Book Notes

The Time Traveler's Wife Movie:
Henry at the age of 6. 
Chapter 2
Library Science Fiction

Henry 31
- Henry is hiding behind a pile of books while he is getting dressed when his boss runs into him, but not surprised, and knows that this behaviour has been happening for a while and promise to not fire him and that he will put up with his time travel because he is a good librarian.
Henry 8 Clare 24
- Clare decides to go visit Mrs. Kim and that is when she sees 8 year old Henry for a quick moment, Mrs. Kim becomes curious and begins to ask if they are thinking of having any kids. It gets Clare thinking of the possibilities and later when Henry is home she tells him “Let’s make a baby” (2.2.71)
Henry 32
- Henry goes to meet his new doctor and explains that he can time travel the doctor does not believe Henry so Henry shows him that he can by giving him a letter that his unborn son will have down syndrome.
Henry 32 Clare 24
- The doctor calls him and confirms that his son does have the disease he still does not believe him till he watched Henry disappear then he agrees to help him. Henry tells the doctor his whole life story he is sent to a seep lab to monitor and figure out what Henry is.

Book Notes

The Time Traveler's Wife Movie:
 Clare and Henry's house.
Part 2
Chapter 1

Married life
Clare is 22, Henry is 30
- Henry and Clare move into a two-bedroom flat together. It takes a little bit but they begin to fall into a daily routine. It is not soon after they begin to realize the annoying habits of each other, but know they must make compromises to make a marriage work.
- Clare is having a hard time adjusting especially when she feels she has nowhere to do any of her artwork, and the continuous disappearing of Henry is frustrating her.
- Henry is beginning to worry that Clare is getting upset and not handling the time traveling good since when he is back she seems to be shutting him out.
- Henry brings home an old T.V and lets Clare know he has a program that he wants her to watch it is the lottery and she then discoveries she just won 8 million dollars because Henry knew what the numbers where.
- Clare feels this is almost like cheating and that she cannot accept the money because it would be the wrong thing to do. But when Henry lights a match to the winning ticket Clare changes her mind.
- They decide to use the money for a house first and begin house shopping but Clare feels like Henry does not like any of the houses cause he knows what one they already live in she decides she will go out on her own and see if she can find their perfect house that Henry sees in the future. She finally finds the house she loves and it is the same one in the future.
Henry 31 Clare 23
The Time Traveler's Wife Movie:
 Gomez and Charisse are over to visit their new house.
- They just finished moving into their new house and then they make love in their new home.
- they visit Gomez and Henry sees that Gomez is looking at Clare in a different way letting him know that Gomez also cares for Clare the same way Henry does.
Henry 31 and 39 Clare 23
- a night of games with Gomez and Charisse they hear a crash and it is Henry who has fallen into the wooden glass cabinet.





Book Notes


Chapter 14
Get Me To The Chapel On Time
Henry 30 Clare 22
- It is the wedding day and Clare is able to escape for a while to go and visit Henry so they can spend some time together before they get married they make love and then she hurries home to get ready.
- Henry begins to worry that he will disappear and leave Clare alone at the alter. But there is two of him on 38 and the other 30
- They get married and She marries the the 38 year old Henry and everything is fine until the speeches where going to happen Henry travels but Henry lets Gomez know where his younger self is and bring him to the wedding.
- The wedding day goes fine and Clare is happy that she is able to spend it with Henry 30 year old version.
From the movie
The Time Traveler's Wife.
 Henry and CLare's wedding day.

Book Notes

Chapter 12
Better Living Through Chemistry 
Clare 22 Henry 30
- Henry and Clare begin to talk about the wedding, and trying to figure out a way to make sure that Henry is not going to time travel during the wedding.
- Clare is worried about Henry taking any kind of drug to control his travelling.
- Henry is always amazed that Clare never sees his travelling as a disease and never complains. He thanks her for loving him for him.
Henry 30
- Goes to Ben's house his personal doctor, he asks him to make this certain drug that will maybe keep him fro travelling so he can stay fro the wedding.
Clare 22 Henry 30
- Clare goes home and finds Henry on the floor almost passed out because he is having a reaction to the drugs Ben has given him. She calls and ambulance and then calls Ben who becomes really worried.
- Ben meets Clare at the hospital and is relieved that he did not dies and feels so bad that he gave him the drugs. Clare asks Ben to not give him any more drugs and he agrees.

