The Age Of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker – 269 pages
Book Blurb:
On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 11-year-old Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life–the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.
My Review: 3.5 stars
What a concept! Truly, this was something I’d never thought about and even though I thought the book dragged some through the middle, I couldn’t stop thinking about this concept of the earth slowing and the catastrophic events that would follow. In a letter from the author, she noted how much she wanted this to be about mothers and daughters and how their relationship could improve and/or open up during the midst of a crisis. To me, that was definitely in the book, but not the inherent part of it. I gravitated (yes, pun intended) to the real life catastrophe and how it affected human nature, wildlife, the government, family dynamics and the science of it all.
Quotes I liked:
To me, this was more proof of how alone she was, as if, when too long isolated from other human beings, a person risked losing not only he need to speak but also the ability.”
-“How much sweeter life would be if it all happened in reverse, if, after decades of disappointments, you finally arrived at an age when you had conceded nothing, when everything was possible.”
-“I guess it never is what you worry over that comes to pass in the end. The real catastrophes are always different—unimagined, unprepared for, unknown.”
-“So much that seems harmless in daylight turns imposing in the dark. What else, you had to wonder, was only a trick of light?”
-“I should have known by then that it’s never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass; it’s the ones you don’t expect at all.”
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the plot seems really interesting and unique. not something you think about every day so it seems like a good read.