A post and pre apocalyptic novel that stays with you for a very long time – Station Eleven.
Station Eleven – the blurb
What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.
One snowy night in Toronto famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage whilst performing the role of a lifetime. That same evening a deadly virus touches down in North America. The world will never be the same again.
Twenty years later Kirsten, an actress in the Travelling Symphony, performs Shakespeare in the settlements that have grown up since the collapse. But then her newly hopeful world is threatened.
If civilization was lost, what would you preserve? And how far would you go to protect it?
‘To be or not to be’
it’s not very often post apocalyptic books start off in a theater quoting Shakespeare. But then Station Eleven isn’t your average kind of post apocalyptic book. For a start there is probably just as much of the book that takes place before the outbreak of the Georgia Flu as there is afterwards. The afterwards bit then mostly takes place twenty years afterwards when things have all settled down a bit. There are classic apocalyptic moments such as visiting the grocery store. Yet even this is done with a measured calm and a credit card transaction. If you’re looking for full on gory, battle royale stuff go elsewhere.
‘Such seems your beauty still’
Instead Mandel examines beauty, relationships and the idea of what fulfils us. Is it being on stage performing? Is it success? Or is it love and beauty? The characters and timeline flit about as we mull these thoughts over and slowly the little plot twists reveal themselves. The pacing is excellent, as is the plot. The characters are beautifully flawed and I love how Mandel develops them.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the Museum of Civilisation, perfectly illustrating how the things we currently hold dear – technology, shoes, money are irrelevant. Each character helps to hit home in a different way how it’s love you need to thrive, not objects. I would love to discuss Station Eleven at a book club. I don’t want to give too much away to those who haven’t read it but what I would give for a good chinwag about Clark! Or the Station Eleven metaphor.
‘Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good’
When examining beauty you obviously have to look at the flip side and Mandel does expose the darker side to post apocalyptic life. The lack of antibiotics, the unknown whereabouts of relatives. And don’t get me started on the Air Gradia plane, it has haunted me for weeks! It’s also perhaps not the best book to read whilst the Corona Virus is sweeping the globe…
I loved how strings were picked up then left untied – what happened to the plane that flew to LAX? Yet hope was also undeniably present – the starting up of a newspaper, electricity, the Travelling Symphony. Why? Because we need more than food, water and shelter. Because survival is insufficient.
‘The fragrance of the rose lingers’
I bloody loved this book. I read it over a month ago now and it is still lingering. You know when you want to read a book all over again for the first time so that you still have it to discover? I can’t wait for Mandel’s new book, The Glass Hotel out in March. Please let it be as good!
In the meantime if you like your post apocalypse books to be a little different, try World War Z by Max Brooks.
