The Time Traveler's Wife

5 stars.

I adored this fiction novel written by Audrey Niffenegger, and read it over the course of a few short days last summer.  Anything to do with time and displacement and the merging of the past/present/future has piqued my interest since I was a child, so it was no surprise that I fell in love with this book.

A love that can transcend even time is beautiful... and for Clare, it was worth all the sorrow that came with waiting for Henry as he transitioned between different times of her life.  She holds on to hope and love, "Don't you think it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?” says she.  I personally am still debating whether it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved, but Clare seems to be content in loving and losing, at least during some parts of the story as she alleges, “We laugh and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost, or dead, or far away: right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.”  For you see, Henry is diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement, and cannot control where he is within the sphere of time... he might be displaced at any moment and it could take minutes... or years... for him to find his way back to the "present", and ultimately back to Clare.

On one hand, this is a beautifully written heartbreaking love story, on the other hand, it is a commentary on determinism, and the idea that we cannot control our destiny.  We have so little control in life, and Niffenegger seems to portray it poignantly in this narrative as nothing Clare nor Henry can do can prevent him from leaving the present moment.  Clare acknowledges to Henry, "But sometimes you tell me something and I feel like the future is already there, you know? Like my future has happened in the past and I can't do anything about it."  And Henry admits that though he goes back in time, and though all of his will wants to, he still cannot undo anything that's been done.  For example, it torments Henry that no matter how many times time has sucked him back to the moment when he was still young and his mother passed away in a car accident, he cannot prevent the accident from happening.  Conceding control of life's regrettable moment is no small task.