"Survival is insufficient."
Station Eleven
written by Emily St. John Mandel
It starts with the death of King Lear and the end of the world. Although the two events aren’t related, they form the spine of this book. Arthur Leander takes the stage on the first page to perform his role of King Lear, but during his performance at the height of his famed acting career, he drops dead. He didn’t die because of the Georgian flu, which will start sweeping the earth the same day; he died of a heart attack. His death occurs at the brink of change, and he lies in the center of the web of people that will tell the story of Station Eleven. However, he is not the main character; that privilege belongs to Kirsten, who was just a child-actor watching backstage when Arthur fell.
The fast-acting Georgian flu occurred when Kirsten was just eight years old, but her story takes place twenty years later where she lives a very different life. The flu devastated the population, and now the remainders live in small towns, some just four families big. But Kirsten does not occupy a small town; she travels with one. Kirsten has been a part of the Traveling Symphony for many years, and they wander between settlements performing Shakespeare and playing concerts for the villagers, because, in their words, “survival is insufficient.” Though survival may be insufficient, the Traveling Symphony faces many challenges in their time, and Kirsten along with the symphony will face one of their biggest threats when they encounter a town under the control of a violent prophet.
Kirsten’s story is full of danger and adventure, but the novel does not stay with her always. Instead, Kirsten’s story is continually interrupted by the stories of other characters that occur before hers. At intervals, the novel will shift back in time to focus on characters that all connect in some way. As Arthur Leander performs his final role, Jeevan watches from the audience, Kirsten waits in the wings, Arthur’s three ex-wives are off living their lives, and his best friend Clark works late in another city. As the novel progresses, these characters are expanded upon and contribute to the overall plot even though they all begin as seemingly minor characters, but the protagonist is Kirsten Raymonde, who can’t remember her life before the apocalypse.
It is rare that a novel can move around in time without seeming disjunctive or jarring, but this book succeeds beautifully. The book uses its full and diverse characters to navigate around the apocalypse with a clear before, middle, and after while building those characters and weaving intricate connections.
For instance, Miranda, Arthur’s first wife, has an obvious connection to Arthur; her connection to Kirsten is much less apparent but is, in some ways, more impactful. Miranda doesn’t have any clear role in the apocalypse, nor does she seem to be a hero in her lifetime. She could have been incredibly minor except that she writes a limited edition, artfully composed, very important comic book series called “Station Eleven” about a colony on another planet and their fight with the people from the “Undersea”. She may have made a small contribution to the world, but it will turn out to be a critical one for one of the book’s characters. Miranda, like all the other characters, is well developed, complex, and beautifully written.
This book is stunning. It’s not sci-fi and it’s not supernatural; it is deeply human and hopeful, unlike other apocalyptic novels. You’ll fall for the characters and rave as you see the connections and references forming between them in a series of “Aha!” moments as the symphonic chapters fall together. In the face of such touching characters, the apocalypse is reduced to a device to show in a very It’s-a-Wonderful-Life way how people can impact one another, even if they are distantly connected. It’s the most hopeful story of the end of the world you’ll ever witness. And after reading it you will find yourself wondering how an apocalyptic novel could possibly be complete without an orchestra, Shakespeare, and some comic books.
