|
Henry and Clare are lovers, will be lovers, have been lovers.
Henry first meets Clare when he is twenty-eight and she is
twenty. Clare first meets Henry when she is six and he is
thirty-six. You see Henry has a problem, at moments of stress
he time travels, and he travels against his will, with no
control over the situation. But whether through fate or determinism
Henry travels a lot to see Clare his wife...
The
Time Traveler's wife
was written by Audrey Niffenger and abridged by Paul Kent.
Niffenger is a professor at Columbia College Chicago Center
for book and paper arts, this was her first novel.
At
its heart this is an intriguing and enchanting love story,
performed beautifully by William Hope, playing Henry, and
Laurel Lefkow, playing Clare. Henry gets thrown around time,
always turning up naked wherever he arrives. This brings problems
with his work, who think he is some kind of pervert as he
is always being found in the toilets without his clothes.
He also has problems with his sexuality. How do you deal with
a seventeen old version of a woman you love very much and
have slept with many times? At points his feelings become
very mixed up.
The disc, like the book, is somewhat non-linear. The book
has no chapters but rather presents the reader with a continual
set of instances, shown from both of the characters perspectives.
The CD has kept this structure, meaning that the overall story
is revealed piecemeal. Events which happen in Clare's past
happen in Henry's future, and the two must be careful how
much they reveal to each other. The whole story only reveals
itself at the end, when the audience has listened to both
stories. The ending, without giving it away, is very poignant
and made my wife cry.
I
don't know if audio CD's have any kind of age rating like
DVD's. If you know write in and tell me I'm dying to know.
The reason I say this is that the abridged version appears
somewhat sanitised compared to the original novel. Many of
the funniest and most disturbing aspects of the book seem
to have been cut out. There can't be many people out there
who haven't played with themselves, but Henry can meet himself
which brings the idea to a whole other level.
Henry,
who is convinced that he cannot change the future, either
his or anyone else's, tests this only once by asking Clare
to date a picture, which he knows has no date on it in the
future. When he returns to the future the pictures date has
been removed after an accident, so it still has no date on
it.
Henry
has also been sanitised for the CD. There are practical problems
when you turn up everywhere naked, the need to get food and
clothing and the need to defend yourself. Henry is an accomplished
survivor which means he can be violent and ruthless when the
need arises. The CD keeps one scene of Henry needlessly attacking
a man who accuses him of homosexuality but cuts out the scene
where he coldly attacks a boy who got a bit fresh with Clare.
The
four disc set runs for approximately five hours, I enjoyed
it so much that I sat through the whole thing in one sitting.
The sound is stereo, which is crystal clear, anything other
than stereo would have been rather redundant as the story
is told from Henry's or Clare's perspective so essentially
all you have is a single person speaking at any one time.
The cover is the same that was used for the book and depicts
a child's legs standing next to a pile of male adult clothes.
I wish that the BBC and others could find a better way to
package their products. The discs are housed in a gatefold
plastic holder, the sort that looses the little centre pieces
so that you end up with small bits of plastic rattling around
inside scratching the disc.
This
is not a playful look at time travel, but a real exploration
of its practical consequences. Should Henry tell his wife,
after five miscarriages whether she will ever have the child
she so desperately wants? Should he tell her how her mother
dies or even how and when he dies?
So
is it worth getting? Ultimately the story is one of true love
that survives under the most trying circumstances. If you
want to get something incredibly romantic for your partner,
you're onto a winner here. Mostly, though, you should get
it as it's a slice of near perfect science fiction.
 
Charles
Packer
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal! Click on the logo of the desired store
below to purchase this item.
|
|
|
£17.99
(Amazon.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£17.99
(Studentbookworld.com) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
