Book Review:
The Time Traveler’s Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
Page Count: 536

By Rev. Dee Dee Azhikakath

(UMC.org)—Will Rodgers once wrote, “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” While Mr. Rodgers did not know Clare Abshire or Henry DeTamble, perhaps if he did he would have sympathized with not only the irony of time but the predicament of it when you are in love with someone who is a CDP, or Chrono-Displaced Person.

Henry was born with Chrono-Displacement Disorder—a condition that causes him to involuntarily disappear from from the present and turn up somewhere in his past—and lived with the burden of having what he perceived was a genetic disease. One night at the age of 5, while most of us would be dreaming of sugar plum fairies, Henry time travels from his bed to Chicago’s Field Museum. This would be the first of Henry’s many time traveling experiences, which ruthlessly bounce him through time and space. Each trip lands him cold, naked, hungry and left to his own devices to survive until time unrepentantly pulls him back to the present again. Gradually these trips patch together an extraordinary lifetime of uncertainty laced with frustration. Finally, after having such a wild and dangerous existence, Henry finds the true keystone in his life—Clare, who gives him a reason to come back to the present.

The Time Traveler’s Wife tells the story of the passionate love between Henry and Clare and explores how the chaos of Henry’s spontaneous time travel affects their relationship. Although they attempt to live normal lives, their relationship is tested by Henry’s spontaneous disappearances, which they can neither prevent nor control.

Clare was only six years old when she first meets her future husband in 1977. The problem, however, was that Henry was thirty-six at the time and had traveled back from the year 2000. Not until 20 years later does Henry finally first met Clare in the present. As a result, Clare spends half her life yearning to meet her husband in the present, and the other half of her life waiting for him to come back from her past. Careful not to reveal the past encounters which Henry has yet to experience, Clare is a beacon of strength and patience.

As Henry time travels more and more, he finds out what “a weird combination of freedom and despair” time traveling can be. He must teach himself—literally having the future and past come face to face for the lesson—the key survival skills of being a CDP: pick pocketing, begging, and breaking and entering. He also finds himself desperately, and nearly fatally, trying homemade experimental drugs in an effort to stay “grounded” at his own wedding. Nevertheless, while the logistics can be overwhelming, being a CDP also allows Henry the opportunity to spend time with his daughter years in the future and days with his wife as a child in the past.

While we all would like to go back to the past and change something, The Time Traveler’s Wife avoids the trite desire to do that. Rather, it explores the volatile nature of free will in the hands of humanity and ultimately the power this God-given gift has in our life. “There is only free will when you are in time, in the present…in the past we can only do what we did, and we can only be there if we were there…If you go to the future, you do something, you come back to the present. Then the thing that you did is part of your past.” In other words, The Time Traveler’s Wife reminds us that our past experiences and choices, whether good or bad, has made us who we are in the present. For Henry, meeting Clare is the most pivotal point of his life. While he can travel beyond and has the capability to do anything, he ultimately chooses to protect the certainty of that moment.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is a captivating novel. Audrey Niffenegger, a professor of Interdisciplinary Book Arts at Columbia College in Chicago, creates a fresh and unique novel that not only touches your heart, but also expands your imagination. Though only her first novel, Niffenegger’s descriptive writing style and attention to detail effortlessly lures you into a world where time and love know no boundaries, and every moment counts.

The Rev. Dee Dee Azhikakath is The United Methodist Campus Minister at The University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz.

This feature was developed by UMC.org, the official online ministry of the United Methodist Church.

Study Questions

• The theme of waiting underlies The Time Traveler’s Wife. How does waiting affect each character? (Clare; Henry; Gomez; Charisse; Richard) What are they waiting for? Does it ever come?
• Clare confesses she has “total faith in the idea that [they] are supposed to be together.” Do you agree? How does fate play a role in The Time Traveler’s Wife?
  Henry discovers the time and day of his death, and he knows when Ingrid will die. Similarly, Clare knows who she is going to marry as child. Is knowing too much about the future dangerous?
  • Would you want to know
  • When and how you will die?
  • Who you were going to marry when you were a child?
  • When a friend will die?
    
• Henry laments, “I hate to be where she is not, when she is not. And yet, I am always going, and she cannot follow.” Is it harder to be a CDP popping out of time or be the loved one waiting?
• Henry often runs into himself while time traveling, and on occasion his future or past self “stands in” for his present self during important milestones (i.e. Clare’s 18th birthday, their wedding, conception…) Is Henry saddened or envious toward his visiting self?
• How did this book affect your understanding of life, death or time here on earth?
• “Once a Catholic, always Catholic” declares an exasperated Henry. How did Clare’s faith and Henry’s lack of spirituality affect their relationship?
• “Do you ever lie awake wondering if I am some kind of joke God is playing on you?” questions Henry. Is CDP a blessing or a curse? if you were given the option, would you choose to be one?
• Clare used birds and wings as themes in her art. Why do you think she chose that subject? How is this theme used in The Time Traveler’s Wife?
• If you could time travel to any period and meet anyone, who would it be? How would you choose to “assimilate” in that time (i.e.: find clothes, food and any other logistics needed to talk to that person)?

Group Activities

Wish List: Make a list of times or places that you would like to be able to go back and teach yourself something that would have changed your life. Share with the group the time and the advice you would give yourself. Discuss whether it is possible to know or learn these lessons without having experienced or lived through them.

Paper Creations: Using paper of various colors and patterns, create your own art exhibit. Be sure to create a subject that is thematic to your own life.

Letters to Loved Ones: Like Henry, take the time to write a letter to a loved one that will read it after your passing. What wisdom or advice would you include?

Resources
Publisher's Web site
Audrey Niffenegger's Web site