Well, if you count that I read these books in January, they’re “recent.”
First up, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE by Audrey Niffennegger. Sandorf Verster (a.k.a Claudia Zenk) lent me TTW several months ago. I saved it for my holiday to Mexico, when I had to read it so I could compare the movie version on DVD when I came home.
I’d heard about this book for years (like everyone else), but I didn’t pick it up because, for some strange reason, I thought it was about astronauts and spaceships. I thought it was about some guy who zipped off to Saturn or wherever, leaving his wife lonely back home. Well, the hero does zip off, but not in the way I thought. And now I’m wondering if there’s another book out there where the hero does zap off into space, and I’m getting them mixed up. Help me if you know I am.
Anyway, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE was worth the wait. I very much enjoyed it. I especially liked how the author handled the story and characters jumping around in time. I always knew what year it was and which character’s viewpoint I was reading. No confusion.
Have you read this book? What did you think? Did the movie version do the book justice? I think it did. The movie was a bit depressing compared to the book, but in my opinion was an accurate reflection of the story.
Seeing as I borrowed it, I no longer have the book to quote the back cover copy, but here’s the product description from on-line booksellers:
A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger’s cinematic storytelling that makes the novel’s unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.
An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler’s Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.
After I consumed TTW, I picked up THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER by Kim Edwards. (Note, if you want to learn more about Kim Edwards, don’t google her name. There are a lot of Kim Edwardses out there. Her website URL is the title of the novel).
I enjoyed THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, but I absolutely, thoroughly loved THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER. In fact, I developed a serious crick in my neck reading MKD on the plane home from Mexico, and I had to go to the chiropractor to get adjusted. That’s one good book when you don’t notice the uncomfortable angle of your head as you’re reading it.
MEMORY KEEPER is a keeper for me.
About the book:
This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins.
His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love.
I worried that the story would end sadly, but, for me, it didn’t. I loved the ending. I know a lot of romance readers really don’t like sad endings, but I’m not one of them. Probably because I devoured literary fiction since the age of 13, long, long before I began writing and reading romance. I find sad endings cathartic. But! I did NOT want this book to end sadly, and I had to keep reading and reading to find out how it did end. Which wasn’t sad in the slightest (at least not for me).
Don’t ask me why MEMORY KEEPER wasn’t made into a big-screen movie. I learned while searching for the book cover that it was a 2008 Lifetime movie starring Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol, and Emily Watson. But I haven’t seen the TV movie, so I can’t compare it it to the book.
Anyone read THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER? Did you catch the Lifetime movie? How did they compare? Which did you like better? Is the movie a fairly accurate portrayal of the book?
If you’ve read both THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE and THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER, which did you like better? Why?
You can hand in your book reports at the end of the class. No apples necessary. I’ll take diamonds. Okay, okay! Cinnamon buns. Sheesh. With extra raisins.