Title: Station Eleven
Author: Emily St John Mandel
Tags: #virus #canada #station11
Discovered: New York Times
Where read: (In part) The 08:46 from London Bridge to Hastings
The Word's Shortlist view:
"Hell is the absence of the people you long for"
This novel has a cracking premise, an explosive virus known as the Georgia Flu wipes out 99% of the World's population leaving only pockets of humans surviving as nomadic tribes and micro communities. Compelling stuff to a contemporary public more than fearful of the media saturation surrounding the ebola pandemic.
The only trouble is that this is a theme that has been so well considered by brilliant writers including Margaret Atwood that the inevitable question arises, does Emily St John Mandel have anything new to offer such as well worn literary genre?
The short answer is no however, there are some note-worthy elements in this novel which incidentally has been in the New York Times and amazon bestseller list. The action begins in a brilliant opening scene during a performance of King Lear in a Toronto theatre. Lear himself, famous Hollywood actor Arthur Leander, dies mid-performance on the very day that the killer virus strikes and changes life in Canada and the USA forever.
The story moves 20 years into the future as a band known as the 'Travelling Symphony', with their own links to the dead actor, survive through music, literature and their own performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now, the idea that civilisation prevails through literature should work but unfortunately in this case falls down due to a cumbersome cast of players and a light weight plot.
The story deserves to be tighter! Fewer characters and more intimate dialogue would have been much more rewarding to readers. Station Eleven demonstrates just how hard a genre this is to crack. Book lovers are a divisive, and hard to please, bunch when it comes to their post apocalyptic near future thrillers. I'll stick to Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy.
Watch the Station Eleven youtube clip here: http://youtu.be/osXRdUeXCHE
Instagram: your_next_read
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