The Last Book I Read: The Time Traveler’s Wife

I admit it. Possession is not for bedtime reading, considering the fact that I read before I sleep to relax; and Possession did little to calm my nerves. I can’t sleep reading and re-reading passages, the language ever so caressing, suddenly throws me onto the vastness of outer space. I mean, the premise of two scholars uncovering those long secret correspondences between two Victorian poets sounded romantic enough, but I had no idea it would be such a huge feat for I, a non-advanced user of the English language. It has a lot of poems and culture I’ve yet to understand. Well it’s alright to throw in verses like this:

She tells her love while half asleep,
In the dark hours,
With half-words whispered low:
As earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.
(Robert Graves, quoted from Possession)
I appreciate that. Really, I understand and appreciate that in the context of one of the protagonist’s relationship with his girl friend. But Possession has a lot of bigger words for me, and when Ms. Byatt strings them in one sentence they become colossal.

So I did not wait for migraine or dysmenorrhea to decide later on to switch to the more reader friendly Niffeneger with The Time Traveler’s Wife.

The Time Traveler’s Wife was just recently released as a movie (‘ve yet to see!) The story revolves around Henry, who has a fantastic genetic time-traveling disorder, and Clare, his wife. It’s mainly about their fairytale relationship and Clare’s struggle in coping with Henry’s disorder, which almost always put him in dangerous situations.

Got pic from web. too lazy to grab a phone/cam to snap my own book.

Now let’s start with the love first.
Warning: spoilers.

1. Ms. Niffeneger had a fantastic idea, nay, an absurd one, and I admire her for making it bigger and making it work as a love story. You can feel the hard work she had put in writing the book. If the story were in the hands of a lazy author, I would just stop and pick up Possession again and whip myself bloody as penance for my sins and that of the world.
2. I give you permission to whip me bloody on this one: the theme’s fate/destiny. I squeal with delight. For the uninitiated, I am an advocate of Plato’s soul mate idea and its impossibility in real life. There’s this one scene when Henry met Clare in the library for the first time, and boy, was her pick up move ever so smooth and interesting.
3. Two words: time travel. I fell in love with the concept after reading Palahniuk’s Rant. It’s a crazy bitch’s idea, and whoever thought of time travelling must be some really good old miserable crackhead who wants to live in solitary confinement. Read the Grandfather paradox.

Now I have very simple standards. When a story invokes in me an unusual tide of emotions and ideas, then it is an excellent work. It means the author did a good job whipping up a vicarious force strong enough to stir those thoughts and feelings I already have. With TTTW’s it was sort of okay. No earth shattering, sob-inducing moments. It’s a lovely story every girl would want to have. Well, most girls would, I think. But I scratch myself reading some scenes and another. I mean I scratch my head.

Questions:
1. Sex figures importantly in a relationship, but in this book, is it really necessary to throw in a lot of that?
2. Is Henry’s previous observation of Clare’s horniness a smoking gun to that kinky scene with Gomez later in the book?
3. If Henry were normal, would he still meet Clare, and vice-versa? Would she ever make that move in the library to seal their fate?

Verdict: the book is thick. Five hundred ten plus pages. My favorite, easy read novel is 257 pages long. Nurse’s Reference guide: Emergencies is 800+ strong, and it is useful. BGFF… because every Cosmo chick deserves a gay best friend mini mag is less than ten pages, and it’s more or less useless. I’d still recommend The Time Traveler’s Wife to those who want a good, long love story, and BGFF to those who want a gay BFF.

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