The Time Traveler’s Wife

I knew I had to get up at 6:00am this morning. Yet, I couldn’t help but finish the book before going to bed. I had only about 5 hours of sleep, last night.

This book, I would say is a love story with a twist. And a very original one, too. The author brings us back and forth in time, and the story unfolds in the form of first-person accounts of Henry and Clare. Henry suffers from a genetic condition that throws him back to the past, and sometimes future, without control. Each time he ‘time travels’, his present self would disappear, and reappear in another place, another time.

[Spoiler alert] One of Henry’s earliest time-traveling experiences had inadvertently saved his life. Henry, at that time 3 years old, time-travelled just as a sheet of scrap metal started to cut his forehead during a road accident. His mother, who was driving, was decapitated (read: beheaded) by the scrap metal. It pierced through the seat where Henry’s forehead should have been. Apparently he had time-travelled (disappeared), and was found 5 minutes later by the roadside, with only a scar on the forehead. The police couldn’t explain it.

At 36, Henry time-travelled back to 1977 and first met his future wife Clare, who was 6 years old that time. They became friends, and throughout Clare’s childhood Henry had visited her from the future numerous times. In present-time Henry was 8 years older than Clare, but he would not meet Clare until he was 28. In 1991, Henry, who was 28, met Clare, 20, at the Newberry Library but of course, at that time he didn’t know who Clare was. On the contrary, Clare had been waiting for this day since she was 6! Two years later (Henry 30, Clare 22), they got married and had tried to live like ordinary couples do, including having a child – and it proved to be a struggle due to Henry’s ‘chrono-impairment’ problem.

The story tells of the challenges that Henry and Clare encounter, their struggle in coping with Henry’s genetic condition. Towards the second half of the book, I found myself flipping back the pages and understood why everything made perfect sense, including Henry’s eventual death. He was mistakenly shot (ironically by Clare’s family members) during time-travelling at the age of 43, and was survived by Clare and daughter, Alba (who also time-traveled like Henry). This part was truly thought-provoking. What would you do if you knew that your death is near? During one of Henry’s time-travel (to the future), he looked up the obituary and learnt of his death. You’ve just got to read it, it’s really dramatic.

Henry left a note (which was to be read after his death) for Clare, and that was when Henry reiterated his undying love for her. In the note, he also mentioned that they would meet again, when Clare turns 82. Imagine that there is chance for you to meet your loved one again, even though he is no longer living. In the story, Henry had once time-travelled to the future and saw his wife (when she was 82 – year 2053!). This was a sort of ‘reunion’, as far as Clare’s concerned. This is one of the advantages of Henry’s genetic condition. His ability to time-travel could be rewarding (like how he survived the car accident but his mother did not), but the ‘uncontrollable’ nature of the condition sometimes proved otherwise.

I was wondering if there was going to be a movie version of this story. Out of curiosity, I googled for it and found out that the movie is already in the works! Exciting stuff. I wouldn’t expect the movie to be better than the book, though. For more info, check out The Time Traveler’s Wife on Wikipedia.