forward every night to reading a few pages before I fell asleep. I enjoyed following the love story of Henry and Claire.

Henry DeTamble has Chrono Displacement disorder, which is a fictitious disorder that causes Henry to spontaneously travel through time. Henry cannot control his condition. He cannot stop it. He also doesn't even know where he is when he arrives, where he is going when he leaves, or when he will be back to where he's been. Often stress will trigger time travel for Henry and other times, it happens for no good reason.

Throughout this book, Claire meets Henry a number of times throughout her youth, teens and adult years. Claire was six the first time she met Henry and he was a grown man. She found him in the meadow next to her house and they started talking.

This book probably sounds like it would be difficult to follow a storyline, but in reality it was just the opposite - it was tough to put the book down. It was quite engaging and easy to follow.

Throughout the story, you follow the times that Henry and Claire meet. Henry's age was usually switching between his twenties, thirties and forties whenever he visited Claire. Claire's life progressed chronologically throughout the story, whereas especially in the beginning, Henry was entering her life at different ages.

In Claire's present, Henry may only be gone for fifteen minutes, but to him, he has been visiting other years of his life for significant periods of time and reliving him. Henry is unable to change the past during his time travel - he can only replay the past. In some cases, Henry even watches himself in the same moment at two different stages (or ages) in his life.

Claire knows from puberty that she is in love with Henry. Henry never "takes advantage" of her crush on him, even though she makes attempts to sway him in her teenage years. Their romantic encounters do not begin to happen until Claire is an adult.

In conclusion, this book is a must read. It is the kind of love we are all looking for in our lives. The love story is quite amazing. Claire and Henry go through quite a bit to be together. Henry disappears with almost no notice, and there is no way to know if he is ever coming back.