Bunny, there has been an on-going thread on this book for quite a while at RP though it had dropped off the top page. Maybe you will find an answer to your question in there.

Re the film. I read in a UK paper that the book was better than the film and that even the 'trailer' was better than the film. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: T T's W

Bunny 2009 said:

>Could the author be using "time travel" to illustrate the extreme impact childhood trauma can cause? Thoughts?

Your use of scare quotes suggests that you think that the time travel is all in Henry's head, and your questions reinforce this impression. If you mean this, than, no, I can't agree. There is nothing in the book to indicate that time travel is anything but a fact, however counter-intuitive that might be. For example, how did Henry get his feet so badly frostbitten, if he didn't vanish from point A, travel in time to point B, and return to modern-day Chicago at point C, the parking garage?

If, however, you're suggesting that the author was using time travel as a device in the novel she wrote to explore the nuances of childhood trauma, yes, I agree entirely.

As a science fiction fan, I'm required to believe the proverbial six impossible things before breakfast. But I'm very wary of conflating the universe of the novel with the artistic intent of the author.

The frying-pan-to-fire aspect of Henry's travels in time (e.g. as noted above with the incident of the frozen feet)
is an excellent mirror of the bad choices traumatized children make as they grow older, and some of the scenes of Henry's life, such as his trip to visit Ingrid's suicide, mirror the helplessness of a child in the face of extreme trauma.

I'm not sure if this is accepted practice here, so please let me know if it's not, but I'm going to copy this reply and post it in the TTW thread to continue there.