Book Notes

From the movie The Time Travelers Wife, Henry is

getting ready to ask Clare to marry him.

Chapter 11
Birthday
Clare 21 Henry 28
- Clare's 21st birthday they have dinner and Clare begins to worry if it is natural that they have sex so often.
- The night comes to an end and Henry brings out the ice cream and sings to her as they are relaxing on the couch Henry asks Clare to marry him. Clare says yes.
- Henry and Clare head to Henry's dads place to tell him the exciting news.
- Kimy and Henry's father loves Clare and is really happy for them both.

 



Book Notes


Chapter 10
Home is Where you Hang your Head
Henry 28
- goes to his dads and finds out that he is unable to play the violin anymore and that he is not paying the bills.
- Ms Kim feels bad for his father and is trying to keep in cleaned and make sure he is fed.
- His is drinking allot more and is even sadder the usually.
- Henry went over to his fathers house to ask for his moms engagement ring to give to Clare.
- Henry tells his father that he still sees his mother sometimes when he time travels, his father is relieved and brings his wifes ring.

Book Notes


Chapter 9
Christmas Eve Three

Clare 20 Henry 28
- Henry is going to Clare's parents house for the first time to meet her parents.
- They learn of Henry's moms singer and her father and mother have actually seen her in concern and her mother remembers seeing henry once running around as a small boy.
- Henry learns of the engaged between Clare's Brother and his girlfriend Sharron and that they are only engaged because she is pregnant and that would be against their religion if they did not get married.
- Clare tells Henry of her mothers illness and why she is so crazy
-Her father over hears her and gets up set that she is sharing such personal stuff.
- They all go to mass and Henry gets nervous and travels for a while leaving Clare alone for her parents wondering where he is
- He sneaks into Clare's room they have sex and in the morning he gets up to go to the bathroom and Alice opens the door to Henry peeing. He quickly hides under the bed
- On the way back home Henry realizes Clare is crying he has never seen her cry, he gets her to pull over and she explains that she hopes her family is not embarrassing and that she is sorry about her mom. Henry lets her know that he had a great time and loves her family.

Book Notes


Chapter 8
Eaten Or Be Eaten

Henry 28 Clare 20
- Henry goes to Clare's apartment for the first time for dinner, he will be meeting her roommate Chairisse and her boyfriend Gomez.
-Henry cooks dinner because Clare has no clue how to cook
- They all begin to drink and she gets to drunk she can barley stand.
Henry 36
- Henry meets Gomez in an alley after he jumped a guy for his money and his clothes. He tells Gomez that he is a time traveller.


Henry 28 ,33 Clare 20
- Henry and Clare go to a club to go dancing
- Henry runs into his ex girlfriend Ingrid who is up set that he never came back or called or anything.
- Clare learns about Henry's many girls he has been with and how he plays every girl
- Henry explains what he has done and that he was stupid but he is done now that he has Clare in his life.

Book Notes

Chapter 6
Christmas Eve, One (Always Crashing In The Same Care)
Henry 40 Clare 17
- Its Christmas eve and the 19th anniversary of Henry’s mother’s death
- he begins to think about his childhood
- Clare joins him in the basement and wishes him a merry Christmas
- Clare asks about the accident and Henry explains what happened that his mother was hit with a piece of steal and it was the second time that he ever time traveled
- makes Christmas sad for him but he is happy to be with Clare.

