This is not a perfect book by any stretch, but I can't think of a single other novel that's stirred so many emotions & broken my heart so thoroughl... (show more)
This is not a perfect book by any stretch, but I can't think of a single other novel that's stirred so many emotions & broken my heart so thoroughly. There are stretches of time, certain scenes and sentences I wish I could fold, like Madeline L'Engle's tesseracts, and do away with. Awkward bits of writing & character traits, opinions that annoyed me & distracted from the flow of the tale... But still, I read on.
I had no idea when I picked this book up that it was set in and around Chicago. That was a treat for me... Audrey Niffenegger & I must have frequented the same restaurants, museums and libraries for years, perhaps crossing paths without realizing (an idea which makes me smile, as it mirrors the story). She quotes my favorite Rilke poems at length--not just any Rilke poems but the Stephen Mitchell translations! She shares my love of birds, wings. She seems to love punk rock and opera and I wonder...
I love the tactile nature of the book... Clare's art, the food and cooking, the minutiae of day-to-day living which is compellingly normal because you know that Clare & Henry's lives are anything but. I was drawn in by Clare & Henry's evolving relationship, which is strange, because normally I am very much NOT drawn in by such fictional tales of consummated love, preferring the "pure and chaste from afar," the cannot-be's. But there was plenty of Cannot Be in here, and I suppose that was enough.
I can't stop thinking about how the story played out. Scenes keep replaying themselves with the power of memory. I almost started crying at work yesterday, thinking about the ending. There's a power to that which cannot be denied. I'll ignore my reservations, my questions over continuity which do not seem to be explained even within Niffenegger's almost perfectly air-tight machinations (like finding awkward lumps on a beautifully hand-woven bedspread). The emotional resonance of this novel make up for all that. I'm terrified to see it become a film, which it inevitably will. Who knows. Had we but world enough, & time... (show less)
