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Between the Lines |
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Interview with Audrey Niffenegger |
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The Time Traveler’s Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
The
Time Traveler's Wife tells the story of husband and wife, Henry and Clare. The two have known each other since Henry was thirty-six and Clare was six. Because Henry unexpectedly and involuntarily travels through time, he finds himself misplaced in time, and his disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing. The
Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view.
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Biography |
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| Audrey Niffenegger is a professor in the Interdisciplinary Books Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, where she teaches writing, letterpress printing, and fine edition book productions. A visual artist, she shows her artwork at Printworks Gallery in Chicago. The
Time Traveler's Wife is her first novel. |
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Interview |
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Q: You have created a world where time doesn’t move forward sequentially but instead moves in a more random and fluid way. How did you keep your characters and storyline threads straight?
A: I used two timelines: one for Clare, whose timeline is also the reader’s, and another one that tracks the order in which things happen in the book and Henry’s travels. I also found a perpetual calendar to be very helpful.
Q: Henry is unable to influence his future in the book—it’s already all mapped out. Are we all trapped by our past? Were you using the concept of time travel to examine destiny versus free will?
A: Well, the opinions expressed by characters in the book are not necessarily those of management. I am a big fan of free will; it’s the only thing that kept me going through nine years of Catholic grammar school. We are all trapped by a number of things, including the past, memory, and genes, but free will is a weapon against that. In The
Time Traveler's Wife Henry says that we have free will as long as we are in the present. And, of course, we are always in the present.
Q: You invoke many styles of music in the novel that often serve to place the reader in a particular era, helping the moment come alive. Tell us about your musical influences.
A: Henry and I are the same age; I, too, am a child of punk and new wave. I like music of all sorts if it is austere. For example I’m fond of early liturgical music and Bach’s cello pieces and early jazz. Bands I’m listening to now include The Ponys, Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, Wilco, Neutral Milk Hotel, and, of course, my beloved Avocet.
Q: There’s a definite cinematic aspect to the novel, and the movie rights to The Time Traveler’s Wife were sold to Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt. How do you think Hollywood will translate the complexities of Henry’s story to the big screen?
A: Jeremy Leven is the screenwriter, and I know that he has worked very hard to be faithful to the book. But in order to make a great movie he had to pare it down a lot, and he had to invent some things so it isn’t just a translation of my book. I think he has emphasized Clare’s story a bit more than I did.
Q: Was it a challenge to craft a story with unbelievable elements—such as time traveling—and make them seem quite plausible?
A: It was plausible to me, and that’s the first step. I knew that if I filled the story with as much reality as I could muster it would be easier for people to believe. I do not quite understand why people are so suspicious of fiction. Nonfiction is every bit as managed and shaped as fiction is and has the disadvantage of being too much like real life.
Q: Were there any classic time-travel novels that influenced you?
A: Yes. I’m a fan of Jack Finney. I like his casual style and his excellent historical research. I read [Kurt Vonnegut’s] Slaughterhouse Five when I was fifteen and reread it recently because people kept assuming I had borrowed my premise from Vonnegut. I was pleased to see that I had stumbled onto the same basic idea as Vonnegut had, but it was an accidental homage. People keep mentioning [Ken Grimwood’s] Replay to me, but I’ve never read it. I suppose I should get busy and see what they are talking about.
Q: Does Clare’s character resemble you in any way?
A: Henry and I are somewhat similar in our personalities. Clare is much more accommodating, and more passive-aggressive, than I am. She’s way more patient, too. We are both artists, but my art is entirely different from hers. The character who began as a self-portrait is Ingrid. I’m glad to say that both she and I changed, and by the end of the book the resemblance was almost entirely gone.
Q: Why is Henry a victim of unfortunate and physically impairing accidents during his time travels?
A: There is nothing protecting him except his wits and his ability to fight or flee; he’s not a superhero. So as time goes on, he becomes more vulnerable. He’s aging, his reflexes are slowing down, he’s been through a lot. He gets tired, and the disease gets more ferocious. Henry is like the rest of us in that way.
Q: When did you get the first inkling that the book might become wildly popular? Can you describe your feelings upon realizing this?
A: It was a funny thing… I had been trying to find an agent and/or a publisher for a while, and no one was interested. And then I found my agent, and MacAdam/Cage bought my novel. From that moment on everyone who dealt with the book acted as though it was going to be a big book. And I had been conditioned to be very quiet and small because to swagger around boastfully before it was even out seemed silly. I think the first time I felt the reality of the book’s success was when it appeared on the New York Times list, and I saw that in print. But then again, maybe I still haven’t quite gotten it into my head. I don’t feel any different, and when I sit down to write I have exactly the same feeling of joy and dread that I always had before.
Q: Some people have called this novel science fiction because of the time-travel element. It’s also a very romantic novel. Did you ever intend the book to be connected to these specific genres, or did it just evolve?
A: I just thought I was writing a book. My previous work in the realm of visual novels was so unclassifiable that I was simply pleased to be writing something that could be considered fiction and sold in a bookstore. I think it is odd and sad that any book with a fantastic premise or a love story evokes a strong urge to stick the thing in a genre ghetto. It would be great if people were a bit more experimental, willing to try things unlike the things they’ve already read.
Q: What are your plans for future books? Perhaps a sequel?
A: I might eventually write a book about the characters Alba and Kendrick in The
Time Traveler's Wife. The book I am working on now is called Her Fearful Symmetry. It’s about mirror-image twin girls who inherit a flat on the edge of Highgate Cemetery in London. I’ve been rereading Wilkie Collins, Henry James, and other 19th century writers; I’m trying to write a 21st century version of a 19th century novel, complete with all those clichés and odd characters. It’s fun.
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