Book Notes


Chapter 7:
Christmas Eve Two
Henry 25
- He has nowhere to go for Christmas Eve so he goes to a bar and drinks way to much
- He ends up in a hospital  for drinking too much and has to get his stomach pumped
Clare 17 Henry 40
- She has been waiting 2 months for him to come she decides to take her grandma for a walk into the meadow
- She is blind so she cannot see Henry but she is the first to meet him from her family.
- She is very worried for her granddaughter, concerned she will always be waiting for him, Clare tells her grandma she will marry him, and have children but her grandma says they will always be popping in out of your life Clare sees it as exciting but her grandma does not.
(she makes a connection to peter pan)



Book Notes


Chapter 5:
After The End
Clare 13 Henry 43
- Clare finds Henry in the meadow with her father and her brother getting ready to go hunting, she is
confused and Henry lets her know that its fine and her father sends her back into the house.
Clare 15 Henry 43
- Henry and her are in the basement and Henry is asking about her weight saying she is really thin and

he is not use to because in the future she is really plump right now (could be foreshadowing that she is pregnant in the future)
- tells Clare her mom dies of ovarian cancer
Clare 16 Henry 32
- Clare gets her licence it is also the first time that her and Henry kiss
- She decides to go to a party an leave Henry in the car to wait for her.
- Everyone is drinking and smoking and people are skinny dipping
- Her friend goes to her car to meet Henry and asks if they are dating, Henry says he loves Clare.
Henry 32 Clare 16
-Clare goes on a date with a jock and does not agree to have sex with him so he burns his chest and touches her.
- Clare wants to get him back she asks Henry to help her they tie him to a tree in his boxers and Henry is so mad at the guy he punches him before they leave.
Clare 24 Henry 32
- He wakes up and kisses Clare’s cigarette burn scare, which is the last time he mentions them.
Clare 17 Henry 36
- Clare draws a picture of Henry laying in the Meadow and she writes the date on the front, but in the future it does not have the date so Henry is wondering what this will do.
Clare 28 Henry 36
- Henry is scared of the date she wrote and that it changed something he checks the picture and it does not have a date. Clare tells him she was freaked out that day that she trimmed it off when he left.
 

Book Notes


Chapter 4:
Lessons In Survival
Henry is 27 and 9
- meets himself in the field museum
- His older self is the guide this time and teaches his younger self how to get money and clothes when time traveling.
Henry is 19
- is in the back of a cop car where he is in a lot of trouble because he is always getting caught for stealing and breaking in to stores, but disappears before they can take his photo and id.
Clare is 11
- she is going to a friend’s birthday party where they began to play with an Ouija board, they ask who her husband is and it spells out Henry.
- They ask f he is real and it says she is married to him.
Clare is 13 Henry 35
- Clare asks about the future and she feels that the future is all ready decided for her
- She asks about god and if he is real she questions her beliefs because of this time travel.

Book Notes

From the movie, a young Clare waits for Henry
Chapter 3:
 First Date Two
Clare 6 Henry 36
-Henry and Clare meet for the first time .
- Henry is naked as he arrives in the meadow outside Clare’s Family home, she is scared of the strange man and how he knows so much about her.
- Henry asks her to bring clothes the next time that he is in the meadow
- She gathers clothes to bring and leaves in the meadow for Henry; he shows up in the meadow and begins to explain the time travel

Book Notes

Chicago Field Museum
Chapter two:
A First Time For Everything
Sunday June 16th 1968
- Henry’s 5th birthday his parents are taking him the museum of natural history.
- Both parents are very instrumental but he is not he cannot carry a tune.
- Dinner with Mr and Mrs Kim the landlords downstairs, Mrs Kim babysat most time.
- His mom never really cooked so mostly spent his time with Mrs Kim
Saturday January 2nd 4:03 am/ Sunday June 16th 10:46 pm

- Henry is 24 and just spent the night drinking at a club he gets home vomiting and falls to his knees
- He is in the museum and naked to find clothes he goes to gift shop
- He meets himself at the age of 5 who begins to take him around the museum and tells him about time travel.
- Unsure why he is time traveling he wakes up and tells his mom about time travel and she agrees it is interesting.

Conflict

In the movie, Henry is seen time traveling. 
          In The Time Traveler’s Wife the conflict that seems to emerge in the plot a lot is time travel which Henry has to live with. The time travel has a huge affect on the plot because it continuously changes where and when the story will take place. It changes time, characters and setting, with flipping back and forth through the present and the past. The main problem of the novel would be that Henry is not able to control his time travel the way he would like. It makes it hard to live to his fullest and be able to keep a relationship with Clare, and any other person like family, or friends. With the time travel it makes Henry lost and confused and sometimes feeling helpless. He begins to try to take control of his travel by trying different drugs but Clare becomes worried when he ends up in the hospital almost dead once from trying to keep his time travel controlled. It is becoming harder for him to always leave Clare and is making his life a lot harder then what he wants it to be. He sees it as a disease and a illness.

