The Time Traveler's Wife
Read a wonderful book over the weekend as I waited to go on stage at Gallery 7 Theatre in Abbottsford, B.C.: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Another great idea that had me smacking my head wishing I'd come up with it. A heartbreakingly romantic literary novel, The Time Traveler's Wife is the story of Clare and Henry's long time romance that begins when she is six and he is just past 40. Now wait, wait--it's not what you think. Henry has a genetic abnormality that causes him to time travel, but only within the scope of his own life and the life of those closest to him. The book begins with Clare meeting Henry in 1991, when Clare is 20 and Henry is 28. The twist is this: In Henry's future, he will visit Clare's past, so that when Clare meets Henry in 1991, Henry's never seen her before, but Clare has known Henry all her life. A fascinating premise that allows for some remarkable scenes as Henry crisscrosses his life in time in a story otherwise strongly rooted in simple reality. "A truly extraordinary novel...a magical love story that is as sad as it is joyous." (Daily Express, UK) Amen to that. (Click here to check out The Time Traveler's Wife on a web page that gives you the prologue as well as reviews, etc.)
In one interview, Niffenegger, who teaches in Chicago, in the MFA program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, says that she was interested in time, how it affects us, and how we must live in and through it. And that is exactly what the story brought to mind. The strangeness of time's passing, that only yesterday my father was still alive, and how he still travels with me, so to speak, as I do Leaving Ruin. To think that very few of us will still be alive in 75 or 100 years, to think that my kids are nearly grown, to think that so many of the firsts I longed for as a child have come and gone. And to think of God standing outside of time (as my friend Jeffrey says) with all of time at his disposal, while for us it unfolds a moment at a time.
Just helps me remember that each day, each moment, is precious...
4:40:21 PM 
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