The Time Traveler's Wife

This is an exquisite love story that takes place in the magnificent city of Chicago. It is also, however a very unique and untraditional love story that moves very fluently and keeps you reading until you pass out.

It is the story of a dashing librarian with flowing black hair who time travels when under mass amounts of stress to unknown places and times. His name is Henry DeTambel and he has a genetic disorder making him involuntarily time travel, which keeps him on his feet at all times. The story also follows a second narrator from a different perspective by the name of Clare Abshire, who is to become Henry’s wife. This tale parallels their lives and shows the beauty of the conquering power of love over all obstacles.

Clare is a young girl of six playing in her favorite hiding place within the meadow behind her house. There appears a naked man in his mid 30’s who thinks that little Clare might know him but is not sure. She throws him a towel to cover himself and this is the beginning of a relationship to last a life time for Clare. This naked man that stands before her is Henry DeTamble and this will happen to her many more times before they meet in the present. She is the little girl of a wealthy family. Her dad is well known and affluent lawyer. She lives her whole child hood keeping Henry a secret from everyone and also falling in love with him. Her friends when she becomes a teenager don’t understand why she dose not date and why she insist on keeping her virginity. The reason of course is that she is in love with a man that comes every now and again, to the place in the meadow to talk and play with her. He is different ages every time and sometimes will not know when they will meet again, however Clare loves him and spends her whole childhood waiting to meet him in the present.

Henry had been time traveling sense a tragic accident in his infant years. Then he could only travel a few seconds forwards and backwards, but as he grows older the disorder becomes stronger and as he gets well in years he can travel as far as 50years into the future. The idea of traveling into the future and past and letting himself know what is going on is beneficial if he wants to get a lead on the stocks or win the lottery, however the disappointment for him is that he cannot change anything when he goes into the past. As Henry learns to become proficient at ending up in random times and places naked, he breaks the laws a bit. He has to steal and strip things from many people. He becomes very good at breaking into joints to get clothes and food and is also proficient at out running the cops. One of Henrys most stalwart activities is running every morning. He dose this religiously to help to relieve stress as well as keep him in tip top shape for when he needs to run for his life. Henry is a character of great adventures sprit and will always bring wit and excitement to any situation in the book.

The marriage of Henry and Clare is an imperative occurrence in the book. This act is foreshadowed to death and is a scene that is impeccable, giving a great impression of the whole book. The novel deals a lot with the struggles of a marriage where the husband will haphazardly disappear and sometimes not come back for days. There are also complications that arise when the couple attempts to have kids, due to the genetic disorder of things in Henry’s body. The disorder that he has is called chrono-displacement disorder and the gene code is all out of whack.

Henry’s experiences that he undergoes many times enable him to get a better view on things like when he revisits the tragic car accident that he was in when just an infant. There is one point where Henry visits himself in the past and engages himself in conversations and, briefly, a masturbatory sexual experience. The effect is funny and remarkably poignant at the same time:
I ponder my double. He's curled up, hedgehog style, facing away from me, evidently asleep. I envy him. He is me, but I'm not him, yet. He has been through five years of a life that's still mysterious to me, still coiled tightly waiting to spring out and bite. Of course, whatever pleasures are to be had, he's had them; for me they wait like a box of unpoked chocolates.

Generally a first-rate romantic novel will make one cry, and this one will. Normally a magnificent novel will make one re-read it, and this one will. The finish of this novel will make one wipe their eyes and turn back to page one. The sad and romantic novel about time travel is one of the best that can ever be read.