Have you read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger? The movie starring Eric Bana and Rachael McAdams was pretty popular. I’m grateful that I read the book first because the book is much more intense and complicated than the film. It’s more than a love story and has many similarities to a Greek tragedy. When I finished the book, I purchased the audiobook and listened to it a couple of times, then read the book again because I had such a serious “book hangover”.
I found Henry de Tamble to be a complicated, intense, and tragic character. He is deeply flawed, a jerk by his own admission, and haunted by his past (and future at times). I felt every emotion along with him as he suffers to thrive with a miserable genetic condition that causes him to time travel at the most inopportune times.
Why do I love Henry so much? He makes mistakes – a lot of them. He is an ass to the girls he dates, but once he gives his heart to Clare, he is devoted to her. Their relationship is fraught with the tensions and drama that every couple experiences (minus the time travel thing). Most of all he agonizes over the past and is sometimes forced to relive the tragedies of his life over and over. I’m emotionally exhausted just thinking about it. Through all of this pain, he keeps trying to do better and to protect the ones he loves. And that is why Henry de Tamble has a special place in my heart.
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