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This is Audrey Niffenegger’s first novel. The Time
Traveller’s Wife has been marketed strongly as a love story, and the
science fictional elements played down. It is the story of the relationship
between two people. Clare Abshire and Henry DeTamble. Clare is a normal
person who grows up and lives her life serially, just like you and me (don’t
go there!). Henry however suffers from a genetic disorder – chrono-impairment.
His physical symptoms are that he has seizures – like epileptic fits, only
he is physically displaced in space and time. He normally travels into his
own past, but sometimes into his future. He arrives naked, and can be in a
life threatening situation e.g hypothermia, or even beaten up by people
scared by the appearance of a naked man. They have known each other since
Claire was six and Henry was 36, and they were married when Claire was 20
and Henry was 28. The element of the
story ‘pushed’ by the marketing people is the love story between the two
main characters. They hope that you will suspend (dis)belief over chrono-impairment,
and then there being no more brain-stretching science fictional elements to
worry about, you can bathe in “an intensely moving and entirely
unforgettable old-fashioned love story” according to some of the blurb on
the back cover. And from this perspective, the book is very well written.
However, to ignore the SF elements is to ignore one of the main points of
the book, how a time traveller would / could cope with maintaining a
‘normal’ relationship. This is fascinating stuff, which has not been
explored to any great extent science-fictionally. Your normal SF time
traveller jumps for a purpose – to progress the plot. Henry is just trying
to live as normal a life as possible. The closest attempt at analysing a
character’s thoughts and experiences that I can think of is Daniel Keyes
Flowers for Algernon (1966). And from this perspective, the book is
tightly written as well. I did not notice any inconsistencies or paradoxes.
Apart from the initial premise that a genetic disorder could cause temporal
displacements.
So if
you find Time Travel novels interesting, don’t hesitate in acquiring a copy
from your usual source. Similarly if you like romantic fiction, don’t
hesitate to give this a try. Then track down a copy of Flowers for
Algernon. If you want any more suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact me
at rod@rodcameron.co.uk |
