Book: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Date Read: February 15 to 23, 2019

Rating: 5 (of 5) stars

From the beginning, I was completely enthralled by this book. I have read a fair share of dystopian fiction, but this had a different feel to it that I immediately loved. Rather than a long view into the future, we enter the new world just 20 years from the world as we know it. I love that we get to see the before, after, and during the fall of civilization. The mix of characters in the Traveling Symphony adds another interesting aspect– we have a group varied enough in age that there are those who were adults and children at the time of the fall, and then also a few characters who have known no other world than their present.

While the plot is not exactly full of action, it was gripping enough that I constantly wanted to find out what was going to happen next. There is a bit of perspective jumping, which I sometimes find annoying as a reader, but was done very well in this case. As I mentioned, there are three different timelines running through the book– before, after, and during the outbreak of an epidemic illness. In addition, there are several characters that carry over from each of these time periods, each with somewhat overlapping narratives. Each time the perspective or time changed, I found myself feeling two things: disappointed to be leaving the current perspective, but excited to find out what the next character had been up to while I had been otherwise occupied.

One thing that I personally found interesting here was the setting– in particular the geography. A fair amount of time is spent describing the route taken by the Traveling Symphony, including the names of cities that we recognize, as well as a few “new” cities that were recreated after the collapse. I loved that there were some concrete locations that I know for certain, and just enough clues to piece together a real picture of the area that they are traveling. I admit I may be a bit biased– I am fairly convinced that much of the action in the “after” portion of the novel occurs right in my own backyard (so to speak). Based on the information included, I am quite certain that the “Severn City” mentioned as a destination must be Grand Rapids, MI. It’s not an exact fit, but too close to be anything else either.

Moving a bit away from the actual story, while I was reading this book I also heard a new song on the radio, and the two will now forever be linked in my mind: Come Along by Cosmo Sheldrake (you can hear it here). Something about the style and story of the song fits so well with Station Eleven. Even though they are certainly a more classical group, I can imagine the Traveling Symphony playing and sing as they move from town to town. Of course, it is not an exact fit (much less of a fit than my conclusions on geography), but something about this link just seems right to me. Each time I heard it on the radio, it made me want to rush home to read a bit more!

Boris’s thoughts: “This all sounds rather complicated. I’m glad you enjoyed it though. 3 paws.”