Okay, I'm off hiatus and back to reviewing.
If you'll recall I went to see the movie when it came out a few months ago, so I decided to read the book that's made such a splash. First, the concept is a clever one. Henry DeTamble is afflicted by a genetic disorder which causes him to time travel spontaneously. This isn't some magical gift, but rather a curse which plagues his life, causing him to end up in dangerous situations and to learn things about the future he would never normally know.
His wife, Clare, has known him since she was six years old because an older version of Henry traveled to the past to see her. Meanwhile, Henry meets Clare for the first time in his own timeline when he is twenty-eight. Thus begins their harrowing love story.
And this is a love story, a good one. Told in present tense, first-person narrative, it tries to get as close to the reader as can be. The sentences are direct, simple, and cutting; the characters are complex. Niffenegger's strength seems to be her unrelenting brutal and harsh portrayal of the realities of life. Even though her premise is fantastical, an ability which we would at first glance believe a blessing, she treats with eagle eye precision as an almost life-threatening illness. Clare and Henry are so in love, yet face so many troubles. Of course the title is revealing; this isn't about a woman coming into her own (a woman who is already fiercely independent), but rather about a steadfast love. By making Clare a possession of Henry in the title, Niffenegger has already relegated her to that "waiting" position she maintains throughout the book.
Despite its realistic and complex look at a single relationship, the book does have its faults. Chief among these is its diminished emotional impact. Sure, at the end I did feel that a some great saga had come to an end, but I wasn't exactly teary-eyed. This is mostly because Clare and Henry are unapologetically selfish characters. They mourn their plight, they both injure other lovers unrepentantly, they decide that they need one another despite the consequences. Perhaps these are realistic human traits-but there isn't much to ingratiate you to either character, both of whom seem to run around in circles throughout the book even as their relationship with one another changes.
The book has plenty of strengths. Its length may have been excessive, but Niffeneger pulls off the intersecting, jumping timeline structure quite well. She uses it for shocking revelations late in the book and a few excellent plot twists. And secondary to the romance of Clare and Henry is an exploration of family. Clare's family, with its dysfunctionality swept neatly under the rug and surfacing during high-tension family affairs with the aid of inebriation, rings painfully true. Developments in the Ingrid and Henry storyline, mirrored by the Gomez and Clare storyline, are a treat for the reader and often provide more insight into the two protagonists than many of their own interactions do. This is a mature and cathartic read, and it succeeds in being epic even if it does fail to rake us across the coals in an emotional sense.
-elln
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