Saturday, November 10, 2007

The strangest book I've ever read.

We read The Time Traveler’s Wife for book club this month. Wow. I give the author an A+ for innovation. The plot was hard to follow at first because the dates kept changing. It was written from the perspectives of two different characters—the time traveler and the girl/woman who eventually becomes his wife.

One of the things we talked about at the club was the believability of the book. The plot is obviously far-fetched. But because the author was so gifted in enabling us to sympathize with the characters, there was an aura of realism to it.

Although the book was strange, it definitely held my interest. The love between the two characters was powerfully portrayed. Because of the plot, this book could have been so hokey. But it wasn’t. It had many beautiful and moving aspects to it.

Another interesting thing about the book is the theme of “chaos vs. determinism” which is integrated throughout the story.

One caveat: There are several crass and explicit sexual scenes in this book. For this reason alone, I would have a hard time recommending it.

3 comments:

Dana said...

I read this a few years ago and thought it was really interesting, too. And a beautifully developed relationship despite the caveat. But I always loved time travel books as a child so it was a treat for me to have such an engaging grown-up version.

J said...

Charlessa read it (or maybe listened to it on CD?) and I can attest to the idea that it might be a bit confusing. Getting it second-hand was a bit confusing for me, though Charlessa seemed to have it all clearly in mind.

It sounded good enough that I may pick up the book for myself.

Dana said...

Hey Amy,
Thanks for visiting and leaving me a comment. That's the second time this week that I commented on blogs on which I've been lurking so long that I forgot I'd never commented before and didn't perform the social graces. I enjoy keeping up with you and your family adventures!