Sometimes sweet, creepy, artsy-fartsy, romantic, violent, set in Chicago. My 2nd audio book. ( )

I find this book particularly hard to review. First, my reactions to the beginning and end were quite different. I'd give the first half an easy 4 stars; I'd give the second half 3 stars, maybe even 2½ because the very ending only rates 2 stars. Second, my policy against spoilers gets in the way because this book cries out for discussion of specific scenes. :-)

Anyway, to start, if you're reluctant to read this because you think it's science fiction, or if you are a science fiction buff looking for another book in that genre: this is not a science fiction book. The time travel aspect of the book is merely a plot device and what science appears is actually a bit flawed. This is a love story, and a story about a man struggling for some semblance of normalcy in a life that is pretty bad, and a story about a woman who struggles with being left behind.

The first part of the book sucked me right in. I think Niffenegger's writing was wonderful...at least when heard aloud (I listened to an audio version of this while commuting). The touch is light, humorous at times, switching back and forth between the two main characters, drawing you into the relationship that each encountered from opposite ends. Yet, it's not trivialized. You get enough glimpses of the reality that Henry faces to understand his longing for normalcy.

I disagree with those who complain that the characters aren't fleshed out—I think they are extremely real at the beginning. Niffenegger doesn't explicitly describe them, you understand them through the thoughts you hear when they are narrating. I agree that the secondary characters aren't well-developed. They're not supposed to be; the whole, entire, complete point of this book is Henry and Clare.

The second half of the book just isn't up to the first half. The quick sketches and scenes from the latter, which echoed well with the situation of the characters' lives, give way to repeated and longer scenes...at points, tediously longer. Henry remains reasonably consistent with what you've seen in the earlier book, though a bit more shallowly portrayed—huge events in his life don't seem to spark much emotional reaction. Clare, on the other hand, isn't the same person and just isn't so likable any more. However, it's clear that this wasn't deliberate...the author didn't intend you to not like Clare as much, but she starts acting inconsistently with the Clare that came before. In fact, close to the end of the book, she does things that are so completely out of character I was left thinking, "you've got to be kidding me!"

I don't know what to say about the ending other than I felt the author simply didn't know what to do. She wasn't up to putting brackets on the relationship and leaving you with some insight or even strong emotion about it. It sort of wanders off into a vague, sappy ending that left me cold.

What this book needed was a good editor. ( )