In The
Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey
Niffenegger, Clare and Henry vow to
hold onto each other and their
marriage as they struggle with the
effects of Chrono-Displacement
Disorder, a condition that casts
Henry involuntarily into the world of
time travel.
Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist
and a professor in the
Interdisciplinary Book Arts MFA
Program at the Columbia College
Chicago Center for Book and paper
Arts, where she teaches writing,
letterpress printing, and fine
edition book production. She shows
her artwork at Printworks Gallery in
Chicago. The Time Traveler's Wife
is her first novel.
Discussion
Questions:
- In
The Time Traveler’s Wife,
the characters meet each other at
various times during their
lifetime. How does the author
keep all the timelines in order
and “on time”?
- Although
Henry does the time traveling,
Clare is equally impacted. How
does she cope with his journeys
and does she ultimately accept
them?
- How
does the writer introduce the
reader to the concept of time
travel as a realistic occurrence?
Does she succeed?
- Henry’s
life is disrupted on multiple
levels by spontaneous time
travel. How does his career as a
librarian offset his tumultuous
disappearances? Why does that job
appeal to Henry?
- Henry
and Clare know each other for
years before they fall in love as
adults. How does Clare cope with
the knowledge that at a young age
she knows that Henry is the man
she will eventually marry?
- The
Time Traveler’s Wife is
ultimately an enduring love
story. What trials and
tribulations do Henry and Clare
face that are the same as or
different from other “normal”
relationships?
- How
does their desire for a child
affect their relationship?
- The
book is told from both Henry and
Clare’s perspectives. What does
this add to the story?
- Do
you think the ending of the novel
is satisfactory?
- Through
history there have been dozens of
mediums used for time travel in
literature. Compare The Time
Traveler’s Wife to the ones
with which you are familiar.
Discussion
questions provided courtesy of
MacAdam/Cage Publishing
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