History Literature / TheTimeTravelersWife

** Sharon, Clare's brother's girlfriend, is also Catholic, telling Henry this is why abortion isn't an option for them and they have to get married.

** Henry's father hits the bottle hard after losing Lucille, to the point that it eventually destroys his ability to play the violin professionally with permanent nerve damage.

* TimeTravelersBaby: Henry's time-travelling disorder causes his wife to suffer multiple miscarriages (i.e. the fetuses keep traveling out of her womb[[note]]It's implied her body is not fully accepting the fetuses, and the only way they can defend themselves is trying to 'escape' via traveling[[/note]]). To spare her any more pain, he gets a vasectomy.[[spoiler:However, his past self, pre-vasectomy, visits present Clare in one of his travels and impregnates her. Their daughter is also able to time travel, but has much better control over it.]]

* NoPronunciationGuide: There's a difference of opinion on how to pronounce Clare's maiden name, Abshire.
** The audiobook presentations stress the second syllable: ab-SHYRE.
** The film, on the other hand, stresses the first syllable: AB-shurr.

* [[Main/PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie Post 9/11 Terrorism Story]]: Niffenegger had almost completed the book when the September 11 attacks happened. It inspired a new scene to further illustrate the limits of Henry's power (and his helpless acceptance of those limits).

Once upon ''many'' times, there was a librarian named Henry. At the age of 5, Henry developed [[InvoluntaryTimeTravel Chrono Displacement Disorder]]. At any time, especially when under stress, he can and will disappear and reappear in another time and location, mostly within his lifetime. [[YouCantFightFate He can't ever change anything in the past]], and [[ForegoneConclusion he knows something very bad happens to him in his forties]]. He's had to learn [[JustifiedCriminal how to fight, pick locks, and steal for every time he's thrown somewhere]], as [[CantTakeAnythingWithYou he is basically helpless, unarmed, and naked wherever he arrives.]] Anything that isn't truly part of him stays behind, to the extent he had to have a tooth pulled just because he kept losing the filling. Sometimes he ends up getting to [[DeusAngstMachina live through the same traumatic situations in his life]] [[TraumaCongaLine over and over and over and over again]].

Once upon ''many'' times, there was a librarian named Henry. At the age of 5, Henry developed [[InvoluntaryTimeTravel Chrono Displacement Disorder]]. At any time, especially when under stress, he can and will disappear and reappear in another time and location, mostly within his lifetime. [[YouCantFightFate He can't ever change anything in the past]] and [[ForegoneConclusion he knows something very bad happens to him in his forties]]. He's had to learn [[JustifiedCriminal how to fight, pick locks, and steal for every time he's thrown somewhere]], as [[CantTakeAnythingWithYou he is basically helpless, unarmed, and naked wherever he arrives.]] Anything that isn't truly part of him stays behind, to the extent he had to have a tooth pulled just because he kept losing the filling. Sometimes he ends up getting to [[DeusAngstMachina live through the same traumatic situations in his life]] [[TraumaCongaLine over and over and over and over again]].

A science fiction novel by Audrey Niffenegger, it explores all the complexities of its fantastic premise and its effects on otherwise perfectly ordinary people -- and [[SciFiGhetto you will not find it in the science fiction section of your library]]. (More often than not, it'll be stuck in general fiction -- or in the Romance section, effectively trading one Genre Ghetto for another.) It is highly recommended but it comes with a '''serious''' TearJerker warning.

* WifeHusbandry: Henry first meets his wife Clare when she is six years old. He has no control over where and when he travels to, so it's not [[UnfortunateImplications deliberate or malicious]], but because they spend so much time together, he has a huge influence on her life and what sort of person she grows to become. Played with, in that Clare then goes on to have an equally strong influence on the man Henry matures into once they meet in his timeline.

A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] was released in 2009, starring Creator/RachelMcAdams as Clare and Creator/EricBana as Henry. [[Series/TheTimeTravelersWife2022 A live-action series,]] written by the aforementioned Moffat and starring Creator/TheoJames and Creator/RoseLeslie, aired in 2022 on Creator/{{HBO}}.

* AdaptationDyeJob: In the book, Clare's hair is described as red-gold, through most of her life. In the film, Clare as a young girl has red-gold hair, but Clare as an adult (played by Creator/RachelMcAdams) has reddish-brown hair. Clare as a teenager ([[DawsonCasting also McAdams]]) is halfway between the two.
* AdaptedOut: The film cuts a few book characters, such as Henry's childhood landlord Kimy and his first girlfriend Ingrid.

** Especially in the film, Henry has a serious drinking problem. He more or less gives it up after meeting Clare. In the book, he outright tells Clare he's an alcoholic, and while he cuts way back on the drinking after he and Clare get together, he still drinks pretty regularly, despite his doctor's advice and knowing that it tends to make time travel more likely.

* BookEnds: The movie starts with Henry's mother encouraging him to sing, only for young Henry to say he can't. At the end, when Henry visits Alba and Clare in the future, Alba tells him to sing to keep from vanishing, and again Henry says he can't.

** In the film there's an oddly lingering shot of a child watching Clare and Henry walk by talking about their difficulty having a child. She seems like just a thematically appropriate bystander, but is in fact their own time-traveling daughter.

* LighterAndSofter: The film compared to the novel. [[spoiler: Henry keeps his feet and Gomez isn't in love with Clare.]]

