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But it's also in other life stuff, not just in love and relationships. For example, for Henry, he says that "everything changed, starting this minute" when he talks about his first travel through time. But pretty much everybody has that painful growing-up process that has to be done, which spoils the happy cushions all around us as kids, right? For him, it was that specific experience, but it doesn't have to be a science-fiction one, in real life, and still have that effect.
And then his friend, the older friend who could understand him, because he was also a time-traveler, who taught him - that was he, himself. Always, he's only had himself, and himself alone. Solitude. And yet, he has had more than others usually have, in real life - he had the ability to meet himself, to learn from his own experience. We can't do that, no matter how much we wish we could have.
And the older-self, who seems to be wise, experienced and understanding, is actually full of questions and confusion and doubt' just like his own child version of himself. At least until he met Claire, found his place. And it's strange because, it's pretty obvious that she defines herself according to him and according to time (and longing). But Henry also defines himself through Claire, too. Only it's through her presence, not her absence and longing to her. She's his lighthouse, guiding him through the years, and I don't care how sappy that sounds.
Another thing that reflects real-life experience is the way Henry can actually see, with simple physical eyes, things about himself that he disapproves of. For example, a tone of voice he got from his father. We have to keep imagining those things. And then, even that ability doesn't solve things for him. For example, he criticizes his father for not figuring out that the man who kept hanging round him and his wife and baby son, was actually the grown-up Henry, time-traveling. And yet, when he first saw Alba, time traveling herself, he never recognized that it was his future-daughter, either.
The travel through time, to the scene of his mother's death - on the one hand, it gives him memories of her, memories that otherwise he never would have had, or would be so worn out and fading that he wouldn't know what's real memory and what's something he was told. But on the other hand, its constant presence in his everyday life doesn't enable the passage of time (time!) to heal that wound, or at least to let it be covered-up a bit. There's no way for him to be far from that pain.
And even his "I should have died too", the death that he was saved from through his time travel, isn't unique to his science-fiction state - everybody who were saved from such an accident may think that, regardless of how they were saved, I think.
He often travels through time in difficult emotional situations, of stress and hardship. In fact, in a way, he leaves everybody else to deal with that situation, difficult as it may be, plus the added bonus of his disappearance. A bit, indeed, like the mental patient, the way his brain was described, who withdraws into his own inner world when things are rough. And just as his body takes nothing with him, if there's any physical problem caused by his arrival or disappearance, somebody else has to pick up the pieces. He doesn't do it on purpose, he would have stopped if he could, and yet, that's how it is.
And he tries to deal with his situation. Way more so after meeting Claire and marrying her, too. Even inside this "remission", there is a fight, there is an attempt. hen dealing with a problem, especially in a relationship between people, the very promise of its future solution ("we're married", for example, here) can be a stimulation enough, sometimes, to keep fighting on, looking for that solution. Knowing that there is a well-defined bright cause ahead may give the strength to look for it. The very ability to solve a problem may be what ensures the existence of that solution-finding ability.
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And then, if when there are wonderful moments, really good - no, great - ones, then borrowing strength and spirit from them when things are rough, or even just routine and meaningless and grey - that's some sort of time travel in and of itself, isn't it?
I loved the aspect of longing, of yearning, that was woven all throughout the book. Missing, lack of being-there, that makes the love grow stronger. Sometimes even more than actually being together.
Her art works, the birds, are actually works of yearning. All of her essence as a grownup - her art - was designed by Henry, his absence, her waiting, all the different types of it.
And the book is full of it, not just towards the time-traveler, but to everybody who's missing. Claire's grandmother, who lost a brother at war, simply says "this is how it is, right?". Henry himself misses his dead mother, what his father could have been without the accident. Each person has their own yearnings and missing-somebody-s to feel. The only difference seems to be the "technical" element which creates that emotion and sets it in motion.
Does she love him so much, among other reasons, because he keeps disappearing? Because he's always missing, and there's never enough of him? Because it seems like he loves her, among other reasons, for being so present, right?
In fact, when her mother passed away, that was the first time he has ever experienced the yearning for somebody, who is supposedly with him, but actually isn't. The same longing that pretty much defined her life.
Oh, and Claire's mother wrote about her that she "belongs to herself". And, in real life, that is what I imagine every parent may feel, and yet here it's more emphasized, stands out more, since throughout all her childhood, Claire belonged, in a way, to Henry, to the one who will be connected to her directly, her husband.
And Charise (sp?), married to a man who is in love with another woman, who raises a family with him, she's in that same state of constant waiting, just like Claire . She's waiting to be loved, to be left, for something, anything, to happen and change the delicate balance. So it's a different kind of wait and longing, but it's still there. And again, it isn't anybody's fault, and yet still painful. All these waitings, all this past being present, all those yearnings, all that hope.
And I loved it that the book was named after Claire, the wife, and not the time-traveler himself. She was the real heroine of the story! Without her he wouldn't have survived in his present, regardless of the time-traveling, because of himself, not because of the shifts in time. And yes, part of the fact that she's so strong and patient is thanks to her learning to be like this, as a girl, from him. It's stemming from how she defines herself around him. And still.
I mean, driving, for example, is a good demonstration of this. He can't drive, because he worries about disappearing in the middle of the road, so she's the one who drives for him. And yet, there's also the running - he controls his body, as much as he can, at least then. Until, well, he can't. Poor guy.
And I do hope that, despite all the self-definition through waiting, Claire managed to build herself a life without Henry. Even if it all pointed itself to the moment in which she knew she'd see him again, as an old woman, I hope that she managed to love, even differently, other men. Even parent more children. Get free of that cycle, experience life as present in it, as a linear line, even for a short while, even if she can't help but get back to the waiting that defined her so.
Why, yes, I am a sap, didn't you realize that already? And a rambling one, at that, too. Sigh. Sorry.
OK, back to reality, no matter how many words in how many large paragraphs I try to throw at it.
It's a fantastic book, brenda. It's become one of my all-time favorites, the book I recommend to everyone nowadays.
The book is
The Time Traveler's Wife,
by the way.
So many people have recommended
The Time Traveler's Wife
(and L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time), that I've been meaning to get it (both of them) for a while.
I did skim Nilly's white font, because I'm blessed with a poor memory for detail, and I know everything but "Nilly wrote beautifully about this story," will have left my head by the time I get and read the book.
I'm enthralled by the idea of time travel, anyhow, but this one sounds poignant.
A few too many kisses deadly, I assume.
I didn't read The Time Traveler's Wife (or all of Nilly's post), but my wife loved parts and hated other parts.
but my wife loved parts and hated other parts
That was me. I loved the idea of it and the writing, for the most part, but I HATED the supposed protagonists. That really made it hard for me to enjoy the book.
