It is an impressive feat to be able to write an unconventional, let alone an unexplored, type of love story as Audrey Niffenegger does in The Time Traveler’s Wife. While the plotline is intricately woven, the premise is simple: Henry DeTamble has a “Chrono-Displacement Disorder”, a genetic condition that causes him to time travel both back and forward in time. The catch is that these time travels are involuntary and often unpredictable, leaving Henry shocked, overwhelmed, and at times in danger. In these travels, Henry repeatedly time travels to the rich and beautiful Clare Abshire, his future wife. She spends her early years knowing that her future with Henry is laid out for her.
Henry is constantly pulled in and out of the webs of the past, present, and future, while Clare must deal with the sequential ins and outs of Henry’s condition. “It’s hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s okay. It’s hard to be the one who stays.”
With the premise of time travel, the theme of destiny vs. free will is one that looms within the entire novel, and unavoidably so. Henry is constantly faced with the past he cannot change, as well as the future he cannot direct. He remains helpless within the workings of the universe. To live life knowing what awaits and knowing that it will certainly cause his loved ones great pain is one lamentable aspect of the disorder that Henry must bear. When he travels back in time, he sees the people that have been lost over the years, in one way or another. Niffeneger ultimately reminds us that life is unpredictable and volatile against the steady stream that is time.
That is, except for the love between Clare and Henry. More than anything, The Time Traveler’s Wife is a celebration of the victory of love over time. It is imbued into their past, present, and future. While this fluidity leaves much for interpretation, there is an ending scene when Henry visits Clare for the last time. Clare has waited all her early years to meet Henry, and now we see her waiting till the end to see him again. In different ways, they are each other’s past, present, and future. This is love that cannot be separated by the workings of time.
~ 5 stars
