The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This was a book club book. We will be discussing it next week. I was tempted to wait to review until after that so I could give you their thoughts too but I couldn't wait anymore. I finished this book two weeks ago.

I loved this book. The premise was so interesting. A guy who time travels involuntarily and meets his future wife when she is six. He visits her many times as she grows up but he is varied in age. Then when they meet in real time and get together you read about their struggles with dealing with genetic disorder and trying to start a family. The book was a little hard to get used to at first but I love that Niffenegger tells the year and everyone's ages to make it easier to keep things straight. If you read this you reallly need to pay attention to those or you'll probably get lost.

The characterization in this book was wonderful. The book is told from the point of view of Henry (the time traveler) and Claire (his wife). I really grew to love these characters and when sad things happen to them I felt really sad for them. Okay I cried in some spots. I also loved that beside the whole time traveling thing the book seemed very realistic. They were having problems that I would think that other married couples would have and the way they rallied for each other was so beautiful.

One caveat is that this book has a lot of swearing (constant use of the F-word) and a lot of sex scenes. I was able to move past those pretty easily. Sometimes it would jar me out of the book but I tried to just ignore it.

Here are a couple of quotes. There are many great lines in this book but when I'm into a story I don't like to stop to find a highlighter.

This is when it is the anniversary of his mother's death and Henry hates to focus or think about. He wants to time travel to another time. "But then I feel guilty for wanting to avoid the sadness; dead people need us to remember them, even if it eats us, even if all we can do is say I'm sorry until it is as meaningless as air."

I just loved this description of when Henry is going into a bar and hears the music on the street as he enters. "...as I open the door someone starts to blow a trumpet and hot jazz smacks me in the chest. I walk into it like a drowning man, which is what I have come here to be."