€uroMeinke
09-21-2006, 06:59 AM
So, I finished this one and I really hate to be the one to start the thread but here it goes:
I had kind of mixed feelings about this book.
I loved playing around with the concept of time, having time being something non-linear, occurring sideways. I think the structure of the book helped to emulate the disjointedness that Henry must have felt in living his own life. I also liked playing with notions of how knowing the future, or know the how and when of your death was explored. But I kind of feel that there was much more that could have been done in exploring the metaphysics of time. I was of course bothered by the deterministic conclusions, though it was interesting that the characters often felt the need to conceal things as if to preserve the illusion that they had free will. Telling Claire the details of the future would tarnish he ability to enjoy those moments in the present - or the contrary cause her undue worry and suffering.
I suppose in many ways this is the dilemma of the book. It is essentially a love story, and you have to wonder what meaning their love for one another really meant when so much of it was beyond their control. I suppose this might be a modern take on the fate or destiny of love.
What bothered me though were the characters of Claire and Henry seemed way to cliché for me. Claire continually waiting for Henry - her true love. Henry the hard living bad boy, tamed by transcendent love. In truth I found at times Henry to be annoyingly manipulative, in a sense grooming the child Claire to becoming his dutiful wife. Even in his death, when he tells Claire how he releases her from the burden of his comings and goings, he leaves her a note describing a future visit of his in her old age - a moment the books ends with her waiting for it. Might as well throw herself on his funeral pyre. Claire's "affair" with Gomez was hardly such, and excuse of being drunk or in grief I think was far to whitewashed and a missed opportunity to get into the soul of Claire. Of course in the context of the determinism in the book, you really can't judge the characters in any fashion - they just do what they have to.
I also was annoyed by the need to have a DNA explanation for time travel, I don't think it added much and caused too much distraction with my eye-rolling.
I guess in the end I'm just a little bit disappointed, because the concepts and ideas in this book could have been explored so much better. I think the story might have been more interesting with female time traveler just to break apart the gender stereotypes in the book. I wish we saw more about Alba in that respect. I also wish there were more metaphysical exploration into the nature of time, though I think the book does pose the interesting question of. If you knew the future what would you tell some else about it.
Anyway, an interesting read and it opens up some avenues of thought but I'm not sure it'd be one I'd recommend to anyone as a must read.
I had kind of mixed feelings about this book.
I loved playing around with the concept of time, having time being something non-linear, occurring sideways. I think the structure of the book helped to emulate the disjointedness that Henry must have felt in living his own life. I also liked playing with notions of how knowing the future, or know the how and when of your death was explored. But I kind of feel that there was much more that could have been done in exploring the metaphysics of time. I was of course bothered by the deterministic conclusions, though it was interesting that the characters often felt the need to conceal things as if to preserve the illusion that they had free will. Telling Claire the details of the future would tarnish he ability to enjoy those moments in the present - or the contrary cause her undue worry and suffering.
I suppose in many ways this is the dilemma of the book. It is essentially a love story, and you have to wonder what meaning their love for one another really meant when so much of it was beyond their control. I suppose this might be a modern take on the fate or destiny of love.
What bothered me though were the characters of Claire and Henry seemed way to cliché for me. Claire continually waiting for Henry - her true love. Henry the hard living bad boy, tamed by transcendent love. In truth I found at times Henry to be annoyingly manipulative, in a sense grooming the child Claire to becoming his dutiful wife. Even in his death, when he tells Claire how he releases her from the burden of his comings and goings, he leaves her a note describing a future visit of his in her old age - a moment the books ends with her waiting for it. Might as well throw herself on his funeral pyre. Claire's "affair" with Gomez was hardly such, and excuse of being drunk or in grief I think was far to whitewashed and a missed opportunity to get into the soul of Claire. Of course in the context of the determinism in the book, you really can't judge the characters in any fashion - they just do what they have to.
I also was annoyed by the need to have a DNA explanation for time travel, I don't think it added much and caused too much distraction with my eye-rolling.
I guess in the end I'm just a little bit disappointed, because the concepts and ideas in this book could have been explored so much better. I think the story might have been more interesting with female time traveler just to break apart the gender stereotypes in the book. I wish we saw more about Alba in that respect. I also wish there were more metaphysical exploration into the nature of time, though I think the book does pose the interesting question of. If you knew the future what would you tell some else about it.
Anyway, an interesting read and it opens up some avenues of thought but I'm not sure it'd be one I'd recommend to anyone as a must read.