by Emily St. John Mandel
Read: February 8-15, 2017
Published: June 2, 2015
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band's existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed. (Amazon)
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Why did you read this book?
Station Eleven was the common read at my university this past fall, which is how I first heard of it. I didn't really know what it was about, but I liked the cover. I then got into a conversation with one of my coworkers who had already read it and she loved it. I also found out that it was like a dystopian traveling circus kind of gig, so naturally I wanted to read it. It's been on my to-read list for months now and I finally just broke down and bought it.
What did you like about this book?
One of the big things that really intrigued me about this novel was the genre. I'd never really considered reading books in the post-apocalyptic genre. Which is strange to me because one of my favorite shows is The Walking Dead. That being said, I loved that this was post-apocalyptic sans zombies. Instead, the world meets a fast-acting illness that it isn't prepared to cure. This book has a plot, but it's not a driving one. It's more of a commentary on how to hold on to humanity after it's been nearly wiped out. There are so many different points of view in this book and each character has a different handle on it and some we never find out if they made it to the end of the world and some we know never lived to see the world end. I loved having characters from each point in time. The whole book covers a span of about fifty years (the before, during, and after). Another thing I liked about this is that, even though there was violence, there was beauty found in the world after it ended. In my previous experience with apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic works is that they are violent, and ruthless, sometimes hard to stomach...they make you lose faith in humanity a little bit and the plot usually ends up revolving around a power struggle. In Station Eleven, we see this struggle through the eyes of artists, not military men and leaders. People who believe that "survival is insufficient." Another thing I liked was that everything was connected. Every character was somehow connected to the other and even some objects were connected through characters and it was wonderful to watch it all unfold. I'm having a hard time articulating everything I loved about this book, but in short, it was beautifully written, filled with characters that I both loved and hated at the same time, and it made me think. I love books that aren't just about getting from Point A to Point B (plot driven). There is a plot, but there is so much more than that.
What didn't you like about this book?
As I mentioned before, everything was connected. The infuriating part was that so many of the characters ended up in the same place and never knew that they were connected from before the end. I really wanted it to come full circle. And in its own way, I guess it did. Just not in the way I expected or wanted. There were also many different points of view in this book. While most of the time I liked it, towards the end of the book there was really one story line that I wanted to follow and it kept getting interrupted by these other story lines. They were all so great, but it was like having someone in control of the remote that can't watch more than ten minutes of the same show. Things are getting interesting and something is about to happen, you can feel it, and then click! Change the channel. I also wished we could have seen more of the Traveling Symphony. That was what really caught my interest in the first place (even after I discovered that no, it was not a traveling circus). It is mentioned several times, but we never see the inner workings of it. Station Eleven is not about The Traveling Symphony, not like The Night Circus is actually about the circus.
This book reminds me of: TV shows, mostly. I can't say I've ever read a book quite like this one. It strongly reminded me of TNT's The Last Ship, although that one is from a military perspective. It also reminded me a little bit of AMC's The Walking Dead and the 1995 movie, Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman.
Other Non-Plot Driven Books I Recommend:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Bottom-Line: I absolutely love this book. I literally just finished it and I want to read it again. This is the book that I've been trying to find since I finished The Book Thief, the one that leaves me feeling a little empty inside and unable to think about anything else really. I loved it. Read it. And if you don't like it, please just pretend you do, for my sake. Also forgot to mention, it takes place in Michigan and when they're talking about cities they travel too, I actually knew where they were. So, pretty awesome.
"All three caravans of the Traveling Symphony are labeled as such, THE TRAVELING SYMPHONY lettered in white on both sides, but the lead caravan carries an additional line of text: Because survival is insufficient." -Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
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