Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveller's Wife

Sleepy

Did a google for site:boards.ie and this book doesn't appear to have been discussed before but in the absence of search I can't be sure so sorry if I'm creating a duplicate thread.

Just finished this book and it's left me thinking about it a lot. Definitely one I'd recommend. Personally I thought the writing itself was brilliantly done for a debut novel, Niffeneger really seems to be able to take on the characters and write as them at the different stages of their lives.

Just wondering what other people's takes on it were...

iguana

I wasn't wild on it. Once I got into it, it was quite absorbing but once I finished it I found it left me wanting.

The premise was highly original, and the characters were likable. But the pacing felt all wrong. Certain scenes that I was waiting for, that had been built up to never materialised. Some lesser characters seemed like they would have been very interesting if expanded but they never were and the ending didn't seem to have a point.

Some things about the ending seem to be at odds with what we have been told throught the story. The way it ends serves no purpose but yet it is written as if it does. It seemed to be building toward something special and then takes a completely different path, as if the author had a destination that she could feel but was out of her grasp. So instead she ends it with an attempt to be clever that feels exactly like an attempt to be clever.

It was like a literary version of Donnie Darko. A great journey with a pointless destination that makes you wonder why you ever set out in the first place.

dudara

I don't like the Donnie Darko comparison. I thought this book was an excellent read and a great first novel from an author I will be looking out for in the future.

First of all, it's the best recently-published love story that I've read. The author pretty much ignores the sci-fi aspect of the time travel and concentrates instead on how it shaped the character's lives. I especially loved the ending, so very poignant

Sleepy

I kind of agree with both of you, I loved the romance between Henry & Clare but the ending did seem almost as if Niffenegger fell out of love with Henry's character if that makes any sense...

I'd disagree with the Donnie Darko comparison too though. I'm not altogether certain that there is no point to the ending and the two works are just too different to be comparing like with like imho.

iguana

Sleepy wrote:

I'd disagree with the Donnie Darko comparison too though. I'm not altogether certain that there is no point to the ending and the two works are just too different to be comparing like with like imho.

I'm not exactly saying it was like DD. It's just that with both DD and TTW I was really absorbed in the story, felt an urge to push forward and in both cases I felt the ending wasn't properly thought out. Both of them left me feeling so disapointed by the ending that it pretty much cancelled out the enjoyment I had gotten up to that point.