"I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing, With a broken heart, That's still beating" Broken by Lifehouse

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Do you want to laugh, cry, and travel through time and space with a love story that will stick with you? Than look no further, this is the book for you. This story will melt your heart and give you some food for thought. The Time Traveler’s Wife raises so many questions about life. Questions like, Is the idea of fate real? Is there a God and what is His role in this life? Is there really just one person out there that is the exact fit for another person? I’m not sure if I’m the best person to answer these questions in detail, but to quickly answer the above questions in my own personal opinion… (Yes, Yes-to be glorified, No).

Clare was never an ordinary girl, she never had the chance to be normal. Because there was always Henry. Clare first met Henry when she was 6 years old and Henry was 36. Life after that moment was never the same, or was it never the same after they first met when she was 20 and Henry was 28? It is for the reader to decide. We follow this romance from beginning to end. It will make you laugh and cry and believe that love is out there waiting to find you.

My absolute favorite element of the book was the characters. Henry was my favorite. He is one of those characters that after the book is over you continue to think about him and the life he lived. He was a wonderful diverse character that was in a horrible predicament. You could only feel bad for him and love him with Clare. From the title a reader would assume that the book only would be from Clare’s perspective, or at least that is what I thought when I picked it up. Surprises of all surprises, on the first page we are seeing the story from Henry’s perspective. I personally enjoyed it because the audience would not know him half as well if we had not seen half the story from his point of view.

I did have a couple of gripes about the book that other people probably loved. I did not enjoy the multiple name dropping of authors, poets, musicians, and other famous people that I had never heard of. I feel that my liberal arts education prepared me well for the world and gave me some knowledge that I would not have normally picked up, but I looked up some of these people and knew that there was no way that I would have ever heard about them. Also, she changed languages throughout the book (French, Italian, & German) with little to no explanation of what the phrase, sentence and sometimes paragraph meant. Although the language changes were very real and natural, for any audience member who was not multilingual it caused confusion.

With fate in mind and in my own life, I can look back on my own story with Simon and see that if certain things did or did not happen then we would probably not be together (what if he would have accepted one of the many tennis scholarships, what if I wouldn’t have accepted the internship at my church, what if I would have gone to a different college, what if he never went to Brookhill?). Did we actually make those choices or were they made for us? Was it predestined from the beginning of time for us both to end up at Christian Ministries Church so that we would be together? Only God knows, but I do know that I’m incandescently happy that it did happen just the way it did. I wonder if Clare would say the same, or would she have liked to go back and change her decisions based on the outcome of her decisions.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is an excellent read. I would recommend it to all readers (some language and sexual content may not be suitable for younger readers). It was addicting from the very beginning and it only took me a week to read. The author’s style was perfect for the story line and theme. On the cover of the book, the short biography about the author stated that this was her first novel. BRAVO!!! For her first novel, she did outstanding, and I hope that her other books (if there are any) are just as great and just as addicting.

Well all of that to say, what did you think? Did you read the book? Do you agree? Is it a good read? Have you seen the movie? What did you think about the movie? Give me some feedback down below!