Book Review: Must Reads For Youth

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (17+)

Follow the timeless love story of Henry DeTamble and his future wife, Clare Abshire, in Audrey Niffenegger’s witty and thought-provoking novel, The Time Traveller’s Wife. The complexity of their relationship is heightened by the unexpected fact of Henry being a time traveller.

Since he was 6 years old, Henry has sporadically vanished into thin air, appearing in random times and places where he must fend for himself until he can return to his present time.

These detours into the past and future make Henry’s perspective especially compelling, as he often runs into a host of problems when trying to keep this unbelievable secret. My favourite parts of the novel are often when Henry time travels and meets another version of himself; the unique dynamic when Henry banters or converses with himself is refreshingly quirky and particularly engaging given that Henry will have (or already has had) this same discussion with himself in a different time.

Additionally, the immersive structure of the novel helps the reader to sympathise with Henry’s social struggle of encountering someone who only his future self has met, and therefore is unaware of anything he has (or rather, will) say to them or anything they have seen him do. Such scenes are always entertaining given that Henry must commit a host of crimes to survive in some of the harsh conditions he travels into – such as picking locks and stealing – and therefore cannot possibly know what trouble others have seen him get into!

Moreover, the concept of time is fascinating and even more so when considering Clare’s questions of such abstracts. Clare met Henry when she was 6 and he was 36, yet Henry first met Clare when he was 28 and she was 20. Throughout their relationship (which has changed drastically from somewhat parental, to platonic, to romantic), Clare continuously questions if either of them have “free will” given that the future has already “happened” in a way and seems to already be set in stone.

Their philosophical discussions of such ideas pertaining to the rules of time and space (if any exist at all!) as well as how the Christian God (as Clare is a devout Catholic) may play a part in this, are always captivating.

Furthermore, Niffenegger’s innovative scientific explanations for Henry’s time travelling condition – later known as being a CPD (chronically displaced person) – are also transfixing: from Henry’s theory of his chronic dislocation in time centring around the gruesome and untimely death of his mother, a famous singer, to his renowned geneticist doctor, David Kendrick, positing that Henry is a different type of human altogether, The Time Traveller’s Wife explores many aspects of this fantastical ability (albeit a power that Henry often loathes due to how it separates him from his loved ones).

This character-driven book has a range of interesting and developed characters who often have clever dialogue that can make anyone fall off their seat laughing. Whether it is the charming Gomez and Charisse – close friends of Henry and Clare – playing the invented game of “Modern Capitalist Mind F” on a monopoly board or Clare’s wealthy yet dysfunctional family trying to get through Christmas dinner, this ingenious work has something to entertain everyone.

As such, I encourage everyone to delve into Niffenegger’s complicated time-space fabric alongside Henry (and another time traveller who only readers of this amazing work will know!) as he lives his unconventional life where minutes can be hours and days can be mere seconds.