Sharon Snir enjoys The Time Traveler's Wife

Writer, healer and teacher Sharon Snir shares one of her favourite recent reads with us.
Sharon's beautiful Little Book of Everyday Miracles was one of our end-of-year picks in 2012. More about Sharon at the end of this review.

Sharon writes: Being primarily a non-fiction reader I surprised myself by devouring The Time Traveler’s Wife with a voracious appetite in only three weeks. It would not have taken me so long had life not irritatingly imposed itself on me for, in truth, all I have wanted to do was read this wonderful, fascinating, fantasy that left me believing (well, almost) that Chrono- Impairment is a genuine genetic disease.

Writer Audrey Niffenegger

Audrey Niffenegger introduces us to a totally fantastic way of looking at time. Henry is the main protagonist, along with Claire.  They meet when she is six and he is thirty sixty under baffling and extraordinary circumstances  When Henry  travels  back in time he finds himself standing in the bushes completely naked, watching six year old Claire playing contentedly by herself. This situation is made even more bizarre by the fact that Henry and Claire have been married, in his present life, for six years. Henry’s rare condition, called Chrono-Impairment  causes him to be pulled into the past or the future without any volition on his part. 

The Time Traveler's Wife made me confront my personal attitude towards stealing, violence deception and addiction. I not only understood all the mitigating circumstances that forced Henry to resort to being an occasional criminal but I also cheered him on. I wanted him to be safe and warm and well fed and if he had to break every law there ever was to be these things, then so be it. Henry and Claire became my friends and I revelled in their wit, their silver-tongued repartee, their intelligence, their wisdom and their love.

Erica Bana and Rachel McAdams starred in the movie of this immensely popular book.

This most beautiful love story brings passion, lust, laughter and loss together like a rich and sensual tapestry. Henry and Claire’s love grows even through times of very large age differences. It blossoms beyond the boundaries of age. It flourishes beyond the limitations of time. Here are two people thrown together and ripped apart time after time who struggle to lead normal lives in spite of their circumstances. It is tale about waiting, and longing and learning to accept life as it rolls in. It is a saga about the impossible being possible.  

As I slipped silently into the narrative of Claire and Henry’s lives I found myself reading more and more slowly. I wanted them to stay in my life for as long as possible. But all good stories much come to an end. One the morning I finished the book I felt bereft. As if I had lost a friend. And I did something I have never done before. I took a leaf out of the book and went back in time and re-read the first few chapters again. It is one of those books.

Review by Sharon Snir

Sharon Snir is a writer, Gestalt therapist and healer who has written three books.  Sharon is founder and creator of a system of learning called The 12 Levels of Being, dedicated to developing an unconditional love for self and an understanding of the processes every human being undergoes in order to overcome life’s illusions.       

You can read more about Sharon at www.sharonsnir.com     

 Sharon Snir's The Little Book of Everyday Miracles is published by Allen & Unwin (2012). Sharon's beautifully touching book, Looking for Lionel, about living with her mother's dementia, is also published by Allen & Unwin. You can buy both these books - and of course, Time Traveler's Wife - and support our Book Club through our affiliate bookstore links (above right!). We welcome your comments, opinions, conversation, engagement!