photocreditThe Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger was our last book club read for the 2009-2010 year. It was also the first book that I had procrastinated reading until the very last minute possible. Our book club meets tonight, and I just finished it this afternoon. All 536 pages! It wasn't that I didn't want to read it--I had bought a pristine copy at a garage sale a year ago because I had wanted to read it since I worked at Barnes & Noble ages ago--I just never got around to it.
Our group added it to our list, and I was very excited to read it. I do judge books by their covers, and I really liked this one (I know, bad English major!). The reason I waited so long was simply because there were other books I was reading from Interlibrary Loan that have a much stricter time-line.
This book is, although long, easy to read quickly since there is such depth of plot. I easily read about 75-100 pages a day without feeling like I was reading all the time, which is good for a slow reader like me!
The story is about a man who time-travels to past and future dates in his and his (future) wife's lives. The author gives snips and pieces throughout the book, putting together clues, future events, etc. and the main plot of the story is the love and marriage of the two main characters. How his time-traveling, uncontrollable, permeates their lives, from fixing the lottery to seeing perserverance through many miscarriages in order to have a child.
My favorite parts of the book were after their child, a little girl named Alba, was born and her life as a time-travler, too.
Although this book is beautifully written with snippets of poetry, German, and French languages woven throughout, there are very sexually graphic parts that I didn't appreciate. It was just a bit over the top, and I felt unnecessary since the story was so unique.
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I also watched the movie, starring one of my favorite actresses (Rachel McAdams, The Notebook) co-starring Eric Bana (Munich) and although liked the movie, did not like the omission of so much. I understand there is only so much a director can put into a two hour movie, but there was a lot lost.
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If you're local join us tonight at Scooters (84th & Van Dorn) to discuss the book!
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