Clare Abshire’s life is on a normal time sequential course. Henry DeTamble’s life is a series of jumps backward and forward in time. He meets Clare in a meadow at her childhood home when she is 12 and he is 31 or so. He comes to Clare many times while she is growing up. He knows she will eventually meet him in their real-time life and they will become man and wife. Once that happens Clare must deal with his continual jumps in time, waiting and wondering if he will be coming back this time. The time traveling motif underlies a deep romance. As the time comes close to the end of Henry’s life and he knows when that time is, he and Clare confront the unthinkable idea of his leaving forever. It is the kind of thing that most of us who are in love with our life-time partner and hopefully our soul-mate think of with dread. Will she die first or will I die first? Can I go on living without her? We want our love and our lives to go on and on but we know that is not to be.
Niffenegger gives us the ultimate love story. In this fantasy there is the possibility that the loved one who died will come back for just one more tear filled visit. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing if it could be true?
