More Than Another Dystopian Future Book

Station Eleven Book Review

9/24/15

If you are looking for another dystopian future book, look no further. Emily Mandel’s Station Eleven has what you need—and more. Emily Mandel is a 36 year old Canadian novelist. Station Eleven is her fourth novel. Mandel has written a book that does not follow the typical dystopian future story. Through all the horrors that the characters face, the biggest of those being an illness that wipes out 99% of the population, the main characters do everything they can to hold on to artforms. Considering the degree of this illness, the book is not dark, but actually filled with hope. After the Georgia Flu passes, a group by the name of the Traveling Symphony, which is made up of musicians and actors including a girl named Kirsten, journey through North America performing in survivor towns. Flashbacks in the story focus on the lives of Arthur, Miranda, Clark, Jeevan, and other characters, and eventually the characters all become connected. Mandel’s writing takes on various forms; most of the book is narration, however, some chapters are just letter exchanges, interviews, and comic book chapters. Any passage in Station Eleven will allude to the voice Mandel has.

In chapter 10 on pages 110-111, Mandel writes about Kirsten’s walk in St. Deborah. Aspects of Mandel’s voice in this passage convey clear and relatable images, evokes investigation from the reader, expresses Kirsten’s neutrality to the town, and emphasizes the main point. As Kirsten reminisces about the world pre-Georgia Flu, Mandel chooses to write about McDonalds, a symbol of ordinary life, to help the reader understand what Kirsten is imagining. In the sentence about IHOP, Mandel makes it clear that something is wrong: she writes, “she was surprised to see that it had been boarded up, a plank hammered across the door” (Mandel 110). However, Mandel’s diction does not indicate that Kirsten has any emotion other than “surprise,” which shows Kirsten’s curiosity and open-mind, and lets the reader take his own position on the peculiarities. Mandel also uses syntax to communicate her ideas. In the second sentence about the “former world,” the dependent clause, “by keeping her gaze directed upward so that there was only the sign and the sky,” is lengthy and specific, imitating the effort required for Kirsten to remember the past (Mandel 110). The outlier in the syntax of the paragraph puts emphasis on its main point. The only short sentence in the passage goes, “It didn’t quite make sense,” (Mandel 111).

Mandel also varies the degree of elaboration of character emotions. For example, Kirsten’s emotions are barely expressed; chapters on the Traveling Symphony are mostly facts and observances. On the contrast, Miranda’s thoughts take up more words than her experiences. Moreover, Mandel switches themes as she cycles through the characters. The first chapters, which captures the death of Arthur, are full of foreshadowing in the future; a line from page 23 goes, “Of all of them there at the bar that night, the bartender was the one who survived the longest. He died three weeks later on the road out of the city.” The chapters that follow Kirsten are heavily devoted to the past, as details of the plague are explained, and details of life before it are questioned. Lastly, Miranda’s chapters are completely in the present and full of her deep and personal thoughts.

Distinct from other dystopian future books, these characters have hope, passion, or purpose. Possibly even forgotten by people in a plagueless world, Kirsten’s tattoo that reads “because survival is insufficient” embodies the hope she and the other characters have. The main characters are devoted to art, and each of them finds a way to integrate that art into their lives, even in times of suffering; this is what makes the book so relatable, even for those not connected to art. Each character has a reason for their art; Arthur's acting is his passion, and he continues to perform even with three divorces; Kirsten holds onto comic books and performs music and plays because it is all she has of her past; and Miranda finds a personal escape in writing comic books, away from abusive and cheating significant others.

Station Eleven should entertain all those who enjoy a dystopian future book, but also those who want characters that change and are relatable to current times. It is a story of hope, passion and curiosity in the worst of situations.