The Time Traveler’s Wife Review

I didn’t feel like I wanted to read a new novel. I’ve been reading a lot of new stuff lately and it’s time to read something new. I recently got my own copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneggerr. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this book before but reading a book a second time, you see different things. And I read this originally back in college and then listened to the audiobook right after college when I was traveling to do interviews. So it’s interesting how my opinion is different.

I re-read my GoodReads review. It was interesting look back at myself. I wrote one the first time I read it and then had an update. Each time my opinion of Henry as gotten better. I think in my head, the vision of a time traveling man is different now being in my late 20’s than it is in my early 20’s. No. Let me change that. My view of people has changed since my early 20’s. It’s probably more realistic and less optimistic now than it was a few years ago. Anyway. I think that Henry has a miserable existence. He doesn’t want to travel but he has to. It would be different if he could have chosen when and where he could go like Alba. Then he probably wouldn’t be as miserable. Henry gives Claire things to think about throughout her life and I appreciate that. In this re-read, I took more notice to Henry’s reaction to Ingrid killing herself. He had more compassion for Ingrid than I felt he had before. He is complex but his situation is complex. At this point in my life, I’m the most attracted to Henry that I’ve ever been.

I never have had a driving opinion about Clare. I don’t hate her. I feel like she is very flawed. But so is Henry. Henry is probably more flawed. The older she gets she does have frustrations about Henry traveling. It’s out of her control. It’s out of his control and she hates it. I would be the same way. Give me a husband that doesn’t get lost in time. But at an earlier age she is fascinated because he just appears and disappears. I would be when I was 6. I do appreciate her struggles more. Like I felt for her when her mother died more that I have before. I appreciate her want of a child more than before. This time reading, I appreciate the human-ess of the characters and their flaws. It’s adulthood. I’m finally maturing into adulthood.

Gomez is something else. Charisse has plenty of reason to worry. I would have the exact same conversation with Henry as she did. But the relationships with the DeTambles is something I can’t put my finger on. Gomez has sex with Clare twice. Once pre-Henry and once after Henry dies. The first time I shook my head because it was so close to when Henry comes, I wonder why but Henry was like, yeah I don’t care I had Ingrid. The second time it was because of grief I think. But even though I was not a fan of Clare and Gomez having sex, Gomez and Henry were best friends. So I’m torn. Like at least Clare didn’t find some random hook up and Henry was okay with the first time because it wasn’t an ongoing affair.

There’s probably more obvious symbolism in this book than I have ever admitted. The Odyssey kind of plays in this book. Which I liked and it makes sense and I’m surprised I haven’t thought about this before. Henry leaves and comes back to Clare like Odysseus leaves his wife. I never really realized that before. Then there’s the birds and longing. There’s symbolism throughout the whole book and it’s blatant.

I also have to bring up the movie in relation to the book. Movie is not a great adaptation. There’s a lot missing. Like I wish Ingrid was in the movie and not just a reference. I wish Henry’s job and co-workers were in the movie more. I know that the book is complicated but then don’t make it into a movie if you can’t make it better. But I do love Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. They’re really pretty together. OH! They should make a mini-series from the book and have those two in it. And I do realize they can’t get all the book in a movie. There’s 500+ pages in this book. There’s no chance that would get in a movie. But I still appreciate the crap out of the movie. I do say appreciate a lot in this blog.

There’s also a sequel in the works that is Alba’s story. I rarely say this but hell am I excited to read that.

 

 

The Winter People Review

So I typically will say that I’ll read anything, everything and do it on a regular basis. That’s not true. I realized that I don’t have a wide range in what I read. Let’s face it, I read a lot of historical and YA novels. At least I know what I like. At least in that part of my life I’m not searching. I recently picked up The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon. It is definitely not a book I would normally read.

One of the things that I’ve always boasted about a little bit is my ability to almost disconnect. In that way I mean that I get into a book and into a world but I never let it get under my skin. I never let it bother me to point of paranoia. This book got to me a little. I did a lot of reading of this book late at night and, though not fighting sleep, was definitely tired. My defenses were down. And it doesn’t help I was sitting in the back of my dark house in a little room. Am I trying to make excuses for myself? Absolutely. But I did find myself looking out the door of the room quite a bit and turning on all the lights when I went out to the kitchen. Now I’ve heard this book compared to Pet Sematary by Stephan King. I’ve never read it so all my opinions are completely untainted by any other book. But I as trying to figure out what movie this reminded me of. For a while it was The Village but that was false. If you can make a suggestion that would make sense, I’d appreciate it.

Because this is not my normal genre, I did not put any holes in this book plot wise. I was trying to keep up and pay attention to what was going on. It’s like that with genres you don’t read often. You have to pay attention a lot more. So I will not complain a lot about that. To me, this book was tightly woven with the plot. But that’s just me. If I read this genre more, I would probably poke holes into it. But to my unsuspecting eyes, it’s good.

In this case, I like that the author went back and forth between time periods. It made me wonder who Gertie really was then and who she was in relation to now. For a while, I was convinced that Alice was the modern Gertie or Sara and her time was up and she went to go die or went back into time. It’s logical. In my head it’s logical.

I couldn’t relate to Sara and Gertie’s relationship. I don’t know anyone that’s that close to their child. There’s always a boundary. I’m sure every parent who has lost a child would bring their dead child back without a doubt. But I think that Sara went a little far. The part that I was confused was that this spell thing was supposed to last 7 days and then they were gone. Why was Gertie around for decades? Will Katherine’s husband be around for decades? That surprised me. When she did the thing to bring him back, I thought it didn’t work and then BAM! Also will he be as needy with attention as Gertie? Gertie needed a lot of attention it seemed.

I liked Martin. At least I think I would have liked Martin. I saw him in a kind of an extreme part of his life. But I’m pretty sure I would have liked him. I also might have liked Katherine’s husband. But he was dead and then he was a winter people so we’ll never really know will we? No, we won’t.

The whole Auntie thing. Was she a legitimate Aunt or was she a close family friend that they called Aunt? I missed that part. And that she was really who was in Martin’s arms and not Sara. That explains the fact that Sara haunted the town for years. But I was also a little unsure if she was the one who actually caused some of the murders. Like I know Martin’s she didn’t directly cause. But like Martin’s brother did she? I know she went to go visit him after the whole situation but did she give him the gasoline? It’s one of those questions I don’t necessarily think that I will ever get an answer for because it’s supposed to be unanswered.

I know I wasn’t really going to poke at this story but something has been bothering me. Why in the hell did Alice keep Ruthie there instead of letting her go far away for college in the first place? Was it just because of Gertie? That would be totally lame. I feel like she was almost pressured to stay there. And what kind of name is Fawn? It’s so weird to me.

Overall, I didn’t mind this book. If you read a lot of ghost stories, you might not be impressed at all. It’s an easy, quick read that makes you think and it will get you to talk about some of the characters endings. And just as a disclaimer, I know there’s a lot of things I didn’t talk about with this book so just deal.