The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Last night, I finished reading The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
I’m torn with The Time Traveler’s Wife. I enjoyed the story for the most part, but there are three things that make it impossible for me to love it. (The third reason contains spoilers.)
First, I’m not a big fan of profanity, especially when the profanity is the F-word. I’ll read books with language in it and try to skip over the words as best I can, but the language usually keeps me from enjoying the book as much as I could’ve if it weren’t there in the first place.
Second, I’m not a fan of gratuitous sex. I don’t need to know everything that’s done during the sex act. I don’t mind knowing that the characters are having or had sex; I just don’t want to know what he did to pleasure her or she did to pleasure him. At that point, I feel like the book becomes more of a sex story than a love story. It feels as though the characters lust after each other rather than really love each other. In Henry and Clare’s case, I do feel like they truly loved each other, but there’s more to a relationship than sex and I wanted to see those aspects explored more.
Third, I hated the ending. It bugged me that Henry told Clare not to wait for him after he died, but then told her that he sees her when she’s 82. Of course she’s going to wait for him armed with that knowledge! She’d been waiting for him her entire life. He just needed to let it happen like so many other things did during his and Clare’s life.
These things keep me from knowing that I’ll read the story again. At this point, I may or may not; I’m just not sure. However, I did like the story most of the time, so I do recommend it to others as you may not have the same objections as I do. And, because I did enjoy the story most of the time, I’d still like to see the movie as long as it doesn’t contain nudity or language.
Thanks for the commentary. I was trying to decide if I wanted to read that book. I’ve heard it’s wonderful, but I was glad to hear your gripes with it.
interesting review jenni. i was totally turned off by the scene when Henry has a sexual encounter with himself. i actually stopped reading it for awhile. then i wanted to see where the story went, so i skimmed some and ended up finishing it later.
but i keep thinking about that, and wondering if i could meet someone exactly like me, would i like them or hate them? would we be good friends? i still can’t decide. and i’m not sure what that says about me.
anyway, sounds like you are working your bum off with your trainer. you go girl.