Do you ever travel in your mind? Go to the past, relive moments of your life. The advantage of mind time travel is when you go back in time you take the wisdom and experience that you have today back with you. I would enjoy high school and junior high so much more if I could do it with the today me. Don't get me wrong, I want the body and hair of yesterday. Just the wisdom of today. When I do it there is no confusion. I know where I am going and where I have been.
Reading The Time Traveler's Wife is not so clear. He travels forward, he travels back. Sometimes he knows where he is, sometimes he does not. It can be so confusing. When I was able to understand the flow it was amazing. I have never read anything like it before. While I was reading, the book was like a fine wine. I wanted to sip it and make it last. Just like wine, there were parts I wanted to drink quickly. Unlike drinking wine, there was no headache at the end.
There is confusion. The book and the movie can be confusing. It is called a love story. It is not a traditional love story. At one point the wife has an affair with future Henry. Future Henry can travel back in time and meet present Henry. Very strange. He can relive terrible moments in his life over and over. He cannot change the outcome.
The book is so much smoother than the movie. I do get why so much is left out of the movie. The movie would have to be a mini-series to follow the book. Since I read the book first, the movie seems empty. Except for the big ending. It takes my breath away. I knew what was coming and it still surprised me.
There are times the story feels more like a manipulation of a life instead of a love story. The wife spends her life waiting. In the future and in the past. She is just waiting for the visits. Living her life waiting for the moments she can spend with her husband. When she is a child she waits for his visits. Waits to grow up and marry him. Waits while he is gone visiting her in the past. Waits and waits.
I guess we all are guilty of that. Living in the past. Waiting for times in the future. Those big moments. First loves, turning 16, graduating, marriage, baby, baby sleeping through the night. It all goes fast. We speed it along waiting. Can't wait. We do not spend enough time in the moment. Maybe that is the point of the book and movie. Remind us to live in the moment. Find time this week-end to slowly savour a moment. Drink it in. Sip it. I know I am going to.
I rated the book a 5. If you read it, do it when you can stay in the moment. You really need to concentrate on this book. I would give the movie a 2. If I watched it again, I think I could enjoy it more and give it a 3.
2 comments:
i do not recommend spending 2.5 hours at happy hour & then a group of girls going to see this movie. it's not a funny movie.
I loved this book but probably won't see the movie -- I don't think they can do it justice!
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