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Review
ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS!!!
I was talking to a friend about this book recently, and while explaining it to her, I was essentially writing a review, so I figured I’d post it.
It’s the story of Henry and Clare and their incredible love story against all odds.
Henry has a condition which makes him ‘jump’ back and forth in time. He has a life in real time, but he just leaves it – sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes for a couple of days – before reappearing and picking up where he left off. He never knows when it’s going to happen, or where he’s going to end up when he travels, but it’s always within a relatively close timeframe, and he usually sees the same people. So he sees himself as a child, and he sees a lot of Clare, from her childhood, right through to her young adulthood.
The timeframe in the story jumps around all over the place as we follow Henry’s travels, but the story essentially starts when Henry meets Clare for the first time. Clare already knows him, as the older Henry has been visiting her all throughout her childhood. So she’s ecstatic to see him, even though he has no clue who she is.
“This astoundingly beautiful amber-haired tall slim girl turns around and looks at me as though I am her personal Jesus. My stomach lurches. Obviously she knows me, and I don’t know her. Lord only knows what I’ve said, done, or promised to this luminous creature … The girl sort of breathes “Henry!” in this very evocative way that convinces me that at some point in time we have a really amazing thing together. This makes it worse that I don’t know anything about her, not even her name. I say “Have we met?” and Isabelle gives me a look that says You asshole. But the girl says, “I’m Clare Abshire. I knew you when I was a little girl,” and invites me out to dinner. I accept, stunned.
…
I realize that a massive winning lottery ticket chunk of my future has somehow found me here in the present, and I start to laugh. I cross the lobby, and as I run down the stairs to the street I see Clare running across Washington Square, jumping and whooping, and I am near tears and I don’t know why.”
What follows is the story of their life together. Henry falling in love with her (Clare is already there), and them trying to make a life together while dealing with Henry’s ‘condition’ and searching desperately for a cure.
“Don’t you think it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”
Told in dual POV, this is an absolutely beautiful love story. Henry and Clare are both fantastic characters and they love each other deeply. And even though their situation is somewhat based in fantasy, their reactions, and the way they try to cope with it is very realistic.
“I won’t ever leave you, even though you’re always leaving me.”
In addition to their lives in real time, we also get to see Henry’s visits to Clare as a child, and they are absolutely gorgeous! Knowing who she will grow up to become, and what she will mean to him, their relationship is so special, and I loved watching it all unfold.
Beautifully written with epic highs and devastating lows, it’s an emotional ride, but an absolutely amazing story.
“I love you, always. Time is nothing.”
5 epic stars.