The Time Traveler’s Wife

The Time Traveler’s Wife

Niffenegger, A. (2003). The time traveler’s wife. San Francisco, CA: MacAdam/Cage. 

Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction (Adult)

Henry is a charming librarian…and a time traveler. He doesn’t hop into some spaceship or anything; in fact, he cannot control it at all. He sporadically travels through time—both forwards and backwards. Clare is Henry’s wife. She first meets Henry as a little girl and spends her entire life devoted to him despite his issues with time traveling. It is a story filled with both love and tragedy.

Reaction: I have been to Chicago a handful of times and have never experienced it like Henry and Clare. I really must visit the library, museums, and other places mentioned in the book! 

The beginning was a little slow for me (it took me months to get past the first 100 pages) and then BANG! I could not put the book down. For me, Niffenegger’s structure was hard to adjust to. For example, one minute you are reading from child Clare’s point of view than the next, adult Henry’s view and back and forth across multiple ages in their lives. I think Niffenegger wants her readers to empathize with how scatterbrained Henry must feel but it was too much for my brain to sort out until I learned enough of the story to follow along.

My heart goes out to Clare and Henry, what a heart-wrenching way to live. The book made me think about how all events, no matter how small they may seem, influences our lives. The little things and small mannerisms meant the most to both Clare and Henry. When you think about it, it truly is a blessing to remain in the present at all times. The past is haunting and knowing the future taints the present.

A few things to note: The language and sex might be offensive to some but it is a book for adults and adults are aware of these things. The movie doesn’t do the book justice, but it usually works that way. 

My hope: I would like to see a sequel written from the perspective of another time traveler. I won’t spoil anything but if you read the book, you know whom I mean. 

I originally rated this 3 stars but kept thinking about the characters and bumped it up to 4 Stars

The Tiger's Wife

Obreht, T. (2011). The tiger’s wife. New York, NY: Random House.

*I received this book for free as a first reads winner on goodreads.

Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction

Natalia, a doctor, shares stories that she remembers from her grandfather as she goes on a journey of her own to better understand her deceased grandfather and the fable of the tiger’s wife.

I was thrilled to begin reading this book because the premise of the story was enticing, touching, and I was interested in the bond between Natalia and her deceased grandfather. 

However, the slow story development kept me from being pulled into the story. It took me nearly six months to read more than a few pages at a time. And honestly, “slow” is a fairly nice term…painful is more accurate. Don’t get me wrong, Obreht is a great storyteller and the writing was much better than some of the authors I have read but The Tiger’s Wife lacked character development, cohesiveness, and emotion from Natalia. 

For me, the most meaningful aspect of the book was when Natalia shared her childhood memories of spending time with her grandfather and his stories, especially his tellings of the “deathless man”. Obreht’s approach to flip back and forth between Natalia’s present and the grandfather’s stories was a bit disjointed but it did reinforce the similarities of the two and their paths of doctor-hood (at the sake of the book’s flow and readability).

Disappointing. If I had to describe my reading experience of The Tiger’s Wife, disappointing would be the word. Natalia’s character is not deep enough to unravel a magical legend. Or maybe it is the writing that makes me feel this way…the sentences were good but they lose their value when placed together so poorly. Hmmm…regardless, I do think there is much to gain from reading this novel and I would recommend this book to anyone looking to read something challenging and different.

"Gone Girl"

Gone Girl

Flynn, G. (2012). Gone Girl. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group. 

Genre: Thriller/Mystery, Adult Fiction

Nick and Amy are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. But, Amy is nowhere to be found. She’s missing. She’s gone. Amy’s disappearance becomes big news quickly and Nick is almost immediately pegged as the perpetrator. Flynn switches the point-of-view back and forth between Nick, in the now, and passages from Amy’s diary. And it seems the two are in completely different marriages. One thing seems to hold the truth, an annual scavenger hunt planned by Amy has scattered clues all over town. Will the clues lead us to Amy? Is Nick guilty? Is anything what it seems?

Wowzers! What a book!

When people ask me why I do not ever want to get married...I will refer them to this book :).  Ha ha, but seriously, marriages like this are not rare. Well, this is extreme and fiction but people are dysfunctional.

Okay, back to being serious. Flynn’s writing was perfect. Yes, perfect. Not in an Amy kind of way perfect, but perfect perfect.  And intriguing. It is absolutely scary how real the characters are. Flynn spent a lot of time developing their personalities, voice, mannerisms, etc. and it paid off because their characters are fully developed, multifaceted and it is easy to visualize an accurate depiction of them.

A theme or message I took away from the book is, people are natural pretenders, Nick and Amy are pretenders to the world but because Flynn took us inside their heads, we were able to see them for whom they really were. Two individuals so stuck on issues from their childhoods, they cannot function appropriately. Amy is controlling, obsessive, and ruthless. Nick is cowardly, insecure, and emotionally empty. 

Flynn held my attention throughout the book with her structure and insight into human thinking. Skewed patterns of cognitive processes fascinate me and Flynn captured this phenomenon, so well. People pretend to be cool, good, or whatever they deem favorable because these ideals do not actually exist, we all just want them to.

Flynn has some side agendas with this book. The bashing of the media and internet is almost like a second plot line. A good one, but it probably was not necessary.

*An afterthought: Go, Nick’s twin sister, was my favorite character. She is a nice contrast to these off-putting main characters with her honesty, loyalty, and humor. She was introduced to us as the dysfunctional one but girl has a good head on her shoulders.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a thriller, a mystery, or something different from the typical read. Kudos to Flynn.