I'm roughly at the halfway point in my reading of The Time Traveler's Wife. Honestly, I'm still not sure if I like it, but this is me we're talking about; I only put down a book if I would rather spork my eyes out than read it, and sometimes not even then (I did, after all, read the Twilight books). The Time Traveler's Wife is definitely readable. Niffenegger's prose is solid, though there are a few passages that read oddly, especially the constant mentions of bands I've only heard of because I'm friends with Sara Morrow. The problem is that in certain places Niffenegger thinks she's writing poetry, and it doesn't work. I have nothing against nice lyrical prose from time to time. Niffenegger overdoes it.
I guess I would say that I am not disliking it, but I don't love it. Henry and Clare are rather bland, inoffensive protagonists. I don't really care about them like I ought to. I suppose it's because I'm still having misgivings about their love story. Clare spends her entire life saving herself for Henry, practically worshipping him - there's even a line early on to the tune of "she was looking at [Henry] as if [he] were her own personal God." Meanwhile, Henry gets to mess around with every girl he meets until he and Clare finally come across each other in his present. Maybe it's just because I loathe the A Man is Not a Virgin double standard, but that aspect of their relationship is not sitting right with me. There's also not much of a plot at this point, and while I still have half the novel to go, I'm wondering where exactly Niffenegger is going with this. So Henry has his time traveling problem, and Clare is his Penelope, waiting patiently for him to come back to her every time he inadvertently slips off. Since Henry can't control his time traveling, is apparently the only person who experiences this problem, and has been talking to doctors about it, I'm guessing he'll either meet another time traveler, find a cure, or both. I also don't know what the significance of various characters warning Clare about Henry is. Maybe she'll realize that as much as she thinks she's destined to be with Henry, end of story, there's more their situation than meets the eye? Yeah, I don't know. I'll admit I'm not a fan of the concept of soulmates or fate, although at the same time I believe in God and an underlying pattern to the universe, so... welcome to another Aida paradox, I guess. We'll see if Niffenegger can make me buy it. I'll post again after I've finished the book.
