This was a book that I waited a while before I read it. My mother and wife had already read it and were fairly so -so about it. At first I thought it was a nice charming book, but nothing else. however, as I got deeper into the story I became more involved in the lives of Genry and Clare and read the last 300 odd pages in a day or so. The ending was mixed, so of it a littel contrived, some full of hope and love. All in all, a great read, worth the waut. ( )

This book has been reviewed to death. I’m not sure what more I can add to what has already been said. I am glad I read it. I really like Clare and Henry, and more importantly maybe, I really like them together. I like the way that the author tackles time travel. I like the close, understanding group of friends they have gathered around, very much like family. The storyline was a little hard to follow at first, with all the different ages and dates. But if you stuck with it, and followed the flow and the rhythm it began to be easier to follow. Kind of reminds me of knitting, if you let go and trust the pattern, it eventually works. The other thing this book did was add to my list of goals. I would really like to see the Newberry Library (link) one day. I love the descriptions of it, and would be great to see it with my own eyes. Now the negative stuff. I loved this book for the first half. Definitely on my list of favorites this year. And then the second half got repetitive. I think it could have been 100 pages shorter, without losing much. Then at the end, it maybe went a little too far. Some of the situations that were covered, well, lets just say there was some shock content for me. And not necessarily in the good way. And the end was a little anticlimactic. Did it take away from some of my enjoyment of the book? Possibly. Will I still recommend it to people. Definitely. In fact, my copy will be passed on to my mum. If you’ve read it, or if you read it, please tell me what you think… =D ( )

One of my favorite books of all time. If you saw the movie, do yourself a favor and actually read the book - it's about a million times better than the movie.

Niffennegger is one of the best writers to hit the best seller list in the last 25 years. Despite the sometimes confusing time-travel element in this book, the author's writing style and language makes it an absolute joy to read.

Don't let the science fiction element of the novel throw you off. This might be a very untraditional love story but it IS a love story at heart. The ending, which was left out of the movie, is the best part of the book and stays with you for a long time after you've read it. ( )

I didn't get around to reading this until after reading Niffenegger's second book, and actually found myself out of step with most other readers I know by preferring that to this, her breakthrough novel. The first third of the book was a struggle for me, despite the wonderful writing (I would kill for her talent), as I kept battling to follow Henry's various peregrinations through time and make sense of some of the more obscure parts of his predicament. Why is he always naked when he arrives somewhere new? Why does he always return to the scene of a childhood tragedy and why do we never 'see' it through his eyes but only when he tells the story to Clare? Why, with all his time-travel, does he seem perplexed to meet Clare in the first pages of the book (shouldn't he at least understand conceptually what was going on?) And so on...
Only once I'd firmly put aside any and all questions about the mechanics (and the multiple contradictions in those mechanics) was I able to immerse myself in the story. At its core, it's a very traditional love story -- boy and girl meet cute, fall in love etc. etc. But the device at the core of the story -- the time travel -- is what made the story transcend the ordinary and simultaneously made it more difficult to forget the author and completely believe in the characters. In contrast, in Niffenegger's second book, by the time the slightly surreal elements appear in the story, the reader is already caught up in the characters and their various situations; the 'real' and 'normal' becomes slightly surreal so gradually that it's easier to accept. In contrast, in Time Traveler's Wife, you are immersed in it from the very first pages, and I struggled with that.
The ideas underlying the story -- that of the persistence of love, of the idea of waiting, of whether having an intense love that ends is better than living safely (as Clare argues to Henry's father midway through the book, at their first meeting) -- are generally well explored, but the secondary characters felt like wallpaper to me, in the book to illustrate something about Clare or Henry rather than as players in their own right.
I'm glad I've read this -- at least it will get some friends off my case -- but I was hoping it would prove to be one of those books about which I end up saying "I can't believe I waited so long to read a book that is now my favorite!" Niffenegger is a wonderful prose stylist, but that's not all it takes to be a great novelist, and cool weird plot elements also aren't enough, on their own. ( )

This book was beautifully written and a wonderful love story. ( )