book clubbing in April

This month my book club discussed The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I first read The Time Traveler's Wife in late 2005. Here's what I had to say about the book at that time (taken from my BookCrossing journal entry):

What a wonderful book! I was afraid that this might be one of those books that just doesn't live up to the hype, but I was not disappointed.
A love story, an interesting premise, and well-developed, sympathetic characters... what more could you want?

And, honestly, I enjoyed my second reading as much as the first. I really do think that The Time Traveler's Wife is a wonderful book and - come to think of it - I should pick up a copy for my permanent collection.

What was really interesting about our book club meeting today is that we all liked the book and we had a good discussion. For some reason we tend to have much better discussions when we are talking about books we didn't like all that much. We discussed the author and her writing style, how Niffenegger's theory of time travel deviates from the "rules" that govern most time-travel fiction, Henry and Clare as characters and how they acted in certain situations, the implications of Alba's time traveling, and whether or not we found the ending satisfactory among other things. All in all it was a very successful meeting.

Niffenegger is definitely a gifted novelist evidenced by her ability to manage The Time Traveler's Wife's complex plot and present it so seamlessly. I'm very curious to see what her next novel will be like.