Tolog Review: Station Eleven

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
reviewed by Teagan O'Hara

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a captivating post-apocalyptic science fiction novel that describes the aftermath of a world ravaged by the viral Georgia Flu. Exacerbating between past and present events from the perspectives of multiple narrators, the author intertwines characters’ stories through their vague interactions.

The novel is experienced through the eyes of many people, including Arthur Leander, Kirsten Raymonde, Jeevan Chaudhary, Miranda Carroll, and Clark Thompson. It traces the entire timeline of incidents in the characters’ lives, how the modern world collapsed, and the chaos after. The narrators faced with both internal and external conflicts in dealing with ghosts of the past and the lack of advanced technology.

Station Eleven starts with the night that changed the world forever. Arthur Leander, a famous actor, is performing Shakespeare’s King Lear. He suffers a heart attack onstage, and spectator Jeevan Chaudhary, a former paparazzo, performs CPR on him, ultimately failing. Trying to keep the atmosphere as calm as possible, Jeevan comforts five-year-old Kirsten Raymonde, who was a child actor portraying one of King Lear’s daughters. After Leander’s death, his relatives and loved ones are notified of his passing. Among those people are his ex-wife Miranda Carroll and Clark Thompson, his former best friend. Coincidentally, Miranda and Jeevan have met previously when Jeevan was working for the tabloids.

The remaining living characters also recount when the virus spread and their actions that spurred the plot forward. Kirsten, who manages to omit the worst occurrences from her memory, spends two years struggling to live until she finds her current home. Miranda is on a business trip when she receives the news that Arthur has died. Catching the flu, she remains in her company’s building before eventually walking out onto the beach and dying as the sun is setting. Clark is stranded in an airport, fighting to keep the remnants of the old world alive in his Museum of Civilization.

In the present day, 23-year-old Kirsten Raymonde lives with the Traveling Symphony, a group of musicians and actors who travel from town to town performing the lost arts. Inspired by the Shakespeare she performs, the mysterious comic book, Station Eleven, that she carries, and her muddled memories of the society-collapsing disaster, Kirsten manages to survive. When the Symphony accidentally wanders into a town that is corrupted by the fanatical “Prophet,” they encounter a sinister force that threatens to tear them apart. The Prophet chases the Symphony, who is headed for the legendary Museum of Civilization in the Severn City Airport. After a terrifying confrontation at the end of the tale, the Prophet recites lines from Station Eleven, Kirsten’s comic book, which was unknowingly created by Miranda. Although it is never revealed to the characters themselves, the readers of the book come to the conclusion that the Prophet is Arthur Leander’s son, Tyler.

The conclusion of the novel makes the reader slightly frustrated, as there was a hint of a new chapter beginning in the lives of Jeevan, Kirsten, the Symphony, and Clark. The ending was a cliffhanger, leaving the reader itching for more.

Emily St. John Mandel does an amazing job at blending characters’ backgrounds effortlessly to create a fascinating novel that makes readers critically analyze their connections. The language of Station Eleven makes interesting comparisons using slightly unclear figurative language to relate the “before” to the “after” of the world.

Overall, I would recommend this book to read over and over. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the writing style was mildly complicated, but not entirely incomprehensible. Station Eleven intrigued me greatly and made me perceive the world in a new way. Sadly, there is no sequel that I can read and relish just as I did with this book, but I do see myself picking this up again and turning its pages again in the future.