Reading Group Guide questions from the back of the book #12

What is the List that Henry makes for Clare, and how does it give the book dramatic momentum? Does Niffenegger employ other devices to similar effect? One of the things that makes a story suspenseful is the reader's sense that events are reaching a climax, that time is running out. How is Niffenegger able to impart this sense to her readers, given Henry's seemingly inexhaustible supply of time?

When older Henry goes back in time to visit Clare as a young girl, he gives her a list of the dates he knows he will visit her. It gives the book dramatic momentum because Clare sees that they see each other often until she turns eighteen, and then there is a two year break. She knows that time is running out until his two year long absence, and she knows that she can't do anything about it. Niffenegger unveils the fact that Henry dies at the age of forty three early on in the book. At first I was surprised and thought that it was a poor choice on her part to take away all of the surprise and let us know so early, but then I realized that what she was doing was building tension until the end. We knew when Henry was going to die, so every chapter we knew we were getting a little bit closer until the end. Henry, Clare, nor us could do anything about it. Henry, of all people, understands the impossibility of changing what he knows will happen. He even saw how he would die. This sort of hopelessness drives the book. Henry gets to see glimpses of how the future will be, and he knows he can't do anything about it.