One of my patterns is that if I like one book by someone, I’ll generally read one or two more in a short period of time to get to know the author better, their range of writing, and hopefully some continued enjoyment. This was the case with Emily St. John Mandel. After reading Vanishing Sky, which I wrote about last week, I went on to what I think is her more well known (and prize-laden) book, Station Eleven.
About half of the book takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, where a corona-like virus has killed off 99.9% of the world’s population. Before I get into the meat of the book, it’s worth noting that it was written in 2014, years before Covid-19. And yet, in the passages that describe what happened when the virus hit and how people reacted to a pandemic, there were eerie similarities to our recent experiences. It made the imagination of the author all that much more impressive.
The thread that holds the book together is one person, Arthur Leander, in the sense that he has a relationship with each character in the book, not because he is, per say, the main character, as the book is not about him. Some of the characters we spend a lot of time with, some less, but all have something to do with Arthur, who himself is neither the most likable, redeeming, or even a particularly interesting person. I’ll note that it was a fascinating way to organize a story, one I’d never seen before, though it took me some time to realize this structure. But once I did, I really appreciated the artistry of the novel.
In the post-’event’ (pandemic) part of the novel, we follow a group of Shakesperian and musical performers in their travels around what is now Michigan, in what are a series of small surviving communities. We see the troubles faced in a world without electricity, good medical care, or a central government. The world as they know it has devolved into small communities, some healthily self-organizing, others led by religious fanatics, with the threat of violence always on the horizon, as there is no state to have a monopoly on it. The acting troupe’s goal is to get to a particular settlement to find an old troupe-mate, and while we follow how they get there, it wouldn’t be correct to say that the novel is about that journey, though it is a challenging one and not uneventful. As noted, it is a novel about the people with a connection to Arthur, how they mediate between their past, pre-pandemic, and present lives. As such, some of the chapters are entirely pre-pandemic and include stories of people who died from the virus, yet had a relationship with Arthur; others post-pandemic, and ultimately tie into the story’s present. Most of these characters were interesting, empathetic, and enjoyable to get to know.
What made a lasting impression on me were the descriptions of a world without all the things we take for granted, and as such, more deeply appreciative of our world and its luxuries. Not just basic essentials like electricity and our standard of health care, but even simple things as well. It is a world where almost nothing new is made because it emerged from a world where knowledge was so specific, and therefore siloed; that self-reliance on the basics is almost unknown. I kept thinking about the challenge of making something as simple as chocolate chips, and how many things have to go right to make such a simple treat. For example: How do you make a machine that makes chocolate chips? And even if you know, how do you get electricity to run it? Or gas from the ground to power it? Or how do you ship it when you no longer have internal combustion engines? How do you make the plastic bags they come in? Or ship them to you? Each thing, even each little thing, like the chocolate chips, depends on something else that requires someone else’s expertise which you do not know. And when the links in the chain break down, both the knowledge and logistics chain, very little is possible and life is reduced very quickly. People in the novel do learn to be self-reliant, but it’s at a very basic level, perhaps best described as a re-setting of humanity.
Station Eleven is a powerful, interesting, and well-written novel. If you are sufficiently past Covid-19 that you can tolerate reading about pandemics, it is certainly worth taking a look.
Just Because I Liked It:
- This is the second podcast I’ve listened to with Marc Andreessen, the tech investor, this time on Conversations with Coleman. He’s so thoughtful and provocative, even if you don’t agree with what he says.
2. If you don’t know how much of our world has been shaped by the Bais Yakov movement, take the time to listen to this incredibly interesting interview with Leslie Ginsparg Klein on the 18Forty podcast. It’s about everything from Bais Yakov’s founding, to its present, to its influence on education today.