The Time Traveler's Wife - Book Review

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My little bro has been complaining forever about my outdated blog. Classes have begun and my less-than-artistic spirits are back. Most of the time, I am uninspired and passionless. In other words, I am quite bored.

So I decided to read a book, The Time Traveler's Wife. A movie adaptation was out in 2009 starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Although critics disliked the movie, I quite enjoyed how it potrayed the notion of romance. It seemed real, for that 2 hours of screening. Haha, bleh...

Cover of the Book

Poster of the Film

Plot Summary:

Despite its very sci-fi title, the story mainly revolves around a romantic relationship between a simple librarian guy called Henry and an artist, Clare who specialized in sculptures. From the outside, it seemed like a normal dating relationship - both were goodlooking, bright young things who loved each other.

However, things were not always easy [since when were they easy anyway...?] because Henry also had an extra gift/curse/weird disease with no explanation - he time traveled and had absolutely no control over it. When he was six, he would suddenly vanish and appear in the time when he was 23 and when he was 38, he'd vanish to the time when he was 25. Confusing and fucked up things, for sure, but he got used to it as he had been preparing for the suddenness of the time travel since he was little.

He met our heroine, Clare for the first time when he was 28, she was 20, at the library. Owwwh... how nerdy. But anyway, he was taken aback by their first encounter as Clare looked at him as if she had known him since forever [which was quite true]. Somewhere in the future when he turned 36, he would time travel to the time where Clare was 6 and it became a routine until he was 43 and she was 18.

So she kinda knew that she would marry him after all even before their first date as normal present persons. Huh. Imagine meeting a stranger for the first time who comes to you and say, "you know what, we are going to marry each other!" and says it so confidently that you somehow believe him/her yet think of him/her as some psychotic escapee from a nearby mental institute.

Yet, since she knew him so well, Henry felt a wonderful sense of familiarity every time he was with her. So they dated and had a lot of sex and decided to get married two years later. They were bound by their fate and enjoyed it. After a while, they decided that they wanted to have a baby. However, it was difficult considering the baby[ies] also inherited Henry's genes and often time traveled as fetuses and unfortunately died. It happened for six times until they finally conceived and gave birth to a healthy girl named Alba.

The main turning point of the story was when Henry traveled to Alba's future and saw Alba as a primary school kid  [in his time, she was just a baby]. She was smart, confident and pretty. Sadly, Henry also discovered that at that time in the future, he was already dead. Alba was born when he was 38 and when Alba was five, he died. So clock is ticking and he had not much time left. He went back to the real present and did not tell Clare about it. Instead, he began to make preparations for his loved ones so that they would not grief so much after his passing.

And he died at 43. Even after his death, she kept waiting and waiting. Waiting to see him again in the form of his past self traveling towards her present. Until she was 82.



What I do like about the book:

I like how Henry and Clare were always sure of each other's love. They never really doubted it. They never fought about how perhaps... in some corner of their minds... that.... they did not really love each other. Or maybe they wouldn't if not for Henry's time traveling shit. But they did anyway. So I don't think they gave a damn bout those 'what-if' situations.

I also like how Clare described her romantic relationship with Henry to be quite painful sometimes. Because when he was absent during his time traveling hours/days, there was nothing she could do to bring him back or call him and say, "hey, cut it out. I need you now!" Instead, all she could do was sit and wait. And keep waiting. And she did not like it. But she did not have a choice. It was a price she had to pay for choosing him as her life partner. It's like dating an uncertain thing who kept vanishing and reappearing without warning. That must have sucked, I must say.

But hey... if that Henry looks like Eric Bana, I wouldn't mind either... Ouulala...

Therefore, in a relationship, there are bound to be pains and happiness. She loved her privacy when he vanished, she also loved him over and over again when he returned to her.

See how messed up both of them were...?

So for a few hours spent reading the book, I have to say, I slightly believed in love and romance. That is the purpose of romance novels. If you have no romance in life, go read a romance book. If you have no action in life, go read some action books. Why do you think Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Games of Thrones and the Hunger Games sold so well? Because people are dying to live in adventure but has none.

And Twilight...? Ughhh, don't get me started....


What I don' like about the book:

A delusional shit, I must say. As much as I love how sure they are about their love, I really wanted them to NOT love each other at least once in their messed up relationship, like every other normal couples. But noooo, they never did. They rarely fought as well and everything seemed to happen in such a lovey-dovey mood...

Their dates were great, kisses were great, sex was great and they had lots of money to live on.

People can't be that lucky in life.

Or maybe I am just a bitter b-yotch.


Language:

The language of the novel is very simple and easy to understand. And straightforward as well. You won't be using your mind much to indulge in the plot but emotions do run high, especially from Clare's perspective [duhh, who told you to date a time traveler?] The author used first-person narrative, shifting from Clare's to Henry's perspective in describing their relationship. Therefore, we get to see how the story unfolded from two sides of the story.

So it was clearer. There were no mysteries to unfold. The author did not aim to tease our mind but to experience what Henry and Clare experienced in the story.


Conclusion:

All in all, it was a good story. And since the author got her inspiration after a few failed romantic experiences, we are able to catch a glimpse of how she felt in the novel. People are always tired in waiting for their true love but they never give up. Even though it is messy, troublesome and sometimes painful, people keep coming around. And does not seem to stop.

I guess the reward lies in the journey, not the uncertain decisive final stop.



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Ruby Jusoh went to her first aerobic exercises yesterday and her shoulders hurt the morning after. Haih... But at least it's better than jogging...