This 2014 National Book Award Finalist is a beautiful affirmation of hope in the face of devastating loss and upheaval. Station Eleven is often characterized as an apocalyptic novel, but I believe this term is too limiting and does a disservice to the author. While the destruction of civilization is at the core of the plot, Mandel is more concerned with the creation of a new world than the destruction of the old one. This is a novel about resilience, about knowing what to hold […]
“What I mean to say is, the more you remember, the more you’ve lost.”
First, some things you should know about me, for like, context and stuff: 1. I usually avoid apocalypse books like the plague (or more apropos, the Georgia Flu). Most of the time, even thinking about apocalyptic situations makes me panic. 2. I am a Shakespeare nerd. 3. I am a Star Trek nerd. 4. I cannot explain why I loved this book so much, because most of my reaction was completely sub-conscious. I have gotten gradually more stingy with my five star reviews since I […]
Because Survival Is Insufficient
Oh God, this book….this wonderful, wonderful book. The present-day world is crumbling as a deadly flu pandemic spreads like wild-fire and kills its victims in under 48 hours. Within weeks the entirety of modern civilization has been reduced to buildings full of corpses and eternal traffic jams of driverless cars. Air travel is history, satellites go down, the internet disappears, lights go out, and the world is plunged into the literal dark ages. So why is this wonderful? Mandel takes what could be just another […]
A Time Worth Living In
You guys and gals should prepare yourself for even more reviews about Station Eleven. It’s simply fantastic. I’m rating it 4.5 stars and leaving myself the option of bumping it up to 5 stars later . I still don’t know because I’m too busy rolling around in all the feels. (And I have, because the further removed from the reading the MORE I have fallen in love with the work.) I have the impression that I’ve been reading a lot of dystopian future books lately. […]
Survival is Insufficient
Normally when I love a book, the highest compliment I can pay is saying I want to live in the world the author created. Here, I have to say that’s the last thing I would do. I didn’t want to read this book. I mean, I wanted to read this book a lot (which is why I own it), but about halfway through I put it down and started reading something else. I didn’t want this book to end, and the faster I read it, the […]
Where has everybody gone?
Station Eleven made a lot of noise when it was published earlier this year. It was heaped in critical praise and when it began to be shortlisted for prestigious awards, even more noise was made about how Mandel had written a novel so brilliant it had defied the limitations of its genre. Such hyperbolic waffle tends to make me roll my eyes and end up disappointed (I’m looking at you, Donna Tartt), so I approached Station Eleven with caution. And as any regular reader will know, the caution […]