Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Chapter 6: Christmas Eve, One
(Always Crashing in the Same Car)
Written by Amanda
Edited by Rose/Krystal
Saturday, December 24, 1988 (Henry is 40, Clare is 17)
It’s a dark winter afternoon and Henry sits in the Reading Room of Meadowlark, surrounded by an array of food Clare’s left. It’s Christmas Eve and he should be happy, but he’s not. Right now his 25 year-old self is at the Get Me High Lounge where he’ll drink himself into a stupor and end up having his stomach pumped at Mercy Hospital. You see, today is the nineteenth anniversary of his mother’s death.
Henry sits quietly as he thinks about his mother. It’s funny how memories erode over time, but for Henry he remembers her like she was still alive. He remembered her singing Lulu at the Opera, her look as she watch his father play Beethoven, being able to come into the living room during a party to recite Tyger, Tyger burning bright. Everything about his mother was fresh in his mind because the best and most painful thing about being a time traveler is the opportunity to see her again.
Read the rest of the summary HERE.
Memorable Quotes:
Henry: One of the best and most painful things about time traveling has been the opportunity to see my mother alive. (Page 108)
Henry: “No, that wasn’t it, the steel embedded in my seat right where my forehead should have been. I have a scar where it started to cut my forehead.” I show Clare. “It got my hat. The police couldn’t figure it out. All my clothes were in the car, on the seat and the floor, and I was found stark naked by the side of the road.” (Page 112)
Henry: “You know about gravity, right? The larger something is, the more mass it has, the more gravitational pull it exerts? It pulls smaller things to it, and they orbit around and around?”
Clare: “Yes…”
Henry: “My mother dying… it’s the pivotal thing… everything else goes around and around it… I dream about it, and I also – time travel to it. Over and over. If you could be there, and could hover over the scene of the accident, and you could see every detail of it, all the people, cars, trees, snowdrifts – if you had enough time to really look at everything, you would see me. I am in cars, behind bushes, on the bridge, in a tree. I have seen it from every angle…” (Page 113)
Questions for discussion:
What did you think of all the memories that Henry would have lost had he been unable to re-see them as an adult?
Henry has been forced to watch his mother die over and over again though out time, unable to change anything. If you could time travel, but had to deal with something tragic such as think, would you want the ability? If so, would you be able to not freak out and help your younger self, as Henry did?
Is there anything about this chapter you’d like to discuss with the book club?
Read and discuss more HERE.
Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Chapter 7: Christmas Evem Two
Written by Amanda
Edited by Rose/Krystal
Saturday, December 24, 1988 (Henry is 25)
Henry calls his father to see if he wants him to come over for dinner this year and after his father makes a half-hearted attempt to invite him, Henry backs out and his father is relieved. This was the first year where the Official DeTamble Day of Mourning would be held in multiple locations. Mrs. Kim was in Korea visiting her sisters, so it was just him this year. He calls up Ingrid to ask her to come out, but she reminds him that most people have families to spend time with. Its 2:53 and the stores are already beginning to close. He head’s to Al’s and buys a bottle of schnapps before heading off to go ice skating at Grant Park. After an hour or so, Henry heads off walking around Grant Park and by seven the alcohol is wearing and he’s hungry. Assessing the amount of money he has, Henry heads off to the Berghoff.
Read the rest of the summary HERE.
Memorable Quotes:
Henry: “I’m planning to get extremely drunk. What did you have in mind?” (Page 119)
Henry: “Oh, God, Mia. I’m suicidal just thinking about it. Sorry.”
Mia: She leans over the bar and speaks emphatically. “C’mon, Henry. Help me out. You’re a presentable young person of the male gender. Hell, you’re a librarian. You won’t freak when my parents start asking who your parents are and what college you went to.”
Henry: “Actually, I will. I will run straight to the powder room and slit my throat.” (Page 119)
Henry: “Mia. Any other night of the year – look, my goal is to achieve a level of inebriation at which I can barely stand up, much less get it up.” (Page 119)
Henry: As a promising junior partner in DeTamble & DeTamble, Alcoholics at Large, I have not yet found the outer limit in my ability to consume liquor. (Page 120)
Mia: “Henry, do you have some kind of death wish?”
Henry: I consider. “Yes.” I turn to the wall, and pretend to sleep. (Page 121)
Clare: I used to be so casual about Henry, when I was little; seeing Henry wasn’t anything too unusual. But now every time he’s here is one less time he’s going to be here. And things are different with us. I want something… I want Henry to say something, do something that proves this hasn’t all been some kind of elaborate joke. I want. That’s all. I am wanting. (Page 121)
Meagram: “If you’re going to cavort around in meadows with my granddaughter you can certainly come up to the house and be inspected by her parents.” (Page 125)
Questions for discussion:
What does the Christmas Eve of Henry’s 25 year tell you about the loss of his mother and its impact on their family?
Why do you think Henry responded “yes” when Mia asked if he had a death wish?
We knew that Clare was going to tell Grandma Meagram about Henry, but were you surprised by her response to his disappearance?
Is there anything in this chapter that’s you’d like to discuss with the book club?
Read and discuss more HERE.
