A Life in Books

I finished The Time Traveler’s Wife today. This book is the perfect example of why a reader needs to stick with a book that has some turbulence in the beginning of the book. I don’t mean turbulence as in bad stuff happens to the people in the book, I mean turbulence in the actually mechanics of the writing. As I said before, the problem with this book is the pacing of it. Niffenegger puts in so much backstory and explanation in the beginning of the book that I was quickly losing interest in what was going to happen.

Fortunately, once the reader catches up to the characters in time (as in, Henry and Clare are themselves in real time-eight years apart), the story goes from being mildly interesting to being entirely engrossing. Once the real core of the story was revealed, I couldn’t stop reading. The relationship between Henry and Clare is a constantly evolving ride of emotion that carries the reader from the exhilirating flush of first love through the crippling hardships of life and into the throes of grief. Henry and Clare win and lose a lot in their life together, and Niffenegger invites the reader along for the memorable journey.

Then she leaves you to crash and burn in the end. The book is divided into three parts. We’ve already explored the grueling beginning and the incredible middle. Now let’s examine the last part-the third part, the smallest part, the worst part. Clearly added as a resolution, it doesn’t resolve anything. Well, it didn’t for me. Some people might enjoy painting their own ending for the book, but not me. They take a jump of 45 years and explain nothing of the between years. I want to know what has happened. What have they been doing for nearly half a decade? It’s very frustrating. This is the third time this has happened to me with books. I hate it everytime.

However, the ending and the beginning are not bad enough to detract from the appeal of the overall book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story, even if there are some bumps along the way. The characters are well-rounded, with flaws and strengths that make them human. Niffenegger’s writing is superb, even when the pacing falls short of entertainment. A few points get confusing to follow, but they make sense at the end of the book. Just hold out until then and you will be rewarded with a wonderfully unique love story that takes the time travel novel and presents it to its best advantage.

By the Way: A note of caution: Charlotte Bronté never finished her novel Villette, but they published it anyway. A very dissatisfying ending, that.

The first book I am reading this year is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  Well, theoretically I am reading this book first, but Other Me, in what can only be a desperate attempt to sabotage my reading efforts, has overloaded me with distraction.

First she buys me a video game.  Sure I wanted it and it was a nice gesture at the time, but now her evil plot has been revealed.  Instead of reading, I spend hours playing the game.  Then, I spend valuable time arguing with myself over whether I should stick with Niffenegger to the end, or if I can take a break from her long enough to read Jasper Fforde’s book, The Big Over Easy, which incidentally Other Me loaned me.  She’s a wily one, that Other Me.  Trying to distract me from my reading.  And it’s working.

Last night I cracked and read part of Fforde’s book about the tragic death of Humpty Dumpty.  I’ve also read a good deal of Niffenegger’s book.  In my head, the two books have melded together and made for one bizarre dream last night.  I dreamt that Humpty Dumpty had to travel through time to solve his own murder.  Not to save himself, just to find out who had killed him.  It was very weird.

I’ve made myself stop reading Fforde’s book and am focusing on the pitfalls of time traveling.  I’ll probably finish this book today, but this has become one of those books where I have to work at making myself read it.  It reads more like a love story than a time travel novel, which is a good thing for me since I don’t really like the time travel books.  However, despite Niffenegger’s best efforts, there are times when the reader is as lost in time as the characters are.  There are hints and sneak peeks at things that are going to happen, but by the time the stuff actually happens, you’ve forgtotten about it.

The biggest problem with this book is the pacing.  So much time is spent hinting at what will happen and explaining what has already happened that I’m losing interest in what is happening.  Did you follow that sentence?  Get used to it because that’s how Niffenegger’s  book flows.  It gets very complicated.

Complications aside, I am enjoying the story of the book-the story of what is happening to Henry and Clare.  The writing style is easy to follow, once you figure out where in Henry’s life you are.  The dialogue is natural and not trying to be overly profound.  It’s just hard to stay interested long enough to follow through the maze of time.

Anyway, back to the pages.  Hopefully I’ll finish this book today and can decide whether it was worth reading or not.