Station Eleven Review

Station Eleven is a story of survival that takes place before and after a catastrophic flu that wipes out most of humanity. Emily St. John Mandel, the author, does an exceptional job alternating between the past and future in a way that not only makes sense to the reader, but is also entertaining. Station Eleven deals with the difference between being alive and truly living which is perhaps best encompassed by the motto of the Traveling Symphony: “survival is insufficient.”

Station Eleven opens with a performance of King Lear that it is interrupted with the death of one of the main characters. This moment, in itself, is possibly the author’s boldest decision. She uses this event as the turning point of story–the ending of the past storyline and the beginning of the future storyline. In the scene, the author use subtle language to imply that something is wrong with Arthur as he begins skipping lines as King Lear. She confirms his strange behavior to readers by saying, “... it was obvious to Jeevan that he [Arthur] wasn’t Lear anymore.” The voice that the author uses to describe Arthur’s death is very indirect. In the passage, she never directly states that he dies, but instead, focuses on the characters around him and their actions. She diverts the reader’s attention to the dialogue between Jeevan, Walter, and Miranda to create the gloomy atmosphere in which Arthur died.

From this point in the story, Emily St. John Mandel diverges the text into two timelines: the past–before the flu, and the future–after the flu. She interweaves these timelines to create a story that ties together the two main characters: Arthur Leander and Kirsten Raymonde. The way that Emily St. John Mandel is able to tie together these two seemingly unrelated characters with very different backgrounds is an incredible feat in it of itself. At the end of the novel, when all is said and done, readers are left with a sweet aftertaste–one that delivers closure as well as understanding.

Throughout the text, Emily St. John Mandel tackles the topic of what it means it be alive. She assumes the position that one must do more than survive. Although the Traveling Symphony saw this something more to be Shakespeare, the message of Station Eleven stands that if people cannot express themselves, they are not truly alive. All in all, Station Eleven is a fantastic book that takes a convincing stand on a pressing philosophical question. Emily St. John Mandel delivers her argument in the form of a novel. Not only does the author answer the question of how we survive in times of suffering, but she also tells why we survive.

-Stefan Kassem