The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

This book works on so many levels. It is a love story, a science fiction tale, and a metaphor for life. And on every level, it succeeds.

Henry is unstuck in time. He experiences his life dis-temporally. He cannot control where and when in time he will find himself. The love of his life, Clare, experiences her relationship with Henry in natural sequential course. However, his appearances in her life, beginning at age six, lead her to a life-long commitment to Henry. He doesn't actually meet her until he is 28 - until then, his life is a free-for-all. For her entire life, she is "waiting" on Henry. At one point, she writes, "I won't ever leave you, even though you're always leaving me."

In many ways, this book is an extended reflection on life, love, mortality, and fate:

Though none of us "jump" from one time period to another, in our memories we relive our past experiences and dream of future possibilities and both of these things shape our lives.

This book also captures the general experience that men and women have - the woman waiting on her beloved who is not always "all there" and the man finding an anchor in his woman's love, but tending to drift all over the place in regard to passions and interests.

It reminds us of our mortality in that our lives are framed by certain events which define who we are. It is these human boundaries which not only frustrate us, but also allow us to cherish and value our current experiences. Henry must come to love the moment, since the moment is all he really has.

Finally, in regard to fate, this book typifies how our free acts are not as free as we think and how we are constantly influencing others. Would Clare love Henry so much if he had not appeared to her at age six and popped into her life repeatedly until the point they actually meet?

[Spoiler alert: Read no further if you don't want an idea of the ending.]

The last 120 pages had me in tears. Before he dies, Henry tells Clare he has seen her in the future. Thus, even after his death, Clare is still "waiting" on her beloved. Powerful book!