SRP Book Review #10

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

536 pages

I had been meaning to read this book for awhile, but never got around to buying it until several people with similar tastes listed it as one of their favorites of all time. It was much different, and better, than I was expecting it to be. The back cover blurb doesn't do it justice. And also, I think I wasn't expecting the main characters to be, well, cool. I was misled by their shoes in the cover photo.

I just finished it minutes ago, so I may need to do some processing and revise my review later, but I found it impossibly bittersweet and romantic, and was actually sobbing during the final chapters, which I don't usually do, even with very sad books.

How much do you love that Henry is a young, cool male librarian who's into punk music? Audrey Niffenegger must be friends with some librarians...I've read a few books with librarian characters, and she's the only one who seems to get us--to think it's cool. Even Alice Hoffman fell victim to some stereotypes.

It's almost as if the publishers were especially conscious of Henry's librarian status and Clare's paper art, because the edition I had was an especially nice book for a trade paperback. It feels a lot heavier than most books its size, and the paper it is printed in is particularly smooth and non-newsprinty. Nice touch.