Characters

From the movie, this is a young Clare Abshire.
Clare Abshire: She grew up as a good mannered catholic school girl. She was teased growing up to be a lesbian because she never dated any guys. This is because she could not tell anyone of Henry and she was already in love with him that she felt bad for seeing someone else. She lives in South Heaven in a big house with twenty-four rooms and butlers and maids. She grows in to thin women with long red hair.

From the movie, this is Henry DeTamble


Henry DeTamble:
He grew up in a family of musical and art talents, his father was a violinist and his mother was an opera singer. He started time traveling when he and his mom got into a car accident; his mother sadly dies in that accident. The time traveling is not controllable and the doctor determines that stress is the main cause for him to time travel. He is a tall and thin with dark brown hair. When he time travels he is not able to bring anything with him and he shows up stark naked, this leads to his life becoming even more frustrating and difficult he needs to learn how to pick pocket steal and break into stores to get money and clothes. For a while he lives his life as an alcoholic and becomes involved with many women. His behaviours began to change when Clare and his relationship develop and he begins to fix his relationship with his father.

Richard DeTamble:
 Henry’s Father who is violinist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After the death of his wife he become an alcoholic an finds living has no point, his drinking leads to him giving up the violin. He blames his self for the accident and has Mrs. Kim raise Henry, as he goes into a depressing state. Henry becomes closer to his father when he brings Clare over to meet him and when Henry goes to ask for his mother’s engagement ring. Richard really like Clare and thinks she is good for Henry.

Annette DeTamble:
 Henry’s Mother and Richard’s wife, she was a very successful opera singer. But she dies in a car accident on Christmas Eve with Henry in the car. After her death she leave Henry an Richard broken and empty and their relationship begins to fall apart.

Mrs. Kim: (Kimy)
She is a small Asian women who owns the building that Henry’s family lived in and now Henry’s dad. She lives in the basement of the house and raised Henry since his mother died when he was five. When Henry is old enough to move out she begins to take care of his dad making sure the place is clean and even lets him not pay rent because she feels bad for his state of depression.

Lucile Abshire:
Clare’s mother who is very sick an unpredictable. She never really was a mother to Clare or her brother and sister. She is off in her own world; she often gardens and just keeps to herself. Clare later tells Henry that her mother lost a baby and that is why she is crazy and has tried to commit suicide.

Philip Abshire:
Clare’s Father and Lucile’s husband. He is a lawyer and main care giver for the family. He tries to keep his life a secret from others in the outside world, as he is continually scared of his wife’s mood swings and medical condition. He does not like anyone know of his wife illness and even gets upset that Clare tells Henry. He hides the pain and shows a model family and parents when others are around.

Mark Abshire and Sharon:
Mark is Clare’s brother who is studying to be a lawyer just like his dad. His relationship with Clare has never been close and was the typical brother sister relationship. Sharon his fiancée is only getting married because she is now pregnant with his baby and in catholic tradition it is proper to get married. Sharon does not even love him but they have to do it for their religion and parents.

Alicia Abshire:
Clare’s younger sister, she is just trying to fit in and find her place, she is always worried what her father will think. When she was younger she tells Clare that she thinks she has seen Henry before naked in there basement, which is because of time travel but Clare does not want to tell Alicia this so she makes her out to be crazy

Grandma Meagram:
Clare’s grandma who lives in their family house, she is blind and likes to spend time with Clare when she was a younger girl. She takes her grandma out for a walk in to the meadow and that’s where she meets Henry she is the first to know of their relationship. Her grandma is very concerned for her granddaughter an doesn’t want her to get hurt by this time travel but overall just wants Clare to be happy.

Abshire Staff:
On the staff there is Etta the housekeeper who is more like the mom she takes care of the kids, and runs the household. Nell the cook, she makes sure everyone is eating and makes some of the nest meals. Peter is the Gardner who spends most times with Clare’s mother.

