“We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge
of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin.”
“We were distracted back then by weather and war. We had no interest in the turning of the
earth.”
So begins Karen Thompson Walker’s dystopian novel.
Here is how it ends (and this is not a spoiler.)
“We dipped our fingers in the wet cement, and we wrote the truest,
simplest things we knew - our names, the
date, and these words: We were here.”
The story is told from the point of view of a young woman, the central
character, Julia. It is a coming of age
novel, but coming of age under very unusual circumstances. Julia experiences family life, friendship,
school, falling in love – all as the rotation of the earth slows on its
axis. As the book jacket tells us, she
adjusts to a new normal.
The Age of Miracles is Karen
Thompson Walker’s first novel. It is well
conceived and well told in numerous ways – from the interior point of view of
12 year old Julia, from the description of life in Southern California, and
from the perspective of a changing world.
It echoes works in many genres.
Specific reference is made to the Ray Bradbury story “All Summer in a
Day”. I was reminded of the recent novel
by Hilary Jordan, When She Woke. It deals with many topical themes – politics,
the environment, science, the fate of humanity.
The focus is on the beauties of life and relationships and how they remain, while the world changes entirely.
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