Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Time Travellers Wife

I finished a few days ago a book called The Time Travellers Wife, i read alot but i don't usually talk to much about books Ive read unless i really like them, and well i really liked this book, to me it seemed it had a bit of everything in it.
The book is about two people Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire.

After i searched on the net i found out that this books has been made into a movie, I'm not to sure when it will be out, but i wonder if they can do the book any justice.

Henry and Clare first meet when Henry is 36 and Clare is 6

Henry is a time traveller although its not by choice. A genetic mutation causes him to spontaneously travel through time, disappearing from view, him leaving behind his clothes and possessions, then arriving naked in another time and another place. To survive Henry often has to turn to petty crime to feed and clothe himself when he travels, and must run from people, thugs, or the police, which is how he meets Clare for the first time, in a field behind Clare's house, throughout her younger years, Clare meets him there and falls in love with him.

Clare is a child and then a teenager with their secret rendezvous throughout the years in the meadow. Henry first visited her at an older age, so he knew the dates that the earlier versions of himself would visit the older versions of Clare.

In those early days of her life, Henry knew much about her future, but declined to tell it to her anything so things would go as they are supposed too, he does not want to change the future in any way.

Once Clare became an adult, she knew she had to wait to meet Henry in real time, and that he would be her lover. When they did finally meet, Henry in the present was a younger man, who had not yet traveled to the meadow to meet Clare. At this point, she knew parts of his future that he did not.

As Clare says in part of the book

Our life together in this too-small apartment is
punctuated by Henry's small absences. Sometimes he disappears unobtrusively; I
might be walking from the kitchen into the hall and find a pile of clothing on
the floor. I might get out of bed in the morning and find the shower running and
no one in it. Sometimes it's frightening


Time travelling does have some advantages though. Henry's mother died in a car accident when he was a small boy. He often goes back in time and gets to see her, although all he can do is watch from a distance.

The book is a heartfelt love story of two people who must live with this curse as part of their lives.

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2 comments:

Arameya said...

I read it a few years ago, I think. Probably should read it again.

Can you imagine having to live with such uncertainty? Not knowing when your partner will be gone for good because he dies in some freak accident after he's done his teleporting?

S'far as I know the murloc doesn't do any teleporting apart from getting up to close the door or something like that... Thank goodness.

I don't think I could deal with his unannounced, prolonged absences. I suppose I will, when/if the time comes... but right now, not yet.

Mimi said...

Thanks for sharing this. I probably would add it on my to read list.