Thursday, April 7, 2011

Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

***This is a post I wrote for a different blog about a year ago, it rambles a bit and I literally typed it in about 5 minutes and walked away.  I know there's errors and such but I figured why let a good rant go to waste***

SPOILER ALERT

So I read this book and I'm watching the movie now and I've been having trouble figuring out what it is I didn't like about this story. I really did enjoy reading and what not but it just didn't really work for me.

Like I said I'm watching the movie and I think I figured out more or less what it is I don't like. This story is so set in the past present and future. There's no chance for any kind of change and I do think that we have some kind of effect on things, I really think we're in control (at least 99%) of our lives. This is a great story except the whole thing about stories is overcoming and whatever and I just think the little visit he gives her when she's like 80 isn't enough. I think it's kinda cruel actually she literally wastes away for the rest of her life until she sees him for a few minutes and then what? She's got nothing to live for. Like I get the overcoming adversity and shit but really I feel like there should be SOME kind of give. He can come back with winning lottery numbers but not with some way to survive a few extra years? Or to be able to occasionally travel and see her as she ages? I just have trouble buying it.

I think another reason this really bothers me is because I tend to like fantasy books (to a point, I don't really like the crazy out there ones) and this is EXACTLY the kind of story I would like except that there's no hope. This book leaves you with expectations, she can expect visits but she can't hope for anything.


If you were writing a book about a war you wouldn't have a prophet come along and say that they are going to lose the war and that only a few people will be left alive and that they will be scrounging for a time to survive but eventually they will be killed by the invading army. Well you can say it, but you don't have it happen. There has to be a reason to keep reading, to keep living. There has to be something that can be gained, fixed, improved, won, SOMETHING otherwise why waste your time and finish the story, why waste the effort and keep on living.

And of course the movie made less sense then the book but that's not really the point here. I think that for the most part it was a well written book with a great idea for a story but I don't think it should have ended that way. I'm not sure what I would have done to change it but I would have done SOMETHING. It was touching and heartfelt and romantic and funny and all these wonderful things but I felt empty and let down at the end and couldn't figure it out. I'm not even sure what I did with the book itself because I was so disappointed.

That was one heck of a ramble to say that I really liked it...till the end.

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