Meh: The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles: A Novel, Karen Thompson Walker 

Fast Facts

• 304 pages
• Walker worked as an editor for Simon & Schuster, writing in the mornings before work and sometimes on the subway
• The story of a teenage girl detailing her life when the earth's rotation slows
• Reads a little like a teenager wrote it...
• That's not to say I didn't like it!
• Nice and light
• But not at the top of my recommendation list

Remember That Time, In Middle School?

If you do, and it wasn't your favorite time, this book may not be for you.  It's not quite science fiction-y enough for a science fiction lover, and fits more snugly into the "coming of age" genre.  Julia recounts her experiences as a sixth-grade girl, awkward and lonely, in the months when the earth's rotation first begins to slow.

Julia's best friend forever (they even have bracelets!) ditches her in an instant, the way middle school girls are wont to do.  Bullies on the bus pull up Julia's shirt to prove that she doesn't need, and isn't wearing, a training bra.  A mean girl uses her as a good-influence alibi, so that the mean girl can drink and spend time alone with boys.  Julia loves a boy named Seth on a skateboard, but he doesn't know she exists (or does he?)  Her social life is mainly limited to hanging out with her neurotic mother, distant father, and depressed grandfather (who gifts her a gold pocket watch - a relic of a time when the clocks and the sun were aligned).

Earth Slow-Down - Interesting Idea, Not Enough Follow-Through

As you may be able to tell from this description, the story itself would be sweet and relatively unmemorable if not for the Vonnegut-style imaginings:

• birds falling dead out of the sky
• whales washing up with the tide
• radioactive sun shining bright for 40 hours
• political and social adaptation to the new planetary reality

So, as Julia tries to get Seth's attention and observe the shifting environmental situation, Thompson Walker has a formula that's interesting enough to keep a reader's attention.  In the midst of the mundanity of Julia trying to fit in with a pretty, confident, and mean classmate, ensconced in a fancy house with an impressive emergency supplies shelter, there's a small detail to remind you that everything is changing - Julia eats what will be her last can of pineapples.

Trees crash and fall in the ever-lasting night.  Homeowners create rock formations to replace the dead grass.  The sun has gotten closer, and going outside in the daytime means horrific skin burns and severe dehydration, sometimes causing seizures, and relegating people to the confines of their homes.  "Gravity sickness" afflicts everyone differently.  The canned goods aisle of the grocery store quickly empties, as supply hoarding ensues.  Greenhouses are erected to replace dying crops.

Most interestingly, a sect of "real timers" breaks off when the government orders U.S. citizens to remain on a 24-hour clock, in order to maintain economic and social equilibrium.  The real timers, as their name suggests, struggle to remain on the clock dictated by the sun.

I wish the author had gone into more about the interactions and perspectives of these real timers, some of whom form a colony in the desert called Circadia.  The snippets we do learn form a compelling social commentary on how non-conformists are abused by a fearful majority:

• real timer hippies who grow pot in the basement and are turned in by their angry neighbors 
• real timer Orthodox Jews are shunned for their adherence to the Sabbath
• a real timer piano teacher (who happens to be sleeping with Julia's father, in an uninteresting plot twist) has her home defaced, and leaves in a moving van (where is there to go?)

Another interesting and relatively unexplored plot twist occurs on New Years Eve, when Julia's mother, suffering from the beginnings of gravity sickness, passes out at the driver's wheel, hitting a real timer bum in the street.  He dies, in part because we're told that such accidents are more frequently fatal due to the change in gravity, but there are no repercussions - the incident is glossed over superficially.

The Ending: More of a Fizzling

Julia realizes her romance with Seth, who becomes a real friend and companion, until gravity sickness sends him to Mexico.  (How is it going to be any better there?)  And as soon as that plot element is tied up, the power goes out, the servers go down, and everyone loses touch with their loved ones - Seth included.

A fast-forward with no explanation shows that the story of sixth-grade Julia is being recounted by Julia at 23.  The earth has continued to slow, and a rocket has been invented to take people away from earth (where?)  Schools are closing, and it's only a matter of time before the fuel runs out.  We're told, inexplicably, that Julia wants to become a doctor, though some universities have closed.  Our narrator, all grown up in a matter of paragraphs, contemplates the artifacts that will be left behind to show that she and Seth were here, on earth.  And that's it.

My Take

A sugary-sweet coming-of-age tale, that rings true to the experiences of a sixth grade girl (though really, who wants to re-visit that era?)  The science fiction plot device makes what would be a forgettable story into a more interesting tale, to be sure.  However, I still wouldn't call it great, or put it on the top of your bedside book pile.  But it was a nice way to spend a few hours.