The Time Traveler's Wife

[timepiececlock]

I just completed The Time Traveler's Wife.

Oh. Oh. Oh my.

That's one of the best books I've read in a while, and certainly one of the best romances I've read in a long time. (I don't read many romances.) It was... different. Odd. Strangely structured but beautifully delivered. Thoroughly satisfying. Happy, sad, and everything in between. Utterly and completely romantic. It's left me with the same romantic rush that I got from Moulin Rouge and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, only this was heavier than either of those two.

It's also given me a totally different perspective on the end of this season's Doctor Who. But that's off-topic.

Anyway... Oh. My. Wow. This book is great and moving and sad and happy and I think anyone who reads it could love it, male or female. The book alternates 50/50 from the perspectives of the two lead characters, meaning you spend as much time in Henry's head as you do Clare's, and vice versa. The characters are very real, with their flaws and their virtues. It's very unusual but it's so worth it.


Note: this is the second fiction book I've completed this year in between classes, the previous being Memoirs of a Geisha. While I enjoyed Memoirs, I have to say that The Time Traveler's Wife was a better written and more moving book.

Comments

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I've had the book on my 'to read' list for a bit, but haven't gotten around to buying it. I'm glad to read your rec, because it helps to make a choice out of the dozens of books I need to read 'one day soon' :) I just need to finish 'Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell' first!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I read it fairly quickly-- the book is fast-paced and interesting enough that you want to stick with it. I know that's something to consider when you havea to-read list. (mine is so long!)

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

[shudders at the too long to read list] Just looking at mine makes me despair :) Several items are parts of several very long series I'm only at the beginning of [sigh] But I'll add Time Travelers Wife to my next book purchase. Now I'm quite curious to read it.

[memlu.livejournal.com]

I liked The Time Traveler's Wife quite a bit, but -- I don't know; I didn't particularly like the actual writing. I liked the idea and the story, and I certainly liked the characters, and I was moved at points, but the actual writing bothered me a bit.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Hm. Was it the prose, or the structure/pacing? The descriptive language and syntax and dialogue were all fine for me, but it took me a while to get used to the diary-like structure and the pacing of it.