Story in Review: “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel

Scott and I are in Chicago for a few days, spending some time together and resting up before I start a new job on Monday. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a short book review, so I thought it was time. I got this recommendation from the lovely Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus (which you should read if you haven’t – it’s one of my favorites), via her Twitter feed. The book did not disappoint.

Well-woven with intrigue, bits of philosophy, and characters as unlike one another as can be, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven is a fast, yet thought-provoking read. What would happen if a flu epidemic wiped out 95% of the population on earth? St. John Mandel explores what that would look like through the eyes of several main characters: Jeevan, a paramedic-in-training; Kirsten, a young child actor before the epidemic and later a survivor in her mid-twenties; Arthur, an aging celebrity with a lot of ghosts; Arthur’s first wife, Miranda, a graphic novel artist; and Clark, Arthur’s best friend from before he was famous.

The novel follows the lives of these main characters and others, unwrapping the story across continents and decades and slowly unraveling the mystery of how they are all connected and how they did – or didn’t – survive the pandemic.

Favorite Quotes:

“Hell is the absence of the people you long for.” – p. 144

“I look around and sometimes think–this will maybe sound weird–it’s like the corporate world’s full of ghosts… I know academia is no different, so maybe a fairer way of putting this would be to say that adulthood’s full of ghosts. I’m talking about these people who’ve ended up in one life instead of another and they are just so disappointed. Do you know what I mean? They’ve done what’s expected of them. They want to do something different but that’s impossible now, there’s a mortgage, kids, whatever, they’re trapped… High-functioning sleepwalkers, essentially.” – p.163

“If she weren’t so tired, if it didn’t take all of her strength to keep breathing… she could have told him what she knew: it is possible to survive this but not unaltered, and you will carry these men with you through all the nights of your life.” – p. 296

“He likes the thought of ship moving over the water, toward another world just out of sight.” – p. 333

What made this a good story? The plot is fascinating, and the I loved how St. John Mandel wove the stories into each other, slowly and with great care. Small moments become bigger as the story goes on, and I love a book where I have to consciously be present as I read it in order to fully understand. Her language is top-notch: it’s always the right word, always. I especially enjoyed the moments of self-reflection tucked into Clark’s story, how young Kirsten is so much older than her age. It was a beautiful and haunting story to read.

What could have made it a better story? The ending didn’t feel like the end to me. Even though you know how everyone makes it through, it wasn’t a satisfying conclusion: some story lines are obviously at an end, but others aren’t. Please write a sequel, Emily St. John Mandel. Please.

Also: I would have loved to have seen some of the fictional illustrations by Miranda. That would have been a beautiful addition to the text.

 What do you think? Have you read Station Eleven?