The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (Orlando, FL : Harvest Books, 2004)
Outside its chilly. Cars and cyclists cruise along Dearborn while couples stroll down the sidewalks and there we are with them, in the morning sunlight, hand in hand, finally together for anyone to see. I feel a tiny pang of regret, as though I've lost a secret, and then a rush of exaltation: now everything begins. -- from The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, pulls readers into a complex, but oddly credible, story of the relationship between Clare, an artist, and Henry, a librarian and time traveler. While Henry travels from the present into his past and future, Clare waits for his return. Their romance and the people and places that surround them make for a compelling read. Place, particularly Chicago, helps ground the story, giving The Time Traveler's Wife a reality that surprises, given the fantasy of this time-travel love story.
When you enter the pages of The Time Traveler's Wife, you enter the City of Chicago. Destinations in the novel often reflect a love of art, music, and literature. Henry works at the Newberry Library. Clare attends classes at the School of the Art Institute and has an exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. Henry takes their friend, Charisse, to hear Tristan and Isolde at the Lyric Opera House and, at other times, Henry finds himself at The Art Institute of Chicago, "one of the great art museums of the world."
Chicago neighborhoods and streets come alive in The Time Traveler's Wife. When Henry and Clare meet in the present, Clare lives in "Roscoe Village, on Hoyne," while Henry resides on "Dearborn." After their marriage, they eventually purchase a home on "Ainslie, in Lincoln Square, a red brick bungalow built in 1926." Other neighborhoods become familiar, as do city streets -- Lakeshore Drive, Michigan Avenue, Delaware Avenue, Columbus Drive, Broadway -- and roads leading out of town.
Readers follow Henry and Clare, alone or together, to Chicago parks, such as Grant Park, with its Buckingham Fountain; stores, including Marshall Field's and Bookman's Alley; and restaurants. With only The Time Traveler's Wife for reference, Chicago residents and visitors can satisfy almost any culinary craving. Thai food lovers can visit Beau Thai, the restaurant where Clare and Henry meet on their first "date," or Oprat Thai Restaurant. We learn that "Katsu on Peterson Avenue is Clare's favorite sushi destination." There is The Berghoff, "a venerable German restaurant famous for its brewery," and Ann Sather's Swedish Restaurant, with its comforting decor, "all wood paneling and swirling red marbling." Chinese -- try Lucky Wok or Golden Wok, the "home of wonderful vegetarian eggrolls." In nearby Andersonville, we learn about the coffee at Kopi's and the "couscous at Reza's." For a milkshake, we're led to Margie's Candies, for "excellent coffee" there is Cafe Peregolisi. The famous Charlie Trotter's, we're told, is "so expensive that the decor resembles the first-class section of an airplane or a minimalist sculpture. Fortunately, although the food looks like art, it tastes great."
All these places, and more, make The Time Traveler's Wife an ideal bookpath. By the conclusion of the novel, readers are captivated by both the story and the City of Chicago.
We are waiting for the fireworks to begin. Clare and I lean against the waist-high false front of the building and survey the City of Chicago. We are facing east, looking toward Lake Michigan...We are six stories up, and I am surprised by how much I can see from here. Our house, in Lincoln Square, is somewhere to the north and west of here; our neighborhood is quiet and dark. Downtown, to the southeast, is sparkling. Some of the huge buildings are decorated for Christmas, sporting green and red lights in their windows. The Sears and the Hancock stare at each other like giant robots over the heads of lesser skyscrapers. I can almost see the building I lived in when I met Clare, on North Dearborn, but it's obscured by the taller, uglier building they put up a few years ago next to it. Chicago has so much excellent architecture that they feel obliged to tear some of it down now and then and erect terrible buildings just to help us all appreciate the good stuff. -- from The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
Websites that lead to some of the places mentioned in The Time Traveler's Wife:
Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts
(Audrey Niffenegger "is a professor in the M.F.A. program" at the college. It is mentioned in the novel.)
http://www.colum.edu/centers/bpa/home.html
The Newberry Library
http://www.newberry.org/nl/newberryhome.html
School of the Art Institute
http://www.artic.edu/saic/
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
http://www.cso.org/main.taf?erube_fh=cso&cso.submit.viewHomePage=true
Roscoe Village
http://www.roscoe-village.org/
The Field Museum
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/
The Art Institute of Chicago
http://www.artic.edu/
The Artist's Cafe
http://www.artists-cafe.com/
The Palmer House
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=CHIPHHH
Water Tower Place
http://www.shopwatertower.com/
Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain
http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/grantpark.htm
The Berghoff Restaurant
http://www.berghoff.com/
Ann Sather Restaurants
http://www.annsather.com/
South Haven, Michigan
http://www.southhaven.org/
Lincoln Square
http://www.lincolnsquare.org/
Bookman's Alley
http://www.centerstage.net/literature/bookstores/bookmans.html
Wicker Park
http://www.wickerparkbucktown.com/
Andersonville, Illinois
http://www.andersonville.org/
Chicago Cultural Center
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Cultural+Center&entityNameEnumValue=128
Lyric Opera of Chicago
http://www.lyricopera.org/home.asp
Margie's Candies
http://www.margiescandies.nv.switchboard.com/
Brookfield Zoo
http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/
Chicago Maps
http://www.chicagotraveler.com/maps.htm
I walk west on Randolph, and south on Michigan Avenue, past the Art Institute. The lions are decked out in Christmas wreaths. I walk down Columbus Drive. Grant Park is empty, except for the crows, which strut and circle over the evening-blue snow. The streetlights tint the sky orange above me; it's a deep cerulean blue over the lake. At Buckingham Fountain I stand until the cold becomes unbearable watching seagulls wheeling and diving, fighting over a loaf of bread somebody has left for them. -- from The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
It's the day before Christmas Eve. Henry is at Water Tower Place, taking Alba to see Santa at Marshall Field's while I finish shopping. Now I'm sitting in the cafe at Borders, drinking cappuccino at a table by the front window and resting my feet with a pile of bulging shopping bags leaning against my chair. Outside the window the day is fading and tiny white lights describe every tree. Shoppers hurry up and down Michigan Avenue, and I can hear the muted clang of the Salvation Army Santa's bell below me. -- from The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
I worry that we aren't paying close attention here and now. That is, time travel is sort of an altered state, so I'm more...aware when I'm out there, and it seems important, somehow, and sometimes I think that if I could just be that aware here and now, that things would be perfect. -- from The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
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