"dum spiro, spero."
"dum spiro, spero."
while i breathe, i hope.
Monday, 28 May 2012
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
book review for english
Book Review
THE TIME TRAVELLERS WIFE
Hannah
McMillen
The novel, The Time Traveler’s
Wife is written by Audrey Niffenegger as
a debut novel that became a national bestseller in 2003. The novel has a unique
concept and structure. Niffenegger was able to hold my attention for 518 pages,
it is the kind of book that probably sounds like it would be difficult to
follow but it was indeed very engaging and easy to follow. It’s a story about love, longing andvwaiting told from the perspectives of two
charming characters
The
book is not the average time travel fantasy with a time machine and scientists.
Henry DeTamble wishes he did not have the disorder known as Chrono-Displacement
Disorder. It causes him to involuntarily travel in time, he drops in and out of
various moments in life and when he does, he wakes up in
another place and time, naked, nauseous and hungry. Henry's time travel drives
the story, but is not really what the story is about. The story mainly revolves around a romantic
relationship between a simple librarian guy called Henry and an artist, Clare
who specialized in sculptures. From the outside, it seemed like a normal dating
relationship. But the novel pushes questions of meaning and purpose, its built
around the connection between Clare and Henry, and Clare’s longing for Henry.
There
is so much real life-description
in the novel, family tensions, friendships, rock shows, jobs. She describes a
very realistic world, finding yourself believe people can really have
involuntary time travel. The novel does not follow linear time, which makes the
love story somewhat hard to understand. The novel is very compelling and will
give you much to think about and feel.
Throughout
this book, Claire meets Henry a number of times throughout a young age, her
teens and adulthood. Claire was six the first time she met Henry and he was a
grown man. She found him in the meadow next to her house and they started
talking. The story, you follow the times that Henry and Claire meet. Henry's
age was usually switching between his twenties, thirties and forties whenever
he visited Claire. Claire's life progressed chronologically throughout the
story, whereas especially in the beginning, Henry was entering her life at
different ages.
In Claire's present, Henry may only be
gone for fifteen minutes, but to him, he has been visiting other years of his
life for significant periods of time and reliving him. Henry is unable to
change the past during his time travel - he can only replay the past. In some
cases, Henry even watches himself in the same moment at two different ages in
his life.
Claire knows from puberty that she is
in love with Henry. Henry never "takes advantage" of her crush on
him, even though she makes attempts to sway him in her teenage years. Their
romantic encounters do not begin to happen until Claire is an adult.
“Our life together in this too-small apartment is punctuated by
Henry's small absences. Sometimes he disappears unobtrusively; I might be
walking from the kitchen into the hall and find a pile of clothing on the
floor. I might get out of bed in the morning and find the shower running and no
one in it. Sometimes it's frightening.”
In conclusion,
this book is a must read. The love story is quite amazing. Claire and Henry go
through quite a bit to be together. Henry disappears with almost no notice, and
there is no way to know if he is ever coming back.
Work Experience Feb/March
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