Title: Station Eleven
Author: Emily St. John Mandel
ISBN: 978-0-385-35330-4
No. of Pages: 352
Genre: Science Fiction
Origins: Knopf Doubleday
Release Date: 9 September 2014
Bottom Line: Perfectly fine story but left me feeling flat
“An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.
Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten’s arm is a line from Star Trek: ‘Because survival is insufficient.’ But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.
Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.”
Thoughts: The premise and execution of Station Eleven are perfectly acceptable. The story itself is fascinating, as the collapse of civilization due to something as seemingly innocuous as the flu usually is. The telling of the story in non-chronological sequence adds a layer of interest and complexity. The story itself is well-told. Yet, the entire story may leave readers feeling uninspired.
This is not the fault of the story. As already mentioned, it is well-executed with effective descriptive language and a well-plotted storyline. The characters themselves are interesting in how they handle the collapse and the years afterwards. Yet, there is nothing to build a connection between character and reader. None of the characters create an empathetic bond within readers. Readers cannot step into the story but rather remain firmly outside as an observer.
This removal from the heart of the story is what keeps Station Eleven from being truly excellent. In such post-apocalypse novels detailing the collapse of society, readers want to become a part of the story. They want those blurred lines between fantasy and reality. They want to question how they would react in similar situations. However, none of that occurs with Station Eleven. Readers never lose the sense that it is nothing but a story. There is none of the feel that society is one good flu strain away from similar circumstances. The remoteness that prevents readers from sympathizing with the characters also prevents them from being able to see the novel as nothing more than one person’s imagination in print.
This all means that readers will want to love Station Eleven more than they actually do. On the surface, there is everything there that should make this story difficult to set aside. Instead, readers will be firmly aware of the passage of time while reading and may find other chores that require more immediate attention than the book. Unfortunately, the resulting sense of disappointment lingers long after the details of the novel fade into memory.
Oh that’s interesting. There was such positive buzz about this novel I thought it was a must read for me. But I’m sort of sick of dystopian survival tales. The genre is growing stale to me. hmm, you make me think I can pass on it
There is a ton of buzz about this one, and I’m already seeing it on awards lists. I personally struggled with it, specifically because I do think the genre is a bit stale. It needs to be an absolutely fantastic story for me to be impressed with a novel within this genre. For me, it fell flat. Others seem to love it though, so what do I know?
So interesting to read a perspective different from my own! I loved this book and it stayed with me long after I finished it, mainly because it seems so plausible. That plus the way everything connected back to Arthur Leander was enough to keep me hooked but I still love seeing what other people think!
I know others, like yourself, have loved this one. This is the second of Ms. St. John Mandel’s novels that just did not click with me. Given how popular her works are, I suspect the fault lies with me. This is why there are so many books published every week – to suit all tastes.
Oh, bummer! I was really excited about this one. 🙁
Don’t take my word for it! I know a lot of other people love this book. Something about it just didn’t click with me. Ah well. You can’t win them all!
And this is what I love about book bloggers – they don’t all blindly feel the same about the latest book, just because it’s had a lot of buzz in the media! I’ve read rave reviews of this book, I’ve read less enthusiastic ones, so I’m glad to have a breadth of opinion – and no, I haven’t read it yet, but it helps me to decide if I want to read it right now or wait a while until the buzz has died down.
Thanks, Marina! It can be so easy to get caught up in the hype; it’s happened to me many times and with many books. Honesty is important to me, so I want people to know that I did not feel quite as enthusiastic as others may have upon finishing a book. It is never easy to go against the grain and declare your dissenting opinion, so I always appreciate hearing when others have found my not-so-enthusiastic opinions important.
Waiting until the buzz dies down is always a great way to not be unduly influenced by what others are saying. If you do read this one, I do hope you enjoy it more than I did.
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your very honest reviews. I keep myself on a very tight monthly book budget. This means that I have to choose my reads carefully. Because this book has gotten so much hype, I may have blindly bought this one. And I’m not sure if we just have very similar reading tastes, but your reviews are just completely spot on. I also appreciate your intelligent approach to book reviewing. I can see that your reviews contain many elements of a professional review. However, unlike a professional review, you don’t need to protect your reputation with the publishers which in turn keeps your reviews of an excellent quality. I don’t mean to get all gushy on you, but wanted to let you know that I appreciate your blog very much. Belle
Oh, thank you, Belle! I have constantly aimed to find that balance between professionalism and personal interest. Above all, I strive to never compromise my reviews to curry favor with publishers and authors. I love hearing that others notice and appreciate my efforts, and if I can help save someone money for a much better book, then I consider this little website a success. Thank you so much for your kind words. They really do mean the world to me.
I wrote up my review of this one yesterday. I think it posts next week but I didn’t feel any disappointment at all. I did finish it awhile ago but I am going back through my notes and that is not something I noted BUT I can your point. For me, that detached quality you mentioned, the heart, was absent, I agree but I feel like it had to do with how many years had passed. It was like twenty years after the event, right? I think at that point, your feelings are stripped away to a degree. Hope is redfined, etc.
I think I liked it more than you. I don’t think I realized it as I was reading it though, how much I liked it. It took me days to think it through.
This is one I pretty much forgot as soon as I finished it. I just never clicked with the characters or the story itself. I’m glad others are enjoying it so much though.