The Time Traveller's Wife

This has been our latest bookclub read, and probably doesn't measure up to some of the books that we've read over the years in terms of quality.

However, I really enjoyed the underlying love story, and found the time travel mechanism worked for me. I have talked to several people who felt that it was terribly confusing - and I did have to concentrate fiercely on the ages given for Henry and Clare at the beginning of each chapter. I thought the two voices worked successfully and that the aging process also worked, given that there was lots of jumping to and fro - maybe it was so confused that I didn't notice particularly! Friendships set up, especially Henry's friends, were quite real. Clare's less so. Alba's embraces time travelling because she has Henry (and herself) to support her and teach her about it, whereas Henry fears it more.

Nicely worked out plot overall, although I thought the final visit of Henry to Clare (aged 81) was a bit hohum. However, I liked the final denouement in terms of how Henry finally dies - vivid and distressing! I also liked the situation of the novel in NOW time, but the fact that it went back twenty-thirty years probably made it work well for middle age readers...like me!

Great read - found it difficult to put down. And it came along just when I was thinking that I would like a book that I wanted to read in one sitting rather than digest slowly.