The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Reviewed By Cathy Walker

thisisUll.com readers may have seen The Time Traveller's Wife featured as part of Richard and Judy's Bookclub. If you're not a fan of the teatime TV couple do not be deterred; this is likely to be one of the most unusual and original pieces of fiction you are likely to read this year. The book is essentially based around the proposition of what if time travel was possible? You might be thinking that numerous pieces in several genres have already done this, from HG Wells to Dr Who. Yet, The Time Traveller's Wife explores the possibilities of time travel in a far more personal, intimate and domestic context.

What if you could travel back in time and meet your partner as a child? How would your relationship develop? How would you feel if your partner knew you better than you knew them because of yet-to-happen travels into the past? What would happen if you ran into a past or present version of yourself? How much would you divulge about your future? Would you tell friends and relatives about aspects of their futures that you have full knowledge off? Would you check next week's lottery numbers and make sure you had a ticket?

These are some of questions explored by the time traveller in question- Henry De Tamble- and his wife Clare. Henry has a genetic disorder; the genes that hold him in time and space are defective and often reset. This means that he regularly travels in time to both the past and the future, but generally within his own lifetime (in fact he spends much time with his past and future selves). If you think time travel might be fun, Henry's experiences of appearing naked in unfamiliar places at unknown times might make you rethink!

Whilst the novel poses some remarkable questions and dilemmas for its characters, it is utterly believable. This is not science fiction. The reader accepts that Henry does travel in time, focussing attention on the impact and implications of his cyclical life course. This is achieved through Niffenegger's skill in the construction of the key characters (the story is told from the perspectives of both Henry and Clare) whose flaws ultimately give the novel its realism.

The device of Henry's time travel effectively explores themes of destiny, fate, relationships and our increased knowledge of genetics. As with any story that involves time travel it is tightly plotted. More than science fiction, more than a love story, this is an innovative and highly original novel. The attention of Richard and Judy means that this book has sold more copies that it previously would have done, but deservedly so. (Jonathon Cape) ISBN 0224071912

Reviews, Books -One For New York by John A Williams Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	A remarkable novel in every respect, this is a classic piece of literature from an incredibly gifted writer who expressed exactly how it felt to be a black man growing up in the United States early on in the last Century. This book focuses on his Read more...

Reviews, Books - Dr. Sax by Jack Kerouac Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Even hardcore fans of this legendary author might be in two minds about how much they like this novel of his. Jack is best-known for his travel-trained adventures back and forth across the USA (in On The Road, Big Sur and The Dharma Bums for example), and further Read more...

Reviews, Books - Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear Reviewed By Cathy Walker
	Can you name a female private detective? Your answer might be Miss Marple or Mma Ramotswe of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, but thanks to Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs is another name to add to that list. Initially it seems that Read more...

Reviews, Books - Strange Angels by Andy Bull Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Books come no more riveting than this mini-masterpiece that reads both as an eye-opening travelogue and close analysis of the lives - and deaths - of four all-American icons. Marilyn Monroe. Elvis Presley. James Dean. JFK. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Blackpool Highflyer by Andrew Martin (Faber and Faber Ltd.) Reviewed By Cathy Walker
	A novel about a Yorkshireman who is nuts about the railways and his adventures as an engine driver... Admittedly this sounds like something that might appeal just to trainspotters, but in the Blackpool Highflyer:, Andrew Martin: Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - 15th February 05 - The Woman in White at the Palace Theatre, London By Steve Rudd
	The Woman in White is the latest box-office-busting musical extravaganza from Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the famous Victorian novel of the same name that was published way, way back in 1860 by the distinguished and understandably Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - GO WEST, to the South of the Thames and see National Anthems! By Steve Rudd
	The West End of London city centre is a magical place, packed with cinemas and theatres. There are always some amazing shows to be seen in such theatres, whether they are full-blown musicals or pure drama-driven plays, and I guess the most frustrating thing about taking a trip to Read more...

Reviews, Films - Meet The Fockers By DJ Chris Plant
	Having given permission to male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller) to wed his daughter (Polo), ex-CIA man Jack Byrnes (De Niro) and his wife (Danner) travel to Detroit to meet the parents, who this time around are Mr. and Mrs. Focker (Hoffman and Streisand), who Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Butterfly Effect by Pernille Rygg Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Death is nothing to young girls, except as part of the adventure, an exciting secret whispered by a dark lover, not something you meet one evening when you're going home to your movie or father. Such a notion is all about to change Read more...

Reviews, Events - Comedy in Hull - A Ringside Seat - Thursday 2nd February 05 By Jim Higo
	While we all sit around moaning about the lack of decent live entertainment in Hull; Buzz Comedy Club have been doing something about it. While we get in from work, moan again about the lack of decent live entertainment in Hull, Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	It was in America that horses first roamed. A million years before the birth of man, they grazed the vast plains of wiry grass and crossed to other continents over bridges of rock soon severed by retreating ice. They first knew man as the hunted knows the hunter Read more...

Reviews, Books - Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	I realise that by deciding not to do things, I've lost millions of threads of chance and opportunity to have new experiences, to meet new people - to be alive, really. So now I'm going to start doing things I'm bad at again. Heck, I'm going to do things Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	The one way to be happy is to love, to love self-denyingly, to love everybody and everything. If you fancy a nice little slab of classic literature, then this beauty of a story might be for you. Set on the harsh Russian Steppes back in the nineteenth century, this simple-living Read more...