Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Publisher: Scribner

Year: 2009

Pages: 416

Audrey Niffenegger skyrocketed into literary prominence with the publication of The Time-Traveler’s Wife, which was the the debut novel for this middle-aged artist and teacher. She is not, as you might imagine, a conventional literary rockstar, but her name graced a lot of tongues for a lot of years.

Niffenegger was criticized by some for an unimpressive writing style—Michelle Griffin of The Age called her writing “pedestrian,” which I think just about hits the mark—but it was difficult to spend any time appreciating Niffenegger’s lack or surfeit of rhetorical flair when the novel itself was so damned interesting. It was, after all, little more than a love story with contrived love story emotions. But that little soupçon of science fictional intrigue turned something “pedestrian” into one of the most compelling pieces of fiction in recent years.

Because of the explosive popularity of The Time Traveler’s Wife, just about every publisher in the world—including, I imagine, the 25 or so that rejected her first manuscript—wanted to secure rights to her sophomore effort, Her Fearful Symmetry. I approached the book with some trepidation; knowing the singular character of her first book, would I be able to appreciate this new one for its own merits? Could Niffenegger once again create a story so compelling it makes her readers forget that her talent as a writer (as distinct from a creator of plots or characters) is only slightly better than average?

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