The Time Traveler's Wife review
Aug. 22nd, 2008 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThe Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (great name!) is problematical.
After 100 or so pages, I described it to Dave as "superlative in every way". I was astounded that anyone could write such a complex and intriguing book, and still have enough energy and inspiration to imbue it with incredible beauty and passion. It gave me that old, familair, desperate yearning to write something really, really good myself (something that is unlikely ever to happen as I don't have the patience or the commitment to put in the effort needed to create excellence).
And then the book's beauty became interspersed with brief moments of horror, as events took the occasional turn towards ugliness, but I could forgive it, as those moments made the beauty of the rest of it that much more intense. For me, though, it went too far in the direction of ugliness towards the end, but then it caught me up once again in its lyrical grace, and delivered me to an exquisitely bittersweet ending that left me hugging the book to my breast after finishing the last page. I felt bereft and elated all at once, and I marvelled at the talent of someone who could create a work so intricate and emotive.
Perhaps I am too sensitive to the unpleasant aspects of the story, but they did seem to jar somewhat in amongst the rest. It's still an amazing book, and one that will stay with me a long time. It just saddens me that it won't be going on the shelf to be read over and over again, as I'd hoped near the beginning.
After 100 or so pages, I described it to Dave as "superlative in every way". I was astounded that anyone could write such a complex and intriguing book, and still have enough energy and inspiration to imbue it with incredible beauty and passion. It gave me that old, familair, desperate yearning to write something really, really good myself (something that is unlikely ever to happen as I don't have the patience or the commitment to put in the effort needed to create excellence).
And then the book's beauty became interspersed with brief moments of horror, as events took the occasional turn towards ugliness, but I could forgive it, as those moments made the beauty of the rest of it that much more intense. For me, though, it went too far in the direction of ugliness towards the end, but then it caught me up once again in its lyrical grace, and delivered me to an exquisitely bittersweet ending that left me hugging the book to my breast after finishing the last page. I felt bereft and elated all at once, and I marvelled at the talent of someone who could create a work so intricate and emotive.
Perhaps I am too sensitive to the unpleasant aspects of the story, but they did seem to jar somewhat in amongst the rest. It's still an amazing book, and one that will stay with me a long time. It just saddens me that it won't be going on the shelf to be read over and over again, as I'd hoped near the beginning.
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Date: 2008-08-25 03:50 pm (UTC)