Gomez and Charisse:
Charisse move in with Clare when she first got to Chicago for school. She is a tall and broad beautiful women. She is dating Gomez who becomes concerned over Clare’s relationship with Henry and feels a little more for Clare then Clare wants. Gomez continues to warn Clare about Henry and how he is a bad guy to be with and that she can do better. Although Gomez feels this way him an Henry still become friends an Gomez never brings his feelings up over Clare.

Ingrid:
Ingrid is Henrys ex girlfriend who he dated before Clare. She is a tall blonde woman and is very beautiful. She was in love with Henry and feels bad for Clare. She struggles with break up and even tries to commit suicide a bunch of times. Henry tells Clare that their relationship was nothing but merely physical.

Celia:
She is a friend of Ingrid’s, she warns Clare of Henry and what he has one and what he will do to her. Telling Clare to stay away from Henry or she will get hurt. She arranges Clare to meet Ingrid after the announcement of her engagement to Henry, Clare has no clue where they are going and realizes that she is taking her to see Henry’s ex girlfriend. Ingrid’s gets really mad at Celia and tells her she is a bad friend for doing this to her and making her feel hurt all over again.


Ben:
Ben is Henrys really close friend who helps him with medicines to help control his time travel. He is a doctor who runs a lab for Henry to help him makes rugs to help his rare condition. He prepares such strong drugs and tests them on Henry to see if they work, one time his drug went really wrong and Henry ended up in the Hospital and almost died.

Setting

A picture from the movie, of Clare and Henry in the meadow.
          In The Time Travelers Wife the setting is continuously changing with the constant time travel. The setting takes place in many different places such as the meadow in South Heaven, the field behind Clare's family home. This is where Clare first meets Henry it symbolizes the bond or glue of Clare’s and Henry’s relationship. The meadow is used as a meeting place through Clare’s childhood and teen years. It has a big significance to their relationship as it is where there first kiss and the first place they made love.
The Chicago Art Institute

           The biggest place the setting takes place in would be Chicago, this is where Henry grew up, and this is where Clare moves to go to the Art Institute, this setting allows for the art and music to be expressed and shows their lives as they grow together.
           Henry’s work is another place where the story takes place it is a place where Henry is able to go more as a heaven of security. Representing the books and the fact that a library never changes everything is always kept in order, showing the chaos Henry has his entire life. His boss learns of his time travel and allows the library to be a place where he is able to go as a safe place, allowing him to keep his job and accepts him as what he is.

Critical Article Summaries

Critical Article: One 
The Geek, Oil on panel 20” x 26” 1995
By: Audrey Niffenegger

          This first article Allen Papinchak discusses Audrey Niffenegger style of writing and her use of art which came from her early ages as young girl. He states that her involvement in becoming a professor and teaching graphic arts has allowed her to be able to convey her style of work and use it in her writing. This article shows Allen’s point of view on how Audrey is able to write such symmetry and emotion in her novels. Her background in the graphic arts gives her the ability to picture and visualize her characters before she begins to write, it allows her to understand the movement and dialogue of the people in the novel. Being an artist makes it difficult to write a novel front to back her writing is out of order. The Time Traveler’s Wife started with the title and image of the characters in the book she then continued from that and asks herself questions of how, when, where and what. Audrey style of graphic art will continue to be shown and used by her as she writes future novels. The visualization and chaotic thought of ideas and story lines will allow her to create art in a piece of writing, as writing is nothing but a mere canvas she can show the world. 

Critical Article: Two
          In this article named Reader recommended Gabrielle Gayagoy, gives a few books that you can add to your summer relaxing reading list. Gabrielle states that The Time Traveler’s Wife is “This impossibly romantic tale features a sci-fi twist that'll make you think twice about the true bonds of love. “ (Gabrielle Gayagoy) Gabrielle might be too much of a critic in this statement but her open attitude can become very beneficial. Being a critic allows people to see your point of view and own opinion on a type of novel. With critics it allows books to be discussed weather between friends or in book clubs. Being a critic can help people evaluate a novel and allow people to become interested in a certain pieces of writing. Her criticism and own view of the book is directly related to the books theme allowing people to know exactly what they are expecting when they pick up The Time Traveler’s Wife. With Gabrielle and others giving recommendations of books that they found as a fun or relaxing read allows people to have help in deciding what book they
Audrey Niffenegger teaching a writing class. 
should read next and be able to recommend for other people. Without critics books would not be passed down to friends and family and novels would not become bestsellers without people being critics. With Gabrielle’s recommendations people will be encourage to read this romantic tale and twist of science fiction The Time Traveler’s Wife.



