The Time Traveler's Wife (Pgs.1-218)

Summary
     The Time Traveler's Wife tells the love story between librarian Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire. Henry travels through time practially involuntarily, and during his time travelling he meets Clare, only he meets her at the age of six. When he time travels, his ages vary depending on the year he is relocated to. Also, when he time travels, once he arrives, he arrives naked. In the pages read, readers are introduced to Clare, when she is the age of 20 and Henry the age of 28, which is the real age difference between them. Clare tells readers how she first saw Henry, and the excitement she felt, although he had not a clue who she was. She reminisces on the memories she shared with Henry while she grew up, and how she's hoping he loves her in this present as he has in her past and their future. She asks Henry out on a date, and he relunctantly agrees. In this date Clare tells Henry everything they have gone through in their past, but then they have a normal date and talk. The date ends with Clare going to Henry's apartment, and they spend the night together.
   The rest of the pages proceed with readers learning about both Clare and Henry's childhood. Clare grew up living a good life. Her father was a lawyer, and her brother Mark was on his way to becoming a lawyer himself. She also had a younger sister named Alicia. She mainly got along with her mother and her housekeeper, Etta. Meanwhile, Henry was an only child. His mother was a famous singer and his father a violinist. His mother died in a car accident when he was a child, and the relationship between Henry and his father has been strained ever since. Henry doesn't ever say much to Clare about his past, but eventually he does, and she learns how he feels he should have died along with his mother. He tells her that when they crashed into the truck, "I was watching us plow into this truck, and then I was in the hospital...I was completely abscent from the scene for ten minutes and forty-seven seconds. I don't remember where I went"(Niffenegger 113-114). This shows that this was the second time Henry had time travelled, and that's why he survived the accident.
   The last things that happen in the pages read were that Henry goes and visits Clare while she grows up, and through this they fall in love with each other. Later in the future, Henry visits her family for the first time, along with meeting her friends. He spends time with her family during Christmas break, which is a sad time for his because this was when his mother died.

Quote
     "I hear a muffled sniffling noise and glancing at Clare I am astonished to see that tears are streaming across her face towards her ears. 'What's wrong Clare?'...It comes out so quietly that I have to ask her to repeat it: It's just that I thought  maybe you were married to me.'"(Niffenegger 71).

Reaction
    In this book, the author makes it known when the narrators are changing, like when Henry will be narrating or when Clare will be narrating. This story is different from other stories because it doesn't just mention an event and then start telling how it happened from that exact moment. Instead, the author mentions the event and doesn't get into it until later in the book, which can really leave readers curious and makes them want to keep reading so they can figure out how exactly it happened. An example of this is when readers find out Henry's mother dies when he's young. They never learn how it happens because it's never told in detail at that precise moment. Instead, readers find out much later in the book, and they learn the detail of how she died, which was in a car accident. This book is amazing so far as far details. Something that does get confusing is when Henry time travels and is different ages, including seeing himself both either at the same age or younger/ older.
   I chose this quote because I like the connection Henry and Clare have, even if she is just a child. She is upset because she has asked Henry if he has a wife, to which he responded yes. This upsets her because, while at a sleepover with friends and playing a game in the Ouija board, she learns that Henry is her husband, or rather will be. What she's unaware of is that she is the wife that Henry speaks of, only in the future. I think this quote is really cute because it foreshadows how Clare and Henry will be together in the future, and how from such a young age, she knows that he's the one she wants to be with. I think the connection her and Henry share at this point is already past an older man and a little girl, and that the love they will share in the future comes from this lovable connection they share now. The last thing this quote shows is that they will be together practially forever, because of the non-ending encounters between them and how their feelings increase more and more throughout the change of time and time travels.