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The Time Traveler's Wife Prologue Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • The main characters, Henry and Clare, each give a short intro to the nature of their relationship.
  • For Clare, the hardest thing about being a time traveler's wife is the waiting and her longing for Henry when he's gone.
  • For Henry, it's his lack of control over when and where he goes. Sometimes the way time grips him feels euphoric, but mostly it's a difficult quest for survival, when he pops out in a foreign time, naked, with no food and shelter, and no way to explain his situation. "When I'm out there in time I'm inverted, changed into a desperate version of myself" (Prologue.15).
  • What he really wishes for are ordinary days and just being with Clare: "I hate to be where she is not, when she is not. And yet, I am always going, and she cannot follow" (Prologue.15).