Gayagoy, Gabrielle. "READER-RECOMMENDED." Joe Weider's Shape. 01 Jul. 2005: 38. eLibrary. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1
&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=182&edition=&ts=7FE2AEA93CAA81316870A8313E1946E9_
1319064200388&start=176&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B115877688


Critical Article: Three
Niffenegger appeared at the Aurora Public Library,
where she sat behind the wheel of the library’s bookmobile.

         This article discusses the setting and theme of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Charles de Lint describes the overall relationship that is focused on the entire novel between Clare and Henry, focusing on Henry who time travels and the struggle that the two characters have to go through. He describes how Audrey is able write back and forth between the two viewpoints of the characters and travel in time. Charles gives his criticism and describes what he enjoyed, from the heartbreaks, the small truths and large issues, with humour and violence and even the moment of love and peace. He compliments Audrey’s writing with saying that it was able to keep great attention to detail through the entire novel. Charles even concludes it with saying The Time Traveler’s Wife is an overall great novel and delivers on its promise, that you should appreciate love when you have found it. Audrey’s novel is for sure a great read and allows for love, adventure and a little time travel to keep a reader’s attention.

de Lint, Charles. "The Time Traveler's Wife." Fantasy & Science Fiction. 01 May. 2004: 28. eLibrary. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=200&edition=&ts=7FE2AEA93CAA81316870A8313E1946E9_1319064200388&start=176&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B94097053

Survey of Authors & Secondary Sources

Author: Audrey Niffenegger


Book: The Time Traveler’s Wife


          The author’s writing is what amazes me the most and keeps me wanting to read more. Her ability to skip from the past to the present and change the setting five or three times a chapter can be utterly confusing to a reader. But following her writing seems simple she makes the story flow with such ease. The story of time traveling can bring a reader from year to year and switching the point of view from Henry to Clare can confuse the story line. But Audrey uses Henry and Clare’s epic love story for the main plot. Following the relationship of Clare and Henry allows the mystery and overall passion between the two to overpower the time traveling. She is able to keep the story flowing from start to finish.

Evanston, Illinois Audrey
Niffenegger's home town.
          Audrey Niffenegger was born 1963 in Evanston, Illinois. As a young girl she spent most of her time alone in her room finger painting her stories she created in her head. Niffenegger later got her bachelor’s in 1985 from the Art Institute of Chicago, and then received her master’s in 1991 from Northwestern University. She works as a professor for the Interdisciplinary Book Arts program at Columbia College. Her first novel she published was The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Produce: A Cautionary Tale for Picky Eaters published in 2005 (left)
The Three Incestuous Sisters published in 2005 (middle)
The Adventuress published in 2006 (right) 
           Following the novel The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey wrote The Three Incestuous Sisters an illustrated novel which was published in 2005 and was a fairy tale of three orphaned sisters. In 2006 she published the novel The Adventuress, as well in 2005 she published a short story Prudence: A Cautionary Tale for Picky Eaters. All the novels relate along the same genres varying a little but not by much, Audrey liked to write about love, mutations, death, sex, and time for most of her novels.

Audrey Niffenegger Themes:
Love,  Death  Sex, Paranormal   
           She continues to write these love, time and sex genre books, but she has started to go darker as she is writing about superstitions and paranormal activity she is going more in-depth and using more detailed writing to be able to express her love for the arts. Writing and making art since she was little girl it was in her perspective that all her novels were merely pointless but she does it out of pure joy and it can be a way of recording daydreams in a more dynamic way. With no schedule and set time to write and usually losing her rough notes. The writing usually only happened when she had a deadline or she knew she had a little time from her crazy life to just sit at the computer and write a little.