* ShapedLikeItself: In the movie Gomez does this when he's trying to explain to Clare about Henry's condition.
-->He's a time traveler. You know.... cause he travels... through time.

** The most prominent time loop in the film is the fact that Clare has been falling in love with Henry since she was 6 years old, and then has a huge role in shaping Henry into ''being'' the sort of man she fell in love with.

** Addressed in the movie where in a confrontation with his dad about why he has not stopped his own mom from dying: he replies that he has tried, but he can never get there [[StealthPun in time]] to make a difference.

* BadassBookworm: Don't call Henry a fag and try to beat him up based on the ridiculous clothes he's forced to wear. ''He will end you''. And whatever you do, for the love of god do NOT brutalize his future wife because she wouldn't put out. I don't care if it seems like a good idea at the time, ''JUST DON'T''.

* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: Sort of. When Henry, already married to Clare, travels back in time to Clare's childhood, he tells the child version of her that they are already married in the future. (Well, ''her'' future.)

Once upon ''many'' times, there was a librarian named Henry. At the age of 5, Henry developed [[InvoluntaryTimeTravel Chrono Displacement Disorder]]. At any time, usually when under extreme stress, he can and will disappear and reappear at any time, mostly within his lifetime. [[YouCantFightFate He can't ever change anything in the past]] and [[ForegoneConclusion he knows something very bad happens to him in his forties]]. He's had to learn [[JustifiedCriminal how to fight, pick locks, and steal for every time he's thrown somewhere]], as [[CantTakeAnythingWithYou he is basically helpless, unarmed, and naked wherever he arrives.]] Anything that isn't truly part of him stays behind, to the extent he had to have a tooth pulled just because he kept losing the filling. Sometimes he ends up getting to [[DeusAngstMachina live through the same traumatic situations in his life]] [[TraumaCongaLine over and over and over and over again]].

* UnstuckInTime: The actual time-travel process is compared to an epileptic seizure.
%%* WifeHusbandry

A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] was released in 2009, starring Creator/RachelMcAdams as Clare and Creator/EricBana as Henry. [[Series/TheTimeTravelersWife2022 A live-action series,]] [[https://deadline.com/2018/07/the-time-travelers-wife-adaptation-steven-moffat-series-order-hbo-1202437332/ written by the aforementioned Moffat]] and starring Creator/TheoJames and Creator/RoseLeslie, aired in 2022 on Creator/{{HBO}}.

A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] was released in 2009, starring Creator/RachelMcAdams as Clare and Creator/EricBana as Henry. [[Series/TheTimeTravelersWife2022 A live-action series,]][[https://deadline.com/2018/07/the-time-travelers-wife-adaptation-steven-moffat-series-order-hbo-1202437332/ written by the aforementioned Moffat]] and starring Creator/TheoJames and Creator/RoseLeslie, aired in 2022 on Creator/{{HBO}}.

* PowerDegeneration: Henry's condition seems to worsen as he ages, experiencing more violent fits when he time-travels. He also time travels further from the present as he ages, starting from only managing a few days back and forth, to managing to travel back to the 1900s.

* OrWasItADream: Henry's first time-traveling experience happened in the middle of the night (good thing his older self was there to meet him) and he assumed he was having a weird dream. And it was pretty much the last time he had a fun experience.

* NeverASelfMadeWoman: ''The Time Traveler's Wife'' isn't really about the wife...

%%* TheMourningAfter

* MistakenForGay: Henry gets attacked when seen walking in a bad alleyway in feminine clothes while travelling through time.

* LawOfInverseFertility: One might think that having six miscarriages just makes Clare want a child even more. Her brother Mark and his girlfriend end up with an unplanned pregnancy and, being Catholic, are then obliged to marry.

* ExactWords: When telling Clare's sister about his father, Henry mentions his father locked him out of their apartment in all kinds of weather. Henry omits the part that these incidents were probably when he was time traveling.

* FilleFatale: Clare was a little like this as a teenager.
* ForegoneConclusion: Henry knows, for the majority of his life, that something terrible will happen to him before he turns fifty. No matter where in time or space he goes, he keeps finding more signs that point to it. The only thing he ''doesn't'' know is what, exactly, it is. [[spoiler:"Accidental shooting at the hands of your brother-in-law" probably wasn't high on the list, but it's what happens.]]

* HappilyMarried: Despite the obvious complications of being married to an involuntary time traveler, Henry and Clare have a very loving and happy marriage, [[spoiler: until he dies.]]

* ChristianityIsCatholic: ZigZagged in the novel.

** Dr. Kendrick also mentions that he and his wife are Catholic.

%%* ComfortingTheWidow: Gomez [[spoiler: tries but fails.]]

* TheAlcoholic: Especially in the film, Henry has a serious drinking problem. He more or less gives it up after meeting Clare.

'''Alicia:''' Oh yeah, right. God, how bizarre.

* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Niffenegger occasionally has Henry use the phrase ''"und so weiter"'', which means "and so on" in German. Henry quotes poetry in French and German on several occasions, inky a few with translations.

* LawOfInverseFertility: One might think that having six miscarriages just makes Clare want a child even more. Her brother Mark and his girlfriend end up with an unplanned pregnancy and, being Catholic, are then obligated to marry.

** The most prominent time loop in the film is the fact that Clare has been falling in love with Henry since she was 6 years old. Is this the romantic tale of a husband whose love is so strong that destiny weaves him throughout his wife's life story, or the account of a creepy time traveler who brainwashes a child into falling in love with him? Basically both.