Sometimes I lie to myself -- like Friday night when I pledged I was not going to stay up all night reading. After all, I still had 200 pages left in "Her Fearful Symmetry", and there was no way I'd be able to get through it before falling asleep.

But stay up all night and read I did. At 4 a.m., I finished Page 401, wondering what the heck I would write about it, and what Tricia thought of it.

Tricia said you need to suspend your disbelief to read Niffenegger's work, which I agree with entirely. That's one of the things I loved about "The Time Travelers Wife" and "Symmetry": letting go of my conventional thoughts to get swept up in the realistic but slightly magical world of Niffenegger's imagination.

"Symmetry, set in London, is a story about ghosts and twins, living and dying. The ghosts are among the living, and the twins are learning to live with and without each other. The first 200 pages of the book were a lot of preparation for what would happen in the last 200, which were rather page-turning. (I found the same to be true of "The Time Travelers Wife," which I also stayed up until the wee hours finishing.)

I liked the story, and I liked that throughout the book I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen next. Niffenegger managed to create a suspenseful book by writing an impossible story. Tricia had imagined the story of twins Julia and Valentina taking a different turn, and I almost wish Niffenegger had taken that route in the book. But, that might have been more predictable, and maybe less enjoyable.

I finished "Symmetry" not exactly sure which of the characters I liked. I had trouble weighing all the good and bad each of them had done throughout the story, to figure out what I really thought of them in the end. I was happy for Julia and Valentina, but puzzled at the direction their relationship had taken. I felt sad for Elspeth and Edie, their aunt and mother, because their stories were tragic and unfixable.

The page before the story begins includes lyrics to a Beatles song. I once hear Niffenegger say in an interview on NPR that the song perfectly fit the story, but she wouldn't divulge further information without giving away the story. After finishing the book, I couldn't agree with her more:

She said "I know what it's like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad"
And she's making me feel like I've never been born.
I said "Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I'm mad
And you're making me feel like I've never been born."
She said "you don't understand what I said"
I said "No, no, no, you're wrong"
When I was a boy everything was right
Everything was right
I said "Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born."
She said "you don't understand what I said"
I said "No, no, no, you're wrong"
When I was a boy everything was right
Everything was right
I said "Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born."
She said , she said "I know what it's like to be dead"
("I know what it's like to be dead")
I know what it is to be sad...

Click the play button below to watch Niffenegger talk about writing "Her Fearful Symmetry" (including an explanation for the title):


Listen to Niffenegger read the second chapter of "Her Fearful Symmetry" here.


-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl