Guess who's behind the times again?

The Time Traveler's Wife

So, by this point, practically everyone's heard of this book by Audrey Niffenegger. However, for a really long time I had the impression that it was about women being abused in ancient China, and that was never something I was in the mood to read. I know. I have no idea why I thought that. Then I saw the trailer for the movie (which apparently is horrible and I have no intention of seeing) and thought the concept seemed kind of interesting. For those of you who have been living under a rock like me and don't know what it's about, there's this guy named Henry who every now and then just disappears and travels through time involuntarily. Not like, oh wow, let's revisit Germany and try to stop Hitler, but like, to parts of his own past and whatnot. He's been visiting his wife Clare (who does not travel through time) ever since she was a child, so they've always known that they were meant to be together, and the book is the tale of their lives together. A lot of it takes place in Chicago, which was nice because I was familiar with a lot of the settings.

In the beginning, this book was really intriguing. The whole concept and logistics of time travel really interested me, and it was strange to think about because, when it really comes down to it, they only met because future Henry told past Clare they were supposed to, and then Clare grew up and met Henry in the present and told him, "Hey, we're supposed to be together." Interesting, right? It must have taken a lot of planning on the part of the author, too, to get all the chronology to match up. After a while, though, it got into all this drama where they were trying to have a kid, which was more boring for me, maybe because I can't relate. Then at the end, it got really intense out of nowhere. I didn't find the ending all that satisfying. I think I lost interest a little bit in the middle. Anyway, I give this book 7 pretzel bites.

KAY