The dark, shimmering book Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, is a deep, tender, and epic novel. Telling the dangerous tale of a nomadic group of actors and musicians in a post-apocalyptic world. They risk everything to preserve art and humanity in a world with nothing left. The main character is Kristen Raymond. Her story and adventures with the Traveling Symphony are the meat of the book, and the thrilling adventure that will keep you reading. But before the reader can experience the life of the traveling symphony, the reader must simultaneously read through the sad life of Author Leader. This book also tells the supposedly dramatic, and heart wrenching tale of Arthur as well. He is an actor who lives in the age of technology before the epidemic. Arthur’s story doesn’t hold the same tension and drama that travels with the symphony. Yet his story line gets embellished upon just the same as Kristen’s, as the story bounces between his life in the past before the epidemic, and Kristen’s life after. The combination is not very cohesive and doesn’t make for a perfect story, here’s why.
Start to finish, Kristen’s story is very engaging. The “new age” that she now lives in is extremely believable, and the story really drives home the feeling of what it would be like to lose all electricity, gas, machinery, internet, and education. Where there is, “No more chlorinated water lit green from below. No more ball games played under floodlights, no more…” (31). The setting is a very unique set up that will make the readers more appreciative of their own life, but it does so without making the readers feel depressed when experiencing Kristen’s life. Her story starts with the task of keeping music and art alive in the new world, as art is of the only things left behind from the before the pandemic. Yet the story grows to much more, as they encounter cults, bandits, abandon cities, and more traveling and exploring the new world. People go missing, settlements become passively hostile, and more events happens that lead in mystery and suspense. It really is a great story; the problem is that this is only half of the book.
The first chapter starts with the on stage death of an actor, this actor is Author Leander. What the story does, is that while reading about how Kristian is investigating the disappearance of two of their nighttime watchmen, the next 70 pages change and will be about Arthur’s life in the past as a famous movie star (before he dies). It totally disrupts the pace of the story, as Arthur’s segments are long, boring, and genuinely depressing. It becomes apparent that Arthur’s life of technology is just as depressing as Kristian’s life of loss and death. Arthur’s story goes dwells on his personal life. It emphasizes the sadness that comes with affairs, as the story takes Arthur through multiple affairs, and three divorces. Eventually the people in Arthurs life do come into the main story line, and they play on the slightly overarching idea of the comic named Station Eleven. Aside from that, but their entrance is brief, and leaves the readers less than whelmed.
The main arc that connects both stories is from a comic named Station Eleven that is written by Arthurs first wife, and is later given to Kristian when she was a kid. Arthur’s past story arc only makes sense in context to the story when this comic is taken into consideration. As both the people from Kristian’s arc and the comic are in a wildly different world then the one they came from, where both only want to go home. One prominent line in the comic reads, "we long only to go home" and "I stood looking over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on earth." (41). It takes the sadness of Arthurs and his wife’s lives, and parallels it to the future where everyone lives in the terrible future. Both are unhappy and want to return to innocents and peace, and it is through these moments when the novel reaches deep and speak to the reader that the novel really shines.
Station Eleven is a great book. Not too many books can be epic and adventurous, while touching, thought provoking, and mysterious. It is true that Arthurs section are boring, though they do tie to the theme of the book and hold plenty of thought provoking questions for the reader to contemplate. Mix this with the exciting exploration, adventure, and mystery of Kristian’s arc and you have a real masterpiece of a story. While not perfect, this is definitely not a book to pass on.