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A review by book_concierge
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2.0
Henry DeTamble is a time traveler. He has no control over when or where he travels, and he can’t take anything with him, so he always arrives naked and without money, ID or food. The book chronicles Henry’s life and that of his wife, Clare Abshire … at least to early middle-age. How they met, when they met, who remembers whom, how they fall in love, and most importantly, how they deal with Henry’s condition.
Basically I was bored with this story. It jumps back and forth in time, and while I understand the necessity of this device given the basic plot line, I find it results in too much disconnect. For example, Henry spends a lot of time traveling to a younger Clare to prepare her for meeting himself at some point in the future. Yet, he never seems to prepare his own younger self for meeting Clare.
I had the book on CD read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow. Lefkow does a fine job narrating Clare’s chapters; her voice shows that she’s puzzled, enthused, tender, frightened – all the appropriate emotions for the story. But William Hope has a droning voice that sounds as if he is bored (with good reason, in my humble opinion …); as a result, I didn’t really care about Henry at all. I did try reading portions of the book, as I had a text version as well as the audio, but I wasn’t much more engaged in the story reading it traditionally. I’ll still give it 2 stars (though if I was rating the audio alone, I’d probably only give it 1 star).
Basically I was bored with this story. It jumps back and forth in time, and while I understand the necessity of this device given the basic plot line, I find it results in too much disconnect. For example, Henry spends a lot of time traveling to a younger Clare to prepare her for meeting himself at some point in the future. Yet, he never seems to prepare his own younger self for meeting Clare.
I had the book on CD read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow. Lefkow does a fine job narrating Clare’s chapters; her voice shows that she’s puzzled, enthused, tender, frightened – all the appropriate emotions for the story. But William Hope has a droning voice that sounds as if he is bored (with good reason, in my humble opinion …); as a result, I didn’t really care about Henry at all. I did try reading portions of the book, as I had a text version as well as the audio, but I wasn’t much more engaged in the story reading it traditionally. I’ll still give it 2 stars (though if I was rating the audio alone, I’d probably only give it 1 star).