Critical Article Summaries

Summary 1: 
Michelle Lee
Literary Newsmakers for Students Volume 1

Michelle Lee's Criticism on The Time Traveler's Wife is discussing the different kinds of Literature that the book uses inside itself. Henry who is one of the two main characters works in the Newberry Library where he reads a lot of books and recites quotes of them through out the entire book. "Audrey Niffenegger successfully grounds the fantastic premise of the Time Traveler's Wife. From quotations, excerpts and poetry that structure the novel to passing remarks about Henry's and Clare's preferred reading material"(Lee,348). She goes through the critical article bringing out the literature that is shown in The Time Traveler's Wife. In the first line of the book it is a quote from J.B Priestly's Man In Time. This quote shows the firm understanding of how Henry's time traveling works before it is even shown in the book. "Without reading the story, readers will know that time will be a major issue"(Lee,348). She is explaining how the different types of literature that has been used through out the novel has been a key theme in showing the understanding of the struggle between the two characters. Through out this article Lee is showing examples of the different kinds of Literature that is being used to create The Time Traveler's Wife and helping it reach its full understanding. 


Summary 2:
Stephanie Merritt
Literary Newsmakers for Students Volume 2



Stephanie Merritt gives comparisons with The Time Traveler's Wife and The Lovely Bones she also critiques the idea of a "Time Traveler" and the entire concept of the book all together. The Time Traveler's Wife and The Lovely Bones she says have unforeseeable commercial success."Henry and Clare, and the fantasy element that Henry suffers from "chronic-dispalcement disorder," a genetic flaw similar to epilepsy, which means that at moments of stress he disappears from the present and patches up naked in his own past or future.This doesn't displace the present self of whatever year he is thrown into, so frequently he finds himself face to face with a younger or older double with whom he can communicate"(Merritt,351). She explains the plot summary of the Time Traveler's Wife  and makes her readers gain an understanding before she goes into detail about her opinion relating to the book. Merritt then goes on explaining how a lot of the paragraphs are "padded" out with details of what they are wearing or eating. " As if the author is over-anxious about rooting her fantasy idea in a convincing recognizable way"(Merritt, 351). She explains here how the author uses random extra details on what the character in the chapter is wearing or what they are eating to fill in voids of the book. "But while the yoking together of scientific principle and fantasy is as science, there seems something distasteful about transferring the experiences of infertile couples afflicted with genetic disorders to the realm of time travel"(Merritt,351). This quote from Merritt's article shows her full opinion on how she things the "time traveling" aspect is in the book that Niffenegger has written. 


Article 3: 
Mark Flanagan
Literary Newsmakers for Students Volume 2
Interview with Audrey Niffenegger 

Through out this interview Mark Flanagan sits and talks with Audrey Niffenegger about her first novel Time Traveler's Wife. He starts talking to her about her passion and how she is an artist in many different forms. Niffenegger is a painter, graphic novel writer, novelist and many more types of an artist. She shows stories through many different eyes and ways. Flanagan asks Niffenegger if she has always know that she wanted to be an artist.  She proceeds to make a joke and they continue their interview. "The premise for The Time Traveler's Wife is fascinating! How did you arrive at it? How did you then transform it into a novel? did you outline the plot, do character sketches, etc?"(Flanagan,352). He asks her all of these questions which many of the readers out there would have wanted to know and benefit from. she proceeded with her answer as followed. "I got the title first, and played around with it for quite  long time, slowly evolving the characters in my head. I wrote the end before anything else, then began to write scenes as the occurred to me.. TTW was written in a complete different order than the one it finally took. I understood early on that it would be organizers in three sections, and that the basic unit was the scene, not the chapter. It has a rather chaotic feel to it, especially at the beginning, and that is deliberate there is a slow piecing together, a gradual accumulation of store, that mimics the experience of the characters. I made a lot of notes about the characters. I hate two timeliness to help me stay organized, but no outline of the plot(Flanagan,352). Through out this interview the readers and Flanagan learn the inside scoop on how the book truly came together and her thoughts while she was writing The Time Traveler's Wife.