The Age of Miracles

I actually read this over a month ago on the way home from Pittsburgh. Though I generally love long drives, I really wasn't in the mood to do any driving. My dad did end up doing all of the driving, partially because I provided entertainment. After finishing the last few chapters of the book I'd been reading, I let my parents choose from the other books I had along, and then I read the book out loud to them. I finished The Age of Miracles on the drive back to Atlanta.

Reading aloud a book is rather a different reading experience than any other. It's part audiobook, but much more focused than that. It also draws my attention to aspects of the writing I might not have appreciated had I read the book silently. Obviously, I didn't listen to the audiobook, but I suspect it could be really good. My parents enjoyed listening to the book as much as I enjoyed reading it (despite the sore throat).

What reading the book aloud allowed me to fully appreciate was the lovely cadence of Walker's writing. Her book read very smoothly and naturally, but with a somewhat poetic sort of cadence to it. The largely short sentences with some tendency toward repetition might have been a detractor had I been readin the book to myself, but, out loud, I found them simply lovely.

The one issue I had with the writing, one that I feel vaguely nitpicky for even mentioning, was with the way Walker did dialogue. 95% of the time if there was dialogue, it was followed by he said or she said. Most of the other 5% were he/she asked. I get that coming up with other words can be tricky, and this may have been a stylistic decision, but I found it really boring and repetitive to read aloud. Again, this is something I may not have picked up on had I read this the usual way, since I tend to gloss over those.

Much as I enjoyed this book and was seriously fascinated by the concept and consequences of the Earth's slowing rotation, I had some definite suspension of disbelief issues while I was reading this. The thing that gave me the most trouble was accepting that nobody noticed the expansion of the days until they were substantially longer. Not knowing even a theory as to why this might happen was also troublesome, considering that it happened to suddenly and so drastically. I could have accepted a gradual slow down without explanation, but would expect something cataclysmic to result in such a dramatic, quick change.

Moving past that, though, I found, as I always do, the vision of society trying to cope utterly captivating. I did have some more disbelief issues in that things mostly seemed to be going TOO well. Still, it was interesting to see how non-dystopian this was, with the governments actually doing their best to keep the crisis as manageable as possible. The Age of Miracles is very firmly post-apocalyptic. Even if I didn't always understand or agree with where Walker took things, I loved how widespread the implications of the slowing were.

What made this book such a high-rated read for me, though, along with the writing was Walker's glaringly honest description of middle school. Julia is a sixth grader much like I was, abandoned by a two-faced friend to face the awkwardness of sixth grade alone. She suffers from acute loneliness, desperate for connection but unknowingly sending out signals that send people away. She reminded me so much of past self and I just ached for her. Putting aside all of the post-apocalyptic stuff, The Age of Miracles captured what middle school felt like better than anything I've ever read.

Well done, too, is the family drama aspect. As the world falls apart, so does Julia's family. Her parents snipe constantly, her father escaping to work and her mother descending into a disease caused by the slowing. Julia herself alternates between trying to mediate and just wanting to wash her hands of it. The family's relationships, in good moments and bad, felt very legitimate to me, very real.

Though not a perfect book, I really, really liked The Age of Miracles. Walker's idea was new and fresh, her writing lyrical, and her characters well-drawn. I anticipate her next novel highly!