The Age of Miracles
by Karen Thompson Walker
What if the earth’s rotation slowed? Days and nights grow longer and the clock is quickly out of sync with nature and natural body rhythms and everything else. Humans are known to adapt, but can they? That is the premise of Karen Thompson Walker’s first novel, The Age of Miracles.
As days grow increasingly longer, should they be marked by each sunrise and sunset, or rather by the standard 24-hour clock? Of course, not everyone will agree, and people are divided. In a time of uncertainty and fear, reactions to such catastrophic changes create problems unto themselves.
The end of the world is coming, but slowly. There is time for panic and time for thought. There is time to plan and protect and prolong. Relationships, too, are impacted by the tenuousness of life, and the philosophies that are shaped by chaos. Yet through it all, young love blooms and is challenged in new ways.
Jose Saramago (Blindness) surely would have demonstrated the destruction of society. Instead, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a global society that strives to cope. It is an interesting premise, well written, thought provoking, and engrossing. Its weakness, in my opinion, lies in its title. The age of miracles conjures up images of a religious theme with faith and hope at its core, but that is not what this book is about. Years from now, I surely will not remember this book from its title. Perhaps The Slowing, simple and direct, might have been more appropriate, even more enticing.
All in all, an enjoyable read for adults young and old.
As I See It 