Post-Apocalyptic Pandemic Literature from 2014

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Pages: 333 Genre: sci-fi dystopian

Rating: 4 Star

My Kindle Notes and Highlights

One night in Toronto, famous actor Arthur Leander stars in a production of King Lear, and things go south when he collapses and dies on stage. It's an event that many of them won't forget, including Kirsten, who is a child actor present on stage at the time. But that same night, a pandemic brought over on planes hits North America. If you get sick, you only have a day or two before you're dead, and its highly contagious. Eventually, very little is left for people.

Twenty years later, everything about the world is different than Before. Kirsten has joined a group of actors and musicians known as the Traveling Symphony. When they make a stop in a town called St. Deborah on the Water, they come across a man who calls himself The Prophet. The story moves forward and backward in time to explore the connections that are shared and the fates that are intertwined during the end of the world.

I understand why this book won't be for everyone. It's kind of slow and contemplative, and there's no big dramatic action to really sink your teeth into. That's not to say nothing happens, but it's different than what you'd expect from apocalyptic literature. All of this feels intentional, and it doesn't make the book bad, but it does mean that it won't be everyone's cup of tea. If it doesn't sound like your type of book, I think it's better to just not read it rather than try to force yourself to like it.

My favorite part was unpacking all the connections between the characters. Especially in a setting like this where it is as vast and isolating as it is. You could say that it's a series of extreme coincidences that feel unrealistic, but I never felt that way. I just thought it was good storytelling; the kind of scenario where you'd be like, "oh wow, small world!" I enjoyed watching the connections unfold.

This book, at its core, is a love letter to humanity. Not people specifically, but things like art, culture, and community. There was a big emphasis on personal connections. It's a reminder that things that doesn't mean much to you could mean the world to someone else. And not only that, but there is so much hidden significance behind everything. The book uses the example of a snow globe, and how it had to be designed and built and shipped and packaged and sold and purchased and gifted to end up in the place that it does. I think this is also why I really didn't mind the "extreme coincidences" in the story; ultimately, a major theme of this book was just how connected we are. Sometimes those connections mean a great deal, and sometimes they don't, but those connections are still there.

I have to wonder what it was like to read this book before COVID. Sure, our society did not collapse in the same way theirs did, but there has been a shift. There's a before and an after. But for six years, this book existed without that context. It's just interesting.

Overall, it's not necessarily my favorite book ever. As a work of art, though, I thought it was very beautiful, and I enjoyed reading it. A very beautiful and moving story that will mean a lot to the people who are able to get on board with the style.