So, here I am trolling through my thoughts about books that I read a couple of months ago. I finished The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger in early December, in hotel rooms and airport waiting rooms. It was a good book for that. I say that because the book is structured in a fluidly non-linear way, hopping higgledy-piggledy between the two protagonists and their place in time…
While attempting to answer the question: how would a relationship work unmoored from a linear, forward-moving time? A. Niffenegger deals with it well and the book largely succeeds on her deftly managing the potentially very confusing non-linear plotlines and the warmth and charm of her two principal characters.
As is not surprising, AN has plenty of charm herself, as you can read in this interview with her.
There were moments in the book where it rang false to me. These mostly having to do with the minor characters and occasionally Clare, the female narrator. There was a certain mushiness–for lack of a better word–to the writing at times that rubbed me the wrong way. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to describe it more exactly. (Being mushy myself, I suppose!)
Henry, the male narrator, is a brilliantly fleshed out character and is the linch-pin around which this whole novel revolves. His characterization was what made the novel work for me. Brilliant work for a first time novelist.