Claire met 36-year-old Henry at the age of six and fell in love with him. From then on, she began a long wait for Henry in her life. She always prepares clothes and food for Henry, waiting for his predictable and unpredictable appearance again and again. As a girl, Claire is lonely. She didn't fall in love, but waited for the day when she met someone she loved deeply. Finally, at the age of twenty, Claire met the real Henry, a 28-year-old man who lived a chaotic life. At this time, Henry didn't know that the girl he met for the first time had been waiting for him in love for 14 years. Claire was ecstatic at this meeting, and the flame of love immediately burst into flames. As destiny takes a hand, Henry also fell in love with this lovely girl, and they got married by lightning.
"It is really hard to be left behind. I am waiting for Henry. I don't know where he is or how he is. It's really hard to be the waiting party. Every minute of waiting seems like a long year. " But lack always makes love stronger. Claire believes that those extremely happy moments, even if lost, are more valuable than ordinary life.
Life is spent in Henry's uncertain future and Claire's waiting. Winning the lottery, buying a house, Henry's treatment, Claire's abortion, arguments and efforts for the children, and Alba's birth ... these family trifles and life fragments are the ordinary and extraordinary lives of Henry and Claire.
For Henry, time travel is also a very tangled thing. Sometimes, time travel will surprise him. For example, he can go back to his wife's past time again and again, meet her and communicate with her to make his real life more exciting. He can also go back to his little boy, relive the time with his parents and meet his missing and dead mother somewhere. But more often, he is afraid, lonely, hungry, chased, beaten and hurt. Compared with time travel, he is so attached to the comfortable and warm family life and Claire. "I don't want to stay in time and space without her, but I keep leaving and she can't accompany me." How pathetic!
If separation is predestined, it is better not to know beforehand. Because what should happen will happen, even if you know it in advance, it won't change anything. So when Henry and Claire knew the moment of separation in advance and watched it get closer and closer, the sadness was indescribable. But I can't do anything but wait for it irretrievably. When Claire was thirty-five and Henry was forty-three, the time they spent together came to an end in a frightening and helpless way.
In the days after that, Claire spent her whole life waiting for Henry, just as she once said. Finally, at the age of eighty-two, she waited to be reunited with forty-three-year-old Henry. That day, she got up, combed her hair, baked bread, made tea, sat there and looked at the lake, wondering if he would come today. The sad ending of the story is comforting and sad. ...
Closing the book is a strange feeling, dull pain, accompanied by a wonderful sense of satisfaction. Back to reality, there is a question. What is it? Are many right loves always wandering in uncertain time and space, just like many two people are trapped in the same time and space without real love? Is there really no tragedy in such lofty love, and can it really never be trapped by any restrictions? * **
Due to the limitation of space, the film version has deleted many story lines, leaving only a lean skeleton. Although touching enough, it lacks those wonderful storylines and those wonderful details. For example, Henry spent Christmas at Claire's house, and after he got married, Henry still went to see Claire again and again in time travel, their efforts to treat Henry's illness, giving birth to a normal child, and Claire's career and so on. These plots are undoubtedly delicate and touching, full of warmth and strong flavor of life.
I prefer watching the original works to watching movies. Only after reading the original work can we really understand that the reason why love is worth waiting for a lifetime is precisely because of the trivial time together: getting along, enjoying, loving, caring and even quarreling. When separation and reunion become so uncertain, the happiness together becomes more precious and intense. So on Christmas Eve, everyone drinks for their own reasons. Claire looked at Henry and said, "Here's to happiness and here." For her and Henry, it should be their greatest wish to be together here and now.
Different from the original, the ending of the movie version adopts suspense ending. The dead Henry returned to Claire, when their daughter was only nine years old. After a short meeting, Henry left again, and Claire and her daughter Alba exchanged encouraging smiles. After that, they packed Henry's clothes and walked away hand in hand.
Write down the words of a reader who is also touched by this book here: take this book with you on the road and remember the central idea: compared with love, the latter is the ultimate truth. Only in this way can you be qualified to swear in this era: eternal life.
(2) the author of this book Audrey niffenegger (Audrey
Niffenegger is a visual artist and a professor at the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College in Chicago. She is responsible for teaching writing, letterpress printing and making beautiful books. The Time Traveler's Wife is her first novel. Interestingly, Claire's professional paper sculpture artist in the book actually coincides with the author's career. (3)
This book belongs to the library and is randomly selected from several identical books. From the outside, it is brand new, without any creases and scratches. I think I was its first reader.
On page 65, two words seem to have been written by someone with a pencil. In order to verify my judgment, I tried it with an eraser and it happened. The printing is too weak, and the handwriting is unclear but faintly visible.
I wonder if the printing factory checked it when binding, or if someone who really loves books like me read it before me. Either way, I was moved, for the seriousness of the person who printed this book, and for meeting people who love this book in different time and space in the same book.
I carefully redrawn the two words there with a carbon pen: you will.