 Audrey Niffenegger working on some of her own art.

          Major themes Audrey is known for are her very in-depth artsy work using sex, love, time, and even now the darker influence to catch a reader’s eye of the supernatural. By spreading the variety of different themes it allows for a broader range of readers. She has also illustrated novels using more of the art visual to express more of her talented writing.


Source for Literary Biography

Papinchak, Allen. "Audrey Niffenegger." ProQuest Learning:Literature 123.7 Jul 2010. 50. Copyright Kalmbach . Database. 11 Oct 2011. <http://literature.proquestlearning.com/quick/displayMultiItem.do?Multi=yes&ResultsID=1325B51BD5A&forAuthor=0&QueryName=criticism&ItemNumber=2>.

Critical Authors, Secondary Sources

Papinchak, Allen. "Audrey Niffenegger." Writer 7(2010):50. eLibrary. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=20&edition=&ts=3CD4279E73C24A22C0491D75DA326D33_1319056477513&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B181637122&pdfflag=y#citation

Gayagoy, Gabrielle. "READER-RECOMMENDED." Joe Weider's Shape. 01 Jul. 2005: 38. eLibrary. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=182&edition=&ts=7FE2AEA93CAA81316870A8313E1946E9_1319064200388&start=176&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B115877688

de Lint, Charles. "The Time Traveler's Wife." Fantasy & Science Fiction. 01 May. 2004: 28. eLibrary. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=200&edition=&ts=7FE2AEA93CAA81316870A8313E1946E9_1319064200388&start=176&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B94097053

Book Choice










The Time Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 546pp.




Movie.. or  Book... Why Not Both?


“A truly extraordinary novel...a magical love story that is sad as it is joyous.”
--Daily Express (UK)

    When choosing a novel to read for our class’s independent study it became difficult to find a novel that could keep me interested from start to end. Being more of the type of person who would think, why read the book if there is a movie. I knew the choice of book had to be right, or the level of interest would plummet to the ground. Of course the novel I choose to read was The Time Traveler’s Wife, and yes I have seen the movie. Although I might have seen the movie the story line and main plot is what still caught my eye. I enjoyed the movie which makes me want to read the book for it will allow me to take this intriguing plot and journey through a dramatic love story and let my imagination follow  through Audrey Niffenegger  compelling writing.

    After reading the prologue and the first chapter I have found it very interesting that the author has chosen to write with two points of view. The prologue allows the reader to get to know the two main characters right away and their basic characteristics through the book.  As you start on the first chapter of the story you read back and forth between Clare’s and Henry’s point of view. It keeps the book interesting and intriguing. And all ready in the first chapter there is lots of romance, but the unanswered questions of how he travels and how their relationship works makes me want to read on.


    With chapter one done I am wanting to continue and get the answers that are swirling in my head, with the chapter starting out in the library with the young women Clare who runs into her lover Henry who seems to not remember her.  It is then Clare arranges a date to give Henry a book she was told to give to him when this moment occurs and the stories of his traveling abilities and how they have met before, comes out all at once.  With the exchange of family trees and stories of the past and present they begin to relearn each other’s life and even learn new information of one another they never knew before.  The author allows the romance between the two to build up fast but only leading it into the next chapter. 


    I believe the themes that are beginning to form already in the first chapter are the love between Clare and Henry which is strongly shown already in the first few pages. Memory is used strongly because with it they begin to go over the past and present.  And sex is already a huge theme in chapter one showing that maybe with it Henry feels closer to Clare more in the present, and Clare feels like it is more proof of his existence.  


“There are clues; as with any disease there are patterns, possibilities.” (Henry 3)

    This quote said in the prologue stood out to me the most because it allows people to see that to everything there is still an answer or a solution. This quote is used by Henry who is able to time travel because he is left with the question of how, but as he says this line he mentions that even a toughest disease can have an answer or there has to be something or someone to help him find out how such an extreme thing can continue to happen to him. He really is just looking for answers.



The Time Traveler's Wife is more than 500 pages, although I have only read the first chapter due to just being able to purchase the novel I am hoping to read 2 to 3 chapters a night.