Reader’s Notes 1

Reader’s Notes for The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, part 1.

“This evening, in the Get Me High Lounge, in Chicago, my twenty-five-year-old self will drink until I quietly slide off the bar stool and onto the floor and end up having my stomach pumped at Mercy Hospital. It’s the nineteenth anniversary of my mother’s death” (108).

Despite how depressing this excerpt, I like the way the author words everything, and then ends with “It’s the nineteenth anniversary of my mother’s death,” as though it’s not a big deal that Henry’s mother has been dead for 19 years and her death barely affects Henry.

“My mom wears lipstick, eye liner, mascara, blush, and eyebrow pencil to go to the dry cleaner’s. Dad is much as he always is, tall, spare, a quiet dresser, a wearer of hats” (110).

This characterizes Henry’s parents, two opposite people. Henry’s mother dresses up, always looks her best, no matter where she’s going, while Henry’s father is a simple man.

“They make plans to move to Vienna after the end of the Lyrics ‘69-‘70 season. Dad auditions at the Philharmonic. Whenever the phone rings, it’s Uncle Ish, Mom’s manager, or someone from a record label” (110).

This shows how large a part of Henry’s life music is. With both parents being professional, world-renowned musicians, Henry has dealt with the music industry a lot, and knows his way around good music.

“ ’No, that wasn’t it, the steel embedded in my seat right where my forehead should have been. I have a scar where it started to cut my forehead.’ I show Clare. ‘It got my hat. The police couldn’t figure it out. All my clothes were in the car, on the seat and the floor, and I was found stark naked by the side of the road’ ” (113).

Maybe time traveling has its benefits?

“But then I feel guilty for wanting to avoid the sadness; dead people need us to remember them, even if it eats us, even if all we can do is say I’m sorry until it is as meaningless as air” (118).

I love this quote; it’s so true on so many levels.

“The abandoned ghost train track looms over the street in the sodium vapor glare and as I open the door someone starts to blow a trumpet and hot jazz smacks me in the chest. I walk into it like a drowning man, which is what I have come here to be” (119).

This is some really neat imagery. The ghost train track paired with the hot jazz and the drowning man produces a really, really interesting idea.

“I can feel the cold dry air in my lungs, feel my heart serenely pounding, and as I reach North Avenue I am feeling good and I start to speed up. Running is many things to me: survival, calmness, euphoria, solitude. It is proof of my corporeal existence, my ability to control my movement through space if not time, and the obedience, however temporary, of my body to my will. As I run I displace air, and things come and go around me, and the path moves like a filmstrip beneath my feet” (154).

This is how I feel when I go running! Minus, the time-traveling worries, of course.

“We stand in line for a few minutes. Henry seems tense, on guard. He holds my hand, but stares out over the crowd” (155).

What does Henry know that Clare doesn’t? Why is he tense?

“He goes off to the bar. I rest my arms on the railing of the balcony and watch the crowd. Girls in vintage dresses, girls in combat gear, boys with Mohawks, boys in flannel shirts. People of both sexes in T-shirts and jeans. College kids and twenty-somethings, with a few old folks scattered in” (156).

This is an interesting combination of people for a Violent Femmes concert….

“She is blond, and beautiful in a very German way, tall and dramatic” (156).

Who is this blond woman? Does her being German have any significance? –The blond woman is Ingrid, Henry’s ex. Not sure if there’s any significance to her being German.

“The dance floor is a roiling mass of slamming humanity” (157).

I love this line! “Slamming humanity” is great.

“Beautiful girl, love your dress, high school smile, oh yes, where she is now, I can only guess…How can I explain personal pain?…I ain’t had much to live for I ain’t had much to to live for I ain’t had much to live for” (158).

These song lyrics from a Violent Femmes song fit this part of the novel quite well. They describe both Clare and Henry and their feelings about their lives at this point.

“All her Teutonic cool is gone, her face is red and puffy, her makeup is in streaks” (159).

Teutonic: Of or relating to the Germanic languages or their speakers. http://www.answers.com/teutonic

“Short hair. Henry has either gotten his hair cut in the last half hour or I’m looking at my favorite chrono-displaced person. I jump up and fling myself at him” (160).

The short hair means that it is the old Henry, the one the Clare is so fond of. Seeing the Henry that Clare is used to comforts her, and she is joyous.

“I’ve noticed that Henry needs an incredible amount of physical activity all the time in order to be happy. It’s like hanging out with a greyhound” (163).

Henry as a greyhound? That’s an interesting selection, but it suits him quite well. I almost got a greyhound once, but my family wouldn’t have been able to provide with enough physical activity to keep it happy.

“I feel like Dorothy, when her house crash-landed in Oz and the world turned from black and white to color. We’re not in Kansas anymore” (164).

Wizard of Oz! Awesome allusion. Quite fitting, too. Clare’s world has been completely changed now that she’s met